The next day, Chichikov went to dinner and evening to the police chief, where from three o'clock in the afternoon they sat down to whist and played until two in the morning. There, by the way, he met the landowner Nozdryov, a man of about thirty, a broken fellow, who, after three or four words, began to say “you” to him. With the police chief and the prosecutor, Nozdryov was also on "you" and treated in a friendly way; but when they sat down to play a big game, the police chief and the prosecutor examined his bribes with extreme attention and watched almost every card with which he walked. The next day, Chichikov spent the evening with the chairman of the chamber, who received his guests in a dressing gown, somewhat greasy, including two ladies. Then he was at a party with the vice-governor, at a big dinner at the farmer's, at a small dinner at the prosecutor's, which, however, cost a lot; on an after-mass snack given by the mayor, which was also worth dinner. In a word, he did not have to stay at home for a single hour, and he came to the hotel only to fall asleep. The visitor somehow knew how to find himself in everything and showed himself an experienced secular person. Whatever the conversation was about, he always knew how to support it: if it was about a horse farm, he talked about a horse farm; whether they talked about good dogs, and here he reported very sensible remarks; whether they interpreted with regard to the investigation carried out by the Treasury, he showed that he was not unknown to judicial tricks; whether there was a discussion about the billiard game - and in the billiard game he did not miss; whether they talked about virtue, and he talked about virtue very well, even with tears in his eyes; about the manufacture of hot wine, and he knew the use of hot wine; about customs overseers and officials, and he judged them as if he himself were both an official and an overseer. But it is remarkable that he knew how to clothe all this with some degree, knew how to behave well. He spoke neither loudly nor softly, but exactly as he should. In a word, wherever you turn, he was a very decent person. All the officials were pleased with the arrival of the new face. The governor said of him that he was a well-intentioned man; the prosecutor - that he is a good person; the gendarmerie colonel said that he was a learned man; the chairman of the chamber - that he is a knowledgeable and respectable person; police chief - that he is a respectable and amiable person; the wife of the chief of police - that he is the most kind and courteous person. Even Sobakevich himself, who rarely spoke of anyone in a good way, having arrived quite late from the city and already completely undressed and lay down on the bed next to his thin wife, said to her: dined, and got acquainted with the collegiate adviser Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov: a pleasant man! ” To which the wife replied: “Hm!” and kicked him with her foot.
Such an opinion, very flattering for the guest, was formed about him in the city, and it was held until one strange property of the guest and an enterprise, or, as they say in the provinces, a passage, about which the reader will soon learn, did not lead to complete bewilderment almost the whole city.
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Essay. Images of Selifanand Petrushka and their functions in poemé N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls"
provincial gogol comical selifan
Do you hear this quiet, gentle music? It's getting closer, getting louder and brighter! Song, Russian song! It pours: now it rings like a silver bell, then it explodes into the sky with a dashing polyphony. So the image of Russia in Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol's magical poem "Dead Souls" is revealed in the course of the work. Here the folk spirit already permeates all the pages of the poem, is expressed in the heroes, is felt in the sincere digressions author: "Rus! Russia! .. Why is your melancholy song, rushing along your entire length and width, from sea to sea, heard and heard incessantly in your ears? What's in it, in this song? What calls, and sobs, and grabs the heart? What sounds painfully kiss and strive to the soul and curl around my heart? Russia! What do you want from me?"
Russia is silent, fraught with hidden power. It is this power dormant in the depths that Gogol seeks to show in the poem. The great future of the native country is presented to the writer, first of all, as a victory of the living folk soul over deadening social orders. In the landlord and bureaucratic environment, Gogol does not see a single decent person. For the inhabitants of the provincial city of NN, mired in rumors, bribery, embezzlement, there is nothing holy, eternal, great. Their activities: chatter and gossip, traveling to balls and dinners, are tinsel that hides the emptiness of being. The image of the city of NN is unusually typified, it is a caricature of the whole of Russia “from one side”. The ladies here talk only about fashion: "scallops, all scallops," - or they start up such tales that they themselves get scared and disturb the whole city. Men, whom Gogol ironically divides into thin and fat, curl around the ladies or look around in search of a table for whist. Of these gentlemen of the second type, who "never occupy indirect places, but all direct, and if they sit down somewhere, they will sit down securely and firmly, so that the place will soon crackle and bend under them, and they will not fly off," and the bureaucratic "family" of the provincial city. Gogol comes out with an expressive portrait of the city NN, although he does not draw officials in such detail and detail as landlords from neighboring estates. Here from them the ominous gallery of human degradation precisely turns out.
Believe me, Russia has hidden forces that can wrest it from the shackles of vulgarity. In our great people Gogol sees these sprouts of mighty life. Everything is expressed in the author's lyrical digressions: admiration, love, hope, faith in a beautiful future. In them, Gogol goes beyond the vulgar world of his heroes of landlords and officials and speaks of the life of the people, full of anxiety, work and poetry. Here they are, living peasant types: "Russian" peasants, discussing whether the wheel of Chichikov's britzka will reach Moscow or not; the peasants who showed the way to Manilovka insisted that "there is no Zamanilovka"; Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyay, helping to move Chichikov's stuck britzka; girl Pelageya showing the way; people endowing Plyushkin with the well-aimed Russian word "patched". These episodes with the peasants are comical, imbued with the love of the author. The central characters from the people in Gogol's poem are the people of Chichikov: the coachman Selifan and the footman Petrushka. This essay will be about them.
During the reading of the poem, I managed to become attached to these good-natured, in their own way interesting people. Here is how the author acquaints the reader with them: “The suitcase was brought in by the coachman Selifan, a short man in a sheepskin coat, and the footman Petrushka, a fellow about thirty, in a spacious second-hand frock coat, as seen from the master’s shoulder, the fellow is a little stern in appearance, with very large lips and nose ". In this short description, Gogol's kind smile is felt: he treats his characters with sympathy. Parsley is not at all harsh in nature. He even has a "noble motivation for enlightenment." And even though he is attracted to reading by the very process of putting words together from letters, and not by the opportunity to gain knowledge, he looks even smarter than officials. About them Gogol speaks with sarcasm: “Many were not without education: ... some read Karamzin, some “Moskovskie Vedomosti”, some even didn’t read anything at all.” A person from the people, who practically does not have the opportunity to study, strives for education more than officials holding high government posts. In addition, Petrushka has two more "characteristic features: to sleep without undressing, as he is, in the same frock coat, and always carry with him some kind of special air, his own smell, reeking of a somewhat residential peace ...". When describing a lackey, Gogol does not use his favorite trick - comparing the character with some animal or inanimate object to show mortification human soul. On the contrary, Petrushka, appearing somewhere, brings there a feeling of life, warmth, comfort. It is real, not “dead” and frozen in development. “So, this is what you can say about Petrushka for the first time,” Gogol ends his characterization of the footman. Further, the author's attention is drawn to Selifan. With him, Chichikov goes on a trip to the estates of the landowners.
