The time when N.V. Gogol lived and worked was marked by major social and historical events. The childhood years of the writer coincided with the defeat of Napoleon in Patriotic War 1812, Russia's entry into the broad international arena. The youthful years of Nikolai Gogol belong to the period when the Decembrists made plans for the revolutionary reorganization of Russia, and then openly opposed autocracy and serfdom. In the literary field, N.V. Gogol entered the time of cruel political reaction. His creative activity develops in the 30-40s of the XIX century, when the ruling circles of Nicholas I sought to eradicate any free-thinking, social independence.
The appearance in 1836 of the comedy The Inspector General acquired public importance not only because the author criticized and ridiculed the vices and shortcomings of tsarist Russia, but also because with his comedy the writer urged viewers and readers to look into their souls, to think about universal values. Gogol did not share the ideas of the revolutionary reorganization of society, but he firmly believed in the purifying power of laughter, believed in the triumph of justice, which will certainly win as soon as people realize the whole fatality of evil. So, in his play, N.V. Gogol sets himself the goal of “laughing hard” at everything that is “worthy of the ridicule of the universal”.
In the comedy The Inspector General, the author chooses a small provincial town as the scene of action, from which “if you ride for three years, you won’t reach any state.” N.V. Gogol makes city officials and “a phantasmagoric face”, Khlestakov, the heroes of the play. The genius of the author allowed him, using the example of a small island of life, to reveal those features and conflicts that characterized the social development of an entire historical era. He managed to create artistic images of a huge social and moral range. The small town in the play captured all the characteristic features of social relations of that time.
The main conflict on which the comedy is built lies in the deep contradiction between what city officials are doing and ideas about the public good, the interests of city residents. Lawlessness, embezzlement, bribery - all this is depicted in the "Inspector" not as individual vices of individual officials, but as generally recognized "norms of life", outside of which those in power cannot imagine their existence. Readers and viewers do not doubt for a minute that somewhere life goes according to other laws. All the norms of relations between people in the city of the “Inspector General” look like universal in the play. Where, for example, do officials have such confidence that an inspector who has come from St. Petersburg will agree to take part in a dinner at the mayor's, will not refuse to take obvious bribes? Yes, because they know this from the experience of their city, but is it really so different from the capital?
Gogol is occupied not only with the social vices of society, but also with its moral and spiritual state. In The Inspector General, the author painted a terrible picture of the internal disunity of people who are able to unite only for a while under the influence of a common feeling of fear for all. In life, people are led by arrogance, arrogance, servility, the desire to take a more advantageous place, to get better. People have lost the idea of ​​the true meaning of life. One can sin, it is enough just, like a mayor, to regularly attend church every Sunday. To hide the true essence of their actions, officials are also helped by a fantastic lie, which is in many ways akin to Khlestakov's. Lyapkin-Tyapkin takes bribes with greyhound puppies and calls it "a completely different matter." In the city's hospitals, people are "recovering like flies." The postmaster opens other people's letters only because "death loves to know what's new in the world."
It is no coincidence that N.V. Gogol completely alters the traditional stage plot and plot development in his play, saying that “do they not now have more electricity, money capital, a profitable marriage than love?” The true values ​​of human nature for city officials have been replaced by ideas of rank. Khlopov, the superintendent of the schools, a modest titular adviser, frankly admits that if someone of a higher rank speaks to him, he “has no soul, and his tongue is stuck in the mud.” It is the reverent fear of " significant person” leads to the fact that officials, who are well aware of all the emptiness and stupidity of Khlestakov, depict complete respect, and not only portray, but really experience it.
Describing his play "The Inspector General" as a public comedy, N.V. Gogol repeatedly emphasized the deep generalizing content of its images. The unpunished arbitrariness of the mayor, the dull diligence of Derzhimorda, the caustic innocence of the postmaster - all these are deep social generalizations. Each of the characters in the comedy symbolizes a certain range of human qualities, allowing the author to show how small modern man is, how much ideas of heroism and nobility remain in him. Thus, the author prepares us to understand one of the main ideas of the poem "Dead Souls", in which he will show that there is nothing more terrible than ordinary, crushing evil.
The image of Khlestakov, whom the author did not accidentally consider the main character of the work, can also be considered a huge creative success of the writer. It was Khlestakov who most fully expressed the essence of the era in which there is no normal human logic, in which a person is judged not by his spiritual qualities, but by his social position. And in order to take a high position, just a case is enough that will take you “from rags to riches”, you do not need to make any efforts, take care of the public good.
Thus, it can be argued that, having brought out generalized types of people and relations between them in comedy, N.V. Gogol was able to reflect the life of contemporary Russia in his work with great power. Inspired by the ideas of the high vocation of man, the writer spoke out against everything low, vicious and unspiritual, against the fall of social norms and human morality. The enormous social significance of the play lies in the power of its impact on the audience, who must realize that everything they see on the stage takes place around them and in real life.

The choice of the topic of the essay is due to the fact that I like the work of N.V. Gogol, his works are interesting. I especially like his comedy The Inspector General. N.V. Gogol worked on the text of the comedy for a total of about 17 years. The epigraph to the "Inspector" is a Russian proverb "There is nothing to blame on the mirror, if the face is crooked."

The Inspector General is a comedy of characters. We laugh, according to N.V. Gogol, not at the "crooked nose" of the characters, but at the "crooked soul." The plot of The Inspector General is based on a typical comedic discrepancy: a person is taken not for