Selifan is a coachman. He unusually loves his profession, communicates with horses as with people: he conducts moralizing conversations, gives practical remarks to horses. For Selifan, the main thing is to live in truth, to serve honestly, to fulfill one's duty. He talks about this to the chubar horse, who is “very cunning” and only pretends to be carrying Chichikov’s britzka: “You think that you will hide your behavior. No, you live in truth when you want to be honored." Selifan expresses many similar thoughts to the horses, and then drags out an endless song, like Russia. In all people from the people Gogol sees this poetic principle, sincere, touching the soul. Selifan can be called a kind of reasoner: “What a nasty gentleman! .. You better man don’t let me eat, but you have to feed the horse, because the horse loves oats.” That is how the coachman thinks about Nozdryov. Perhaps, indeed, against the background of the landlords and officials depicted in Dead Souls, the horses look more alive and humane. Therefore, Selifan initiates them into the secrets of his Russian soul.
Gogol is far from idealizing Selifan and Petrushka, despite all their virtues. These heroes have absorbed many of the national traits of the Russian people, both good and bad. They are collective image of the whole people. Let's remember Selifan's frivolity: he "couldn't remember if he had passed two or three turns", on his way to the estate to Sobakevich. “Since a Russian person in decisive moments will find something to do without going into long-range arguments, then, turning right, onto the first crossroads, he shouted: “Hey you, respected friends!” - and set off at a gallop, thinking little about where the road taken would lead. This episode perfectly describes the Russian "recklessness" and the eternal hope for "maybe". As a result, the coachman turns the wrong way, drives across a harrowed field and, due to his carelessness, turns the britzka on its side, throwing Chichikov into the mud. The poem shows the excessive humility and lack of will of the Russian peasant, brought up by centuries of slavery: I don't mind that at all. Why not cut, if for the cause, then the will of the Lord. The theme of drunkenness, which is relevant for Russia at all times, is also reflected in Gogol's work. Selifan will never refuse to drink with a good man”, for example, having gone with Petrushka “somewhere”. However, he acutely feels his guilt before Chichikov after another drunken story. The coachman immediately becomes extremely attentive to his work, the horses are carefully cleaned and all torn collars are hemmed. Laziness is another vice of peasant Russia. Selifan, until the very departure of Chichikov from the city of NN, pulls with horseshoeing and tugging tires.
Russian national character, which is expressed in "Dead Souls", feel and literary critics. V. G. Belinsky writes in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski: “This Russian spirit is felt both in humor, and in irony, and in the expression of the author, and in the sweeping strength of feelings, and in the lyricism of digressions, and in the pathos of the whole poem, and in the characters actors, from Chichikov to Selifan and the “foreface scoundrel” inclusive, in Petrushka, who carried his special air with him, and in the guard, who, in the lamplight, sleepily, executed the beast on the nail and fell asleep again. S.P. Shevyryov agrees with the opinion of Vissarion Grigorievich. Here is what he says about Selifan: "The coachman Selifan is a completely different matter: this is a new, full typical creation, taken out of simple Russian life."
Let Petrushka and Selifan not be idealized by the author of the poem. Gogol wants to see in the vast expanses of his native country irresistible, mighty heroes rather than submissive, oppressed people. However, the role of the coachman and lackey in Dead Souls is very great. In them, the author manages to fully show the character of the people. Here is what Gogol writes at the beginning of his work: “But ... perhaps, in this same story, other, hitherto unstrung strings will be felt, the incalculable wealth of the Russian spirit will appear ...”. Yes, the function of the images of Selifan and Petrushka has been fulfilled. They reveal throughout the work the theme of populism. They do not have this inertness and deadness, which are characteristic of landowners and officials. Selifan and Petrushka are truly living Russian types.
A trio of horses flies - a magical "triple bird" - along the roads of Russia, the reins are held by the dashing coachman Selifan. He is a leader who guides a light chaise along the right road: What a strange, and alluring, and bearing, and wonderful in the word: the road! The chaise rushes with great speed: “And what Russian does not like to drive fast?”. He flies forward together with Chichikov and his faithful servants: Selifan and Petrushka. “Rus, where are you going? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer."
How long we spent together with these unlucky, kind, pure-hearted characters - Selifan and Petrushka - how much we felt! Yes, Russia can get rid of its vices: bribery, vulgarity, deadness of souls, lazy nobility and submissive slavery. Maybe if the national spirit wakes up, if its poetic, strong, bright beginning breaks out into the vast expanses of the country!
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The images of Selifan and Petrushka and their functions in the poem by N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls"
provincial gogol comical selifan
Do you hear this quiet, gentle music? It's getting closer, getting louder and brighter! Song, Russian song! It pours: now it rings like a silver bell, then it explodes into the sky with a dashing polyphony. So the image of Russia in Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol's magical poem "Dead Souls" is revealed in the course of the work. Here the folk spirit already permeates all the pages of the poem, is expressed in the characters, is felt in the sincere lyrical digressions of the author: “Rus! Russia! .. Why is your melancholy song, rushing along your entire length and width, from sea to sea, heard and heard incessantly in your ears? What's in it, in this song? What calls, and sobs, and grabs the heart? What sounds painfully kiss and strive to the soul and curl around my heart? Russia! What do you want from me?"
Russia is silent, fraught with hidden power. It is this power dormant in the depths that Gogol seeks to show in the poem. The great future of the native country is presented to the writer, first of all, as a victory of the living people's soul over the deadening social order. In the landlord and bureaucratic environment, Gogol does not see a single decent person. For the inhabitants of the provincial city of NN, mired in rumors, bribery, embezzlement, there is nothing holy, eternal, great. Their activities: chatter and gossip, traveling to balls and dinners, are tinsel that hides the emptiness of being. The image of the city of NN is unusually typified, it is a caricature of the whole of Russia “from one side”. The ladies here talk only about fashion: "scallops, all scallops," - or they start up such tales that they themselves get scared and disturb the whole city. Men, whom Gogol ironically divides into thin and fat, curl around the ladies or look around in search of a table for whist. Of these gentlemen of the second type, who "never occupy indirect places, but all direct, and if they sit down somewhere, they will sit down securely and firmly, so that the place will soon crackle and bend under them, and they will not fly off," and the bureaucratic "family" of the provincial city. Gogol comes out with an expressive portrait of the city NN, although he does not draw officials in such detail and detail as landlords from neighboring estates. Here from them the ominous gallery of human degradation precisely turns out.
Believe me, Russia has hidden forces that can wrest it from the shackles of vulgarity. In our great people Gogol sees these sprouts of mighty life. Everything is expressed in the author's lyrical digressions: admiration, love, hope, faith in a beautiful future. In them, Gogol goes beyond the vulgar world of his heroes of landlords and officials and speaks of the life of the people, full of anxiety, work and poetry. Here they are, living peasant types: "Russian" peasants, discussing whether the wheel of Chichikov's britzka will reach Moscow or not; the peasants who showed the way to Manilovka insisted that "there is no Zamanilovka"; Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyay, helping to move Chichikov's stuck britzka; girl Pelageya showing the way; people endowing Plyushkin with the well-aimed Russian word "patched". These episodes with the peasants are comical, imbued with the love of the author. The central characters from the people in Gogol's poem are the people of Chichikov: the coachman Selifan and the footman Petrushka. This essay will be about them.
During the reading of the poem, I managed to become attached to these good-natured, in their own way interesting people. Here is how the author acquaints the reader with them: “The suitcase was brought in by the coachman Selifan, a short man in a sheepskin coat, and the footman Petrushka, a fellow about thirty, in a spacious second-hand frock coat, as seen from the master’s shoulder, the fellow is a little stern in appearance, with very large lips and nose ". In this short description, Gogol's kind smile is felt: he treats his characters with sympathy. Parsley is not at all harsh in nature. He even has a "noble motivation for enlightenment." And even though he is attracted to reading by the very process of putting words together from letters, and not by the opportunity to gain knowledge, he looks even smarter than officials. About them Gogol speaks with sarcasm: “Many were not without education: ... some read Karamzin, some “Moskovskie Vedomosti”, some even didn’t read anything at all.” A person from the people, who practically does not have the opportunity to study, strives for education more than officials holding high government posts. In addition, Petrushka has two more "characteristic features: to sleep without undressing, as he is, in the same frock coat, and always carry with him some kind of special air, his own smell, reeking of a somewhat residential peace ...". When describing the lackey, Gogol does not use his favorite technique - comparing the character with some animal or inanimate object to show the deadness of the human soul. On the contrary, Petrushka, appearing somewhere, brings there a feeling of life, warmth, comfort. It is real, not “dead” and frozen in development. “So, this is what you can say about Petrushka for the first time,” Gogol ends his characterization of the footman. Further, the author's attention is drawn to Selifan. With him, Chichikov goes on a trip to the estates of the landowners.
Selifan is a coachman. He unusually loves his profession, communicates with horses as with people: he conducts moralizing conversations, gives practical remarks to horses. For Selifan, the main thing is to live in truth, to serve honestly, to fulfill one's duty. He talks about this to the chubar horse, who is “very cunning” and only pretends to be carrying Chichikov’s britzka: “You think that you will hide your behavior. No, you live in truth when you want to be honored." Selifan expresses many similar thoughts to the horses, and then drags out an endless song, like Russia. In all people from the people Gogol sees this poetic principle, sincere, touching the soul. Selifan can be called a kind of reasoner: "What a nasty gentleman! .. You better not let a man eat, but you must feed a horse, because the horse loves oats." That is how the coachman thinks about Nozdryov. Perhaps, indeed, against the background of the landlords and officials depicted in Dead Souls, the horses look more alive and humane. Therefore, Selifan initiates them into the secrets of his Russian soul.
Gogol is far from idealizing Selifan and Petrushka, despite all their virtues. These heroes have absorbed many of the national traits of the Russian people, both good and bad. They are a collective image of the whole people. Let's remember Selifan's frivolity: he "couldn't remember if he had passed two or three turns", on his way to the estate to Sobakevich. “Since a Russian person in decisive moments will find something to do without going into long-range arguments, then, turning right, onto the first crossroads, he shouted: “Hey you, respected friends!” - and set off at a gallop, thinking little about where the road taken would lead. This episode perfectly describes the Russian "recklessness" and the eternal hope for "maybe". As a result, the coachman turns the wrong way, drives across a harrowed field and, due to his carelessness, turns the britzka on its side, throwing Chichikov into the mud. The poem shows the excessive humility and lack of will of the Russian peasant, brought up by centuries of slavery: I don't mind that at all. Why not cut, if for the cause, then the will of the Lord. The theme of drunkenness, which is relevant for Russia at all times, is also reflected in Gogol's work. Selifan will never refuse to have a drink with a "good person", for example, going "somewhere" with Petrushka. However, he acutely feels his guilt before Chichikov after another drunken story. The coachman immediately becomes extremely attentive to his work, the horses are carefully cleaned and all torn collars are hemmed. Laziness is another vice of peasant Russia. Selifan, until the very departure of Chichikov from the city of NN, pulls with horseshoeing and tugging tires.
The Russian national character, which is expressed in Dead Souls, is also felt by literary critics. V. G. Belinsky writes in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski: “This Russian spirit is felt both in humor, and in irony, and in the expression of the author, and in the sweeping strength of feelings, and in the lyricism of digressions, and in the pathos of the whole poem, and in the characters characters, from Chichikov to Selifan and the “skunky scoundrel” inclusive, in Petrushka, who carried with him his special air, and in the watchman, who, in the lamplight, sleepily, executed the beast on the nail and fell asleep again. S.P. Shevyryov agrees with the opinion of Vissarion Grigorievich. Here is what he says about Selifan: "The coachman Selifan is a completely different matter: this is a new, full typical creation, taken out of simple Russian life."
Let Petrushka and Selifan not be idealized by the author of the poem. Gogol wants to see in the vast expanses of his native country irresistible, mighty heroes, and not submissive, oppressed people. However, the role of the coachman and lackey in Dead Souls is very great. In them, the author manages to fully show the character of the people. Here is what Gogol writes at the beginning of his work: “But ... perhaps, in this same story, other, hitherto unstrung strings will be felt, the incalculable wealth of the Russian spirit will appear ...”. Yes, the function of the images of Selifan and Petrushka has been fulfilled. They reveal throughout the work the theme of populism. They do not have this inertness and deadness, which are characteristic of landowners and officials. Selifan and Petrushka are truly living Russian types.
A trio of horses flies - a magical "triple bird" - along the roads of Russia, the reins are held by the dashing coachman Selifan. He is a leader who guides a light chaise along the right road: What a strange, and alluring, and bearing, and wonderful in the word: the road! The chaise rushes with great speed: “And what Russian does not like to drive fast?”. He flies forward together with Chichikov and his faithful servants: Selifan and Petrushka. “Rus, where are you going? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer."
How long we spent together with these unlucky, kind, pure-hearted characters - Selifan and Petrushka - how much we felt! Yes, Russia can get rid of its vices: bribery, vulgarity, deadness of souls, lazy nobility and submissive slavery. Maybe if the national spirit wakes up, if its poetic, strong, bright beginning breaks out into the vast expanses of the country!
CHAPTER NINE
In the morning, even earlier than the time appointed in the city of N. for visits, a lady in a smart checkered tuft fluttered out of the doors of an orange wooden house with a mezzanine and blue columns, accompanied by a footman in an overcoat with several collars and a gold galloon on a round polished hat. The lady fluttered at the same hour with unusual haste up the retracted steps into a carriage that was standing at the entrance. The footman immediately slammed the door on the lady, flung the stairs over him, and seizing the straps at the back of the carriage, shouted to the coachman: "Let's go!" The lady was carrying the news she had just heard and felt an irresistible impulse to tell her as soon as possible. Every minute she looked out of the window and saw, to indescribable annoyance, that there was still half the road left. Every house seemed to her longer than usual; the white stone almshouse with narrow windows dragged on for an unbearably long time, so that she finally could not bear not to say: "Damned building, and there is no end!" The coachman has already received the order twice: "Hurry, hurry, Andryushka! You're driving unbearably long today!" Finally the goal was reached. The carriage stopped in front of a wooden one-story house of a dark gray color, with white bas-reliefs above the windows, with a high wooden lattice in front of the very windows and a narrow front garden, behind the lattice of which the thin trees were whitened from the city dust that never descended from them. Pots of flowers flickered through the windows, a parrot swaying in a cage, clinging to the ring with its nose, and two little dogs sleeping in the sun. A sincere friend of the visiting lady lived in this house. The author finds it extremely difficult how to call both ladies to him in such a way that they will not be angry with him again, as they were angry of old. It is dangerous to call by a fictitious name. Whatever name you come up with, it will certainly be found in some corner of our state, the blessing is great, someone who wears it, and will certainly be angry not with his stomach, but with death, will begin to say that the author came on purpose secretly in order to find out everything that he himself is, and in what sheepskin coat he goes, and what Agrafena Ivanovna visits, and what he likes to eat. Call me by rank - God forbid, even more dangerous. Now all the ranks and estates are so irritated among us that everything that is in a printed book already seems to them a person: such, apparently, is the disposition in the air. It is enough to say only that there is a stupid person in one city, this is already a person; suddenly a gentleman of respectable appearance jumps out and shouts: “After all, I am also a man, therefore, I am also stupid,” in a word, he will instantly realize what the matter is. And therefore, in order to avoid all this, we will call the lady to whom the guest came, as she was called almost unanimously in the city of N .: namely, a lady pleasant in all respects. She acquired this name in a legitimate way, for, as if, she spared nothing in order to become amiable to the last degree, although, of course, what a bright agility of a female character crept through amiability! and although sometimes in every pleasant word she stuck out, wow, what a pin! and God forbid, what was seething in the heart against the one that would have crawled somehow and somehow into the first. But all this was clothed with the most subtle secularism, which only happens in a provincial town. She made all kinds of movements with taste, she even loved poetry, she even sometimes dreamily knew how to hold her head - and everyone agreed that she was, for sure, a lady pleasant in all respects. The other lady, that is, the one who arrived, did not have such versatility in character, and therefore we will call her: simply a pleasant lady. The arrival of the guest woke up the little dogs, shining in the sun: the shaggy Adele, who was constantly tangled in her own fur, and the dog Potpuri on thin legs. The one and the other, barking, carried their tails in rings into the anteroom, where the guest freed herself from her tuft and found herself in a dress of fashionable pattern and color and in long tails around her neck; jasmine rushed all over the room. No sooner had the lady agreeable in all respects learned of the arrival of the simply agreeable lady, when she ran into the ante-room. The ladies clutched their hands, kissed each other, and cried out, as college girls who meet shortly after graduation, when their mothers had not had time to explain to them, that the father of one is poorer and lower in rank than the other, scream. The kiss was completed loudly, because the little dogs barked again, for which they were clapped with a handkerchief, and both lamas went into the living room, blue, of course, with a sofa, an oval table, and even screens entwined with ivy; furry Adele and tall Potpuri on thin legs ran after them, grumbling. “Here, here, in this little corner!” said the hostess, seating her guest in the corner of the sofa. “That's it! That's it! Here's a pillow for you!” Having said this, she pushed a pillow behind her back, on which a knight was embroidered with wool in the way they are always embroidered on canvas: the nose came out in a ladder, and the lips in a quadrangle. "How glad I am that you ... I hear someone drove up, but I think to myself, who could be so early. Parasha says:" vice-governor, "and I say:" well, the fool has come again to bother ', and just wanted to say that I'm not at home. .."
The guest already wanted to get down to business and tell the news. But the exclamation which the lady agreeable in all respects issued at that time suddenly gave a different direction to the conversation.
What a fun chintz! - exclaimed in every respect a pleasant lady, looking at the dress of a simply pleasant lady.
Yes, very funny. Praskovya Fyodorovna, however, finds that it would be better if the cells were smaller, and that the specks were not brown, but blue. Her sister was sent a materiel: it is such a charm that simply cannot be expressed in words; imagine: the stripes are narrow, narrow, which the human imagination can only imagine, the background is blue and through the strip all eyes and paws, eyes and paws, eyes and paws ... In a word, incomparably! We can definitely say that there has never been anything like it in the world.
Honey, this is ugly.
Oh no, it's not ugly.
Ah, ugly!
It should be noted that in all respects the pleasant lady was somewhat materialistic, prone to denial and doubt, and rejected very much in life.
Here, just a pleasant lady explained that this was by no means gaudy, and cried out:
Yes, I congratulate you: frills are no longer worn.
How not to wear?
In place of their festoons.
Oh, this is not good, festoons!
Scallops, all scallops: scalloped cape, scalloped sleeves, scalloped epaulettes, scalloped bottoms, scalloped everywhere.
It's not good, Sofya Ivanovna, if everything is festooned.
Milo, Anna Grigoryevna, unbelievably; it is sewn in two ribs: wide armholes and on top ... But now, that's when you will be amazed, that's when you say that ... Well, be amazed: imagine, the bras went even longer, in front of the toe, and the front bone is completely out of bounds ; the skirt is all gathered around, as it used to be, in the old days, tankins, even a little cotton wool is put in the back, so that there is a perfect belle femme.
Well, it's simple: I confess! said the lady agreeable in all respects, making a movement of her head with dignity.
Exactly, that’s for sure, I confess, ”the simply pleasant lady answered.
As you wish, I will never imitate it.
I myself, too ... Really, how can you imagine what fashion sometimes comes to ... it doesn’t look like anything! I begged my sister for a pattern on purpose for a laugh; My Melania began to sew.
So do you have a pattern? exclaimed the lady agreeable in all respects, not without a noticeable movement of the heart.
Well, my sister brought it.
My soul, give it to me for the sake of all that is holy.
Ah, I have already given my word to Praskovya Fyodorovna. Is it after her.
Who will wear after Praskovya Fyodorovna? It will be too strange of you if you prefer strangers to yours.
Yes, she is also my cousin.
She’s still God knows what kind of aunt you are: from her husband’s side ... No, Sofya Ivanovna, I don’t even want to hear it, it comes out: you want to inflict such an insult on me ... It’s obvious that I’m already bored with you, it’s obvious that you want to stop with me any acquaintance.
Poor Sofya Ivanovna did not know at all what to do. She felt herself between what strong fires she placed herself. Here's what you're bragging about! She would be ready to prick her stupid tongue with needles for this.
Well, what about our charmer? said the lady agreeable in all respects.
Oh my god! Why am I sitting in front of you! that's good! After all, you know, Anna Grigorievna, with what I came to you? - Here the guest’s breath stopped, words, like hawks, were ready to start chasing one after another, and it was only necessary to be so inhuman as a sincere friend was to decide to stop her.
No matter how you praise and exalt him, - she said with a liveliness, more than usual, - but I will say it straight, and I will say to his face that he is a worthless person, worthless, worthless, worthless.
Yes, just listen to what I will reveal to you ...
Rumors were spread that he was good, but he was not good at all, not good at all, and his nose ... the most unpleasant nose.
Allow me, let me just tell you... my dear, Anna Grigoryevna, let me tell you! After all, this is history, you understand: history, sconapel istoar, ”said the guest with an expression of almost despair and a completely imploring voice. It does not hurt to notice that a lot of foreign words and sometimes entirely long French phrases intervened in the conversation of both ladies. But no matter how the author is filled with reverence for the saving benefits that the French language brings to Russia, no matter how full of reverence for the laudable custom of our high society, which is expressed in it at all hours of the day, of course, out of a deep feeling of love for the fatherland, but for all that, in no way he does not dare to introduce a phrase of any foreign language into this Russian poem of his. So, let's continue in Russian.
What is the story?
Ah, my life, Anna Grigorievna, if you could only imagine the situation in which I was, imagine: today the archpriest comes to me - the archpriest, Kirila's father's wife - and what would you think: our humble, a visitor ours, what is it?
How, did he really build chickens even the archpriest?
Ah, Anna Grigorievna, if only there were chickens, that would be nothing; listen only to what the archpriest told: the landowner Korobochka came to her, she says, frightened and pale as death, and she tells, and as she tells, just listen, just listen, a perfect romance: suddenly, in the dead of midnight, when everything was already asleep in the house, it is heard at the gate a knock, the most dangerous one imaginable; shouting: "Open, open, otherwise the gate will be broken down!" What will it look like to you? What then is the charmer?
But what about Korobochka, is she young and pretty?
Nothing, old lady.
Ah, charms! So he took up the old woman. Well, after that, the taste of our ladies is good, they found someone to fall in love with.
But no, Anna Grigorievna, not at all what you think. Just imagine what appears armed from head to toe, like Rinald Rinaldin, and demands: "Sell, he says, all the souls that have died." The box answers very reasonably, says: "I can not sell, because they are dead." - "No, he says, they are not dead, it is my business, he says, to know whether they are dead or not, they are not dead, not dead, screaming, not dead." In a word, he did a terrible scandal: the whole village came running, the children were crying, everyone was screaming, no one understood anyone, well, just orrer, orrer, orrer! .. But you can’t imagine, Anna Grigorievna, how worried I was when I heard all this. "My dear lady," Mashka tells me, "look in the mirror: you are pale." - "Not before the mirror, I say, to me, I must go to tell Anna Grigoryevna." At that very moment I ordered the carriage to be laid down: the coachman Andryushka asked me where to go, but I couldn’t even say anything, I just looked into his eyes like a fool; I think he thought I was crazy. Ah, Anna Grigorievna, if you could only imagine how alarmed I was!
This, however, is strange, - said the pleasant lady in all respects, - what could these dead souls mean? I confess I don't understand anything here. This is the second time I've heard all about these dead airs; and my husband still says that Nozdryov is lying; there is something, that's for sure.
But just imagine, Anna Grigorievna, what was my position when I heard this. “And now,” says Korobochka, “I don’t know, he says what to do. He forced me, he says, to sign some kind of fake paper, threw fifteen rubles in banknotes; I, he says, is an inexperienced helpless widow, I don’t know anything .. "So that's the incident! But only if you could imagine how worried I was all over.
But only, your will, there are not dead souls here, something else is hiding here.
I confess, too, - the simply pleasant lady said, not without surprise, and immediately felt a strong desire to find out what could be hiding here. She even said with an emphasis: - Well, what do you think, is hiding here?
Well, what do you think?
What do I think? .. I confess, I am completely lost.
But, nevertheless, I would like to know what are your thoughts about this?
But the pleasant lady could not find anything to say. She knew only how to worry, but in order to make some kind of a sharp assumption, she did not get up for this, and therefore, more than any other, she had a need for tender friendship and advice.
Well, listen, what are these dead souls, ”said the lady agreeable in every respect, and at such words the guest turned completely in ear: her ears stretched out by themselves, she raised herself, almost not sitting and not holding on to the sofa, and, despite at the fact that it was somewhat heavy, it suddenly became thinner, became like a light fluff, which just like that will fly into the air from the breeze.
So a Russian gentleman, a dog and Iora-hunter, approaching the forest, from which a hare trampled by the arriving hare is about to jump out, turns all with his horse and a raised rapnik in one frozen moment, into gunpowder, to which fire is about to be brought. He glared all over with his eyes into the muddy air, and he would overtake the beast, it would burn him down, no matter how the whole turbulent snowy steppe rose up against him, letting silver stars into his mouth, into his mustache, into his eyes, into his eyebrows and into his beaver hat.
Dead souls ... - said a pleasant lady in all respects.
I'm sorry, what? - picked up the guest, all in agitation.
Dead Souls!..
Oh, speak, for God's sake!
It's just made up just to cover it up, but here's the thing: he wants to take away the governor's daughter.
This conclusion, to be sure, was by no means unexpected and in every respect unusual. The pleasant lady, hearing this, turned to stone on the spot, turned pale, turned pale as death, and, as if, was seriously alarmed.
Oh my god! she cried, clasping her hands;
And I, I confess, as soon as you opened your mouth, I already realized what was the matter, - answered the lady pleasant in all respects.
But what, after that, Anna Grigorievna, institute education! because that's innocence!
What innocence! I heard her say such things that, I confess, I would not have the heart to utter them.
You know, Anna Grigorievna, it simply breaks the heart when you see what immorality has finally reached.
And men are crazy about her. And for me, so I, I confess, do not find anything in it ... The manner is unbearable.
Ah, my life, Anna Grigorievna, she is a statue, and at least some expression on her face.
Ah, how mannered! oh, how mannered! God, how graceful! Who learned it, I do not know, but I have not yet seen a woman in whom there would be so much affectation.
Darling! she is a statue and pale as death.
Oh, don't talk, Sofya Ivanovna: she's blushing godlessly.
Oh, what are you, Anna Grigorievna: she is chalk, chalk, purest chalk.
Honey, I was sitting next to her: a blush as thick as a finger and falling off like plaster, in pieces. Mother learned, she is a coquette, and her daughter will still surpass her mother.
Well, excuse me, well, take an oath yourself, whatever you want, I am ready this very hour to lose my children, my husband, all my property, if she has at least one drop, at least a particle, at least a shadow of some blush!
Oh, what are you saying, Sofya Ivanovna! said the lady agreeable in all respects, and clasped her hands.
Oh, what are you, really, Anna Grigoryevna! I look at you in amazement! said the pleasant lady, and she also threw up her hands.
Let it not seem strange to the reader that the two ladies did not agree with each other in what they saw almost at the same time. There are, indeed, many such things in the world that already have this property: if one lady looks at them, they will come out completely white, and if another looks, they will come out red, red, like lingonberries.
Well, here's another proof that she's pale,' continued the pleasant lady, 'I remember, as now, that I'm sitting near Manilov and saying to him: "Look how pale she is!" Indeed, one must be as stupid as our men to admire her. And our charmer ... Oh, how disgusting he seemed to me! You cannot imagine, Anna Grigorievna, to what an extent he seemed repugnant to me.
Yes, however, there were some ladies who were not indifferent to him.
Am I Anna Grigorievna? You can never say that, never, never!
Yes, I do not talk about you, as if there is no one but you.
Never, never, Anna Grigorievna! Let me tell you that I know myself very well; but perhaps from some other ladies who play the role of inaccessible.
Excuse me, Sofya Ivanovna! Let me tell you that I have never had such scandals before. For anyone else, but not for me, let me notice this for you.
Why are you offended? for there were other ladies there, there were even those who were the first to grab a chair by the door to sit closer to him.
Well, after such words, uttered by a pleasant lady, a storm was bound to follow, but, to the greatest amazement, both ladies suddenly calmed down, and absolutely nothing followed. The pleasant lady in all respects remembered that the pattern for the fashionable dress was not yet in her hands, but simply the pleasant lady realized that she had not yet had time to find out any details about the discovery made by her sincere friend, and therefore peace followed very soon. However, it cannot be said that both ladies had in their nature the need to inflict trouble, and in general there was nothing evil in their characters, but so, insensibly, in a conversation, a small desire to prick each other was born of itself; it’s just that one another, out of a little pleasure, will, on occasion, stick in a different living word: here, they say, for you! take it, eat it! There are different kinds of needs in the hearts of both male and female.
All I can't understand, however,' said a simply agreeable lady, 'is how Chichikov, being a visitor, could decide on such a daring passage. It cannot be that there were no participants.
Do you think they don't?
Who do you think could help him?
Well, yes, even Nozdrev.
Really Nozdrev?
But what? because it will become him. You know, he wanted to sell his own father, or, even better, lose at cards.
Oh my god what interesting news I learn from you! I would never have imagined that Nozdryov was involved in this story!
And I always assumed.
What do you think, right, what does not happen in the world! Well, how could one have imagined, when, remember, Chichikov had just arrived in our city, that he would make such a strange march in the world? Oh, Anna Grigoryevna, if you only knew how worried I was! If it were not for your benevolence and friendship ... now, for sure, on the brink of death ... where to? My Masha sees that I am pale as death. "My dear lady," she says to me, "you are as pale as death." - "Masha, I say, I'm not up to it now." So that's the case! So Nozdryov is here, I humbly ask!
The pleasant lady really wanted to find out further details about the kidnapping, that is, what time and so on, but she wanted a lot. In all respects, the pleasant lady directly responded with ignorance. She did not know how to lie: to assume something is another matter, but even then in such a case when the assumption was based on an inner conviction; if an inner conviction was felt, then she knew how to stand up for herself, and if some lawyer-doka, who is famous for the gift of conquering other people's opinions, tried to compete here, he would see what inner conviction means.
That the two ladies were at last resolutely convinced of what they had formerly assumed only as one supposition, there is nothing unusual in this. Our brethren, intelligent people, as we call ourselves, act in almost the same way, and our learned reasoning serves as proof. At first, the scientist drives into them as an unusual scoundrel, begins timidly, moderately, begins with the most humble request: is it from there? Is it not from that corner that such and such a country got its name? or: does this document belong to another, later time? or: Is it not necessary to understand by this people this kind of people? He immediately quotes those and other ancient writers and as soon as he sees some kind of hint or just seemed to him a hint, he already gets a trot and invigorates, talks with ancient writers easily, asks them questions and even answers for them himself, completely forgetting that began with a timid guess; it already seems to him that he sees this, that it is clear - and the reasoning is concluded with the words: "So this is how it was, so this is the kind of people you need to understand, and so this is the point from which you need to look at the subject!" Then, publicly from the pulpit, - and the newly discovered truth went for a walk around the world, gaining followers and admirers.
At the moment when both ladies had so successfully and witty solved such a confused circumstance, the prosecutor entered the drawing room with his eternally immobile physiognomy, thick eyebrows and blinking eyes. The ladies vying with each other began to tell him all the events, told him about the purchase of dead souls, about the intention to take away the governor's daughter, and completely confused him, so that no matter how much he continued to stand in the same place, clapping his left eye and hitting himself with a handkerchief on his beard, sweeping away tobacco from there, but he absolutely could not understand anything. So on that both ladies left him and went each in his own direction to rebel the city. They managed to complete this enterprise in a little over half an hour. The city was decidedly in revolt; everything went into ferment, and at least someone could understand something. The ladies knew how to cast such a mist in the eyes of everyone that everyone, and especially the officials, remained stunned for some time. Their position in the first minute was similar to the position of a schoolboy, to whom the sleepy comrades, who got up early, put a hussar, that is, a piece of paper filled with tobacco, in the nose. Waking up, drawing all the tobacco towards him with all the zeal of a sleeper, he wakes up, jumps up. he stares like a fool, his eyes bulging, in all directions, and cannot understand where he is, what happened to him, and then he already distinguishes the walls illuminated by an indirect ray of the sun, the laughter of his comrades who have hidden in the corners, and the morning that has come, looking out the window, with awakened forest, resounding with thousands of bird voices, and with a lit up river, here and there disappearing in glittering squiggles between thin reeds, all strewn with naked children, inviting to bathe, and then at last he feels that a hussar is sitting in his nose. Such was the position of the inhabitants and officials of the city in the first minute. Everyone, like a ram, stopped, bulging his eyes. The dead souls, the governor's daughter, and Chichikov got confused and mixed up in their heads in an unusually strange way; and then, after the first stupefaction, they seemed to begin to distinguish them separately and separate one from the other, began to demand an account and get angry, seeing that the matter did not want to be explained. What kind of a parable, really, what kind of a parable are these dead souls? There is no logic in dead souls ; how to buy dead souls? where will such a fool come from? and with what blind money will he buy them? and to what end, to what business can these dead souls be stuck? and why did the governor's daughter intervene here? If he wanted to take her away, why buy dead souls for this? If you buy dead souls, then why take away the governor's daughter? to give, or what, he wanted her these dead souls? what kind of nonsense, in fact, was smashed around the city? What kind of direction is such that you don’t have time to turn around, and then they’ll release a story, and at least there would be some sense ... However, they smashed it, so there was some reason? What is the reason in dead souls? not even a reason. This, it turns out, is simple: Androns are riding, nonsense, rubbish, soft-boiled boots! it's just damn it!.. In a word, rumors went on and on, and the whole town started talking about dead souls and the governor's daughter, about Chichikov and dead souls, about the governor's daughter and Chichikov, and everything that was there rose up. Like a whirlwind, hitherto, it seemed, the dormant city shot up! Crawled out of their holes were all the shacks and bastards, who had been lying around in their dressing gowns for several years at home, shifting the blame either on the shoemaker who sewed the narrow boots, or on the tailor, or on the drunken coachman. All those who stopped all acquaintances long ago and knew only, as they say, with the landowners Zavalishin and Polezhaev (famous terms derived from the verbs "to lie down" and "to fall down", which are in great use with us in Russia, just like the phrase: to call on Sopikov and Khrapovitsky, meaning all sorts of dead dreams on the side, on the back and in all other positions, with snoring, nasal whistles and other accessories); all those who could not be lured out of the house even by a call for a five-hundred-ruble fish soup with two-foot-long sterlets and all sorts of kulebyaks melting in your mouth; in a word, it turned out that the city was both crowded, and large, and properly populated. Some Sysoy Pafnutevich and Makdonald Karlovich appeared, whom they had never heard of; in the living rooms stuck up some long, long, with a shot through the arm. such a high stature, which has not even been seen. Covered droshkys, unknown rulers, rattles, wheel whistles appeared on the streets - and porridge was brewed. At another time and under other circumstances, such rumors, perhaps, would not have attracted any attention; but the city of N. has not received any news at all for a long time. For three months, nothing even happened that is called in the capitals komerage, which, as you know, for the city is the same as timely delivery edible supplies. There were suddenly two completely opposite opinions in the urban gossip, and suddenly two opposing parties were formed: male and female. The male party, the most stupid, drew attention to the dead souls. The women's was engaged exclusively in the kidnapping of the governor's daughter. In this party, it must be noted, to the credit of the ladies, there was incomparably more order and discretion. Such, apparently, is their very purpose to be good housewives and stewards. Everything with them soon took on a living definite form, clothed in clear and obvious forms, explained, cleared, in a word, a complete picture emerged. It turned out that Chichikov had been in love for a long time, and they saw each other in the garden by moonlight, that the governor would even give his daughter for him, because Chichikov is rich, like a Jew, if the reason was not his wife, whom he abandoned (how did they know that Chichikov was married, no one knew), and that his wife, who suffers from hopeless love, wrote the most touching letter to the governor, and that Chichikov, seeing that his father and mother would never agree, decided to kidnap. In other houses, this was told somewhat differently: that Chichikov did not have any wife at all, but that he, as a man of subtle and acting for certain, undertook in order to get the hand of his daughter, to start business with his mother and had a cordial secret connection with her, and that then he made a declaration about his daughter's hand; but the mother, frightened that a crime contrary to religion would not be committed, and feeling remorse in her soul, flatly refused, and that was why Chichikov decided on the kidnapping. Many explanations and corrections were added to all this, as the rumors finally made their way into the back alleys. In Russia, the lower societies are very fond of talking about the gossip that happens in the higher societies, and therefore they began to talk about all this in such houses, where they did not even see and did not know Chichikov, additions and even greater explanations went. The plot became every minute more entertaining, took on more and more every day. final forms and finally, as it is, in all its definitiveness, it was delivered to the governor's own ears. The governor, as the mother of the family, as the first lady in the city, and finally as a lady who did not suspect anything of the kind, was completely offended by such stories and became indignant, in all respects just. The poor blonde endured the most unpleasant tete-a-tete that a sixteen-year-old girl had ever had. Entire streams of questions, interrogations, reprimands, threats, reproaches, exhortations poured out, so that the girl threw herself into tears, sobbed and could not understand a single word; the porter was given the strictest order not to receive Chichikov at any time and under any guise.
Having done their business with regard to the governor's wife, the ladies began to attack the men's party, trying to win them over to their side and arguing that the dead souls were an invention and were used only in order to divert any suspicion and more successfully carry out the kidnapping. Many even of the men were seduced and stuck to their party, despite the fact that they were subjected to strong reproaches from their own comrades, who cursed them with women and skirts - names that are known to be very offensive to the male sex.
But no matter how the men armed themselves and resisted, there was not at all the same order in their party as in the women's. Everything with them was somehow callous, uncouth, wrong, worthless, discordant, not good, there was confusion in the head, turmoil, confusion, slovenliness in thoughts - in a word, the empty nature of a man showed up in everything, the nature is rough, heavy, not capable neither of economy nor of heartfelt convictions, of little faith, lazy, full of incessant doubts and eternal fear. They said that all this was nonsense, that the abduction of the governor's daughter was more of a hussar affair than a civil one, that Chichikov would not do it, that the women were lying, that the woman was like a bag: what they put, it carries, that the main subject that needs to be paid attention to is there are dead souls, which, however, the devil knows what they mean, but they contain, however, very bad, bad. Why it seemed to the men that something bad and bad was in them, we will find out right away: a new governor-general has been appointed to the province - an event, as you know, leading officials into an alarming state: there will be bulkheads, scolding, whipping and all sorts of official stews that the boss treats their subordinates. “Well,” thought the officials, “if he only finds out that there are some stupid rumors in their city, but for that alone he can boil not for life, but for death itself.” The medical inspector suddenly turned pale; it seemed to him God knows what: whether the word "dead souls" meant sick people who died in significant numbers in hospitals and in other places from general fever, against which proper measures had not been taken, and that Chichikov was not a sent official from the office of General -governor to carry out a secret investigation. He reported this to the chairman. The chairman replied that this was nonsense, and then he suddenly turned pale, asking himself the question: what if the souls purchased by Chichikov are really dead? and he allowed them to make a fortress on them, and even played the role of Plyushkin's attorney, and this will come to the attention of the governor-general, what then? He said nothing more about it, as soon as he said to one and the other, and both of them suddenly turned pale; fear is more sticky than the plague and is communicated instantly. All of a sudden, they found in themselves such sins that did not even exist. The word "dead souls" sounded so indefinitely that they even began to suspect that there was no hint of a sudden buried bodies due to two recent events. The first event was with some Solvychegodsk merchants who came to the city for a fair and after the auction set a feast for their friends from Ust-Sysol merchants, a feast on the Russian leg with German inventions: arshads, punches, balms, and so on. The feast, as usual, ended in a fight. The Solvychegodskys went to the death of the Ustsysolskys, although they also suffered a strong siege on the sides, under the mittens and on Christmas Eve, testifying to the exorbitant size of the fists with which the dead were equipped. One of those who triumphed even had a chipped nose, in the words of the soldiers, that is, the entire nose was crushed, so that it did not remain on the face and half a finger. The merchants obeyed in their deeds, explaining that they were a little naughty; rumors were circulating that, with the head of guilt, they attached four state ones each; however, the matter is too dark; from the corrections made and the consequences, it turned out that the Ust-Sysol guys died of intoxication, and therefore they were buried like that. Another incident that recently happened was the following: the state-owned peasants of the village of Vshivaya-arrogance, having united with the same peasants of the village of Borovka, Zadiraylovo-tozh, wiped off the face of the earth, as if the Zemstvo police in the person of an assessor, some Drobyazhkin, that if the Zemstvo police, that is, Assessor Drobyazhkin, got into the habit of going to their village too often, which in other cases is worth a general fever, and the reason is that the Zemstvo police, having some kind of weakness on the part of the heart, kept an eye on the women and village girls. Probably, however, it is not known, although in the testimony of the peasants they expressed it bluntly that the Zemstvo police were supposed to be lecherous, like a cat, and that they had protected him once already and once even kicked him naked out of some hut where he had climbed into. Of course, the zemstvo police were worthy of punishment for weaknesses of the heart, but the peasants, both Vshivoy-arrogance and Zadirailov, also could not be justified for arbitrariness, if they only really participated in the murder. But the matter was obscure, the zemstvo police were found on the road, the uniform or coat on the zemstvo police was worse than a rag, and even the physiognomy could not be recognized. The case went through the courts and finally came to the chamber, where it was first discussed in private in this sense: since it is not known which of the peasants exactly participated, and there are many of them, Drobyazhkin man dead therefore, he is of little use in that, even if he won the case, and the peasants were still alive, therefore, a decision in their favor is very important for them; then, as a result, it was decided as follows: that the assessor Drobyazhkin himself was the cause, exerting unjust oppression on the peasants Vshivay-arrogance and Zadirailov, too, and he died, returning in a sleigh, from an apoplexy. It would seem that the matter was rounded up, but the officials, for some unknown reason, began to think that, surely, these dead souls were now being dealt with. It happened that, as if on purpose, at a time when gentlemen officials were already in a difficult situation, two papers came to the governor at once. One of them contained that, according to the testimonies and reports that had come down, there was a maker of forged banknotes in their province, hiding under different names, and that the strictest search be carried out immediately. Another paper contained the attitude of the governor of the neighboring province about a robber who had fled from legal persecution, and that if a suspicious person appeared in their province, without presenting any certificates and passports, then detain him immediately. These two papers stunned everyone. Previous conclusions and conjectures were completely confused. Of course, it was by no means possible to assume that anything here referred to Chichikov; however, everyone, as everyone thought for their part, as they recalled that they still do not know who Chichikov really is, that he himself spoke very vaguely about his own face, he said, however, that he had suffered in the service for the truth, yes after all, all this is somehow unclear, and when they remembered at the same time that he even expressed himself as if he had many enemies who attempted on his life, they thought even more: therefore, his life was in danger, therefore, he was persecuted, it became maybe he did something like that ... but who is he really like? Of course, one cannot think that he could make false papers, and even more so be a robber: the appearance is well-intentioned; but with all that, who, however, would he really be like that? And now gentlemen officials have asked themselves the question that they should have asked themselves at the beginning, that is, in the first chapter of our poem. It was decided to make a few more questions to those from whom souls were bought, in order to at least find out what kind of purchases, and what exactly should be understood by these dead souls , and whether he explained to anyone, at least, perhaps, casually, at least in passing somehow, his real intentions, and whether he told anyone about who he was. First of all, they reacted to Korobochka, but then they didn’t get much: he bought it for fifteen rubles, and he also buys bird feathers, and he promised to buy a lot of things, he also puts fat in the treasury, and therefore, probably, a rogue, because there was already one such, who bought bird feathers and supplied bacon to the treasury, but deceived everyone and blew the archpriest out for more than a hundred rubles. Everything she said next was a repetition of almost the same thing, and the officials saw only that Korobochka was just a stupid old woman. Manilov answered that he was always ready to vouch for Pavel Ivanovich as for himself, that he would sacrifice all his property in order to have a hundredth of the qualities of Pavel Ivanovich, and spoke of him in general in the most flattering terms, adding a few thoughts about friendship already with squinted eyes. These thoughts, of course, satisfactorily explained the tender movement of his heart, but they did not explain the present matter to the officials. Sobakevich replied that Chichikov, in his opinion, was a good man, and that he sold the peasants to him at his choice and the people were alive in every respect; but that he does not vouch for what will happen in the future, that if they die during the difficulties of resettlement on the road, then it is not his fault, but God is in power, and there are a lot of fevers and various deadly diseases in the world, and there are examples that whole villages are dying out. The gentlemen officials resorted to yet another means, not very noble, but which, however, is sometimes used, that is, by the side, through various lackey acquaintances, to ask Chichikov’s people if they know any details about the master’s former life and circumstances, but they also heard Little. From Petrushka they heard only the smell of residential peace, and from Selifan, who performed the state service and had previously served in customs, and nothing more. This class of people has a very strange custom. If you ask him directly about something, he will never remember, will not take everything into his head, and even simply answer that he does not know, and if you ask about something else, then he will drag it in and tell with such details that and you don't want to know. All the searches carried out by the officials only revealed to them that they probably did not know at all what Chichikov was, but that, however, Chichikov must certainly be something. They decided at last to talk finally about this subject and decide at least what and how they should do, and what measures to take, and what exactly he is: is he such a person who needs to be detained and seized as unintentional, or is he such a person, who can himself seize and detain them all, as unintentional. For all this, it was supposed to meet on purpose at the police chief, already known to readers as the father and benefactor of the city.
In the text of the poem "", N.V. Gogol quite openly tries to reveal folk theme. The author sings and glorifies the common people, describes them best qualities. We repeatedly come across the author's thoughts about how great and wide the soul of an ordinary person is, how sincere the feelings of ordinary people are.
In the text of the poem, the reader encounters the images of the girls Mavra and Proshka, the carpenter Cork, the coachman Mikheev. The central figures for the full disclosure of such an exciting topic for the author are the footman Petrushka and the coachman Selifan.
We get acquainted with the images of serfs at the beginning of the poem. Gogol does not reveal the person of the protagonist, but already introduces the reader to his faithful servants, gives them names and titles.
How are these characters different from other characters? They are alive! What can this mean? Their soul and inner world they are still able to give a sound assessment of their actions and deeds, unlike those landowners who sold the dead peasants to the entertainer Chichikov.
Selifan and Petrusha look natural and real. There is no pretense in their images. Drunk Selifan can communicate with horses, considering them excellent conversationalists. Petrusha, without a single word or objection, carries out all the orders of Chichikov, so that he does not reproach him for anything.
He mentioned more than once that it is in the persons of Selifan and Petrusha that the real, national and folk character of the Russian people is hidden. Such a servant as Petrusha is always submissive. He speaks little and tries to please his master in everything. The lackey has learned his master so much that he knows what and when to do without unnecessary orders.
The coachman Selifan was talkative. He always spoke out on any occasion and could even make a remark - to his horse! Selifan was not as responsible as Petrusha. He could drive a wagon while drunk, he could be negligent about breaking a carriage.
It is these two images that are the most real in the text of the entire poem. They are what they are. The description of the persons of Selifan and Petrusha help us to understand and reveal the image of the main character - Chichikov, to understand his character traits and behaviors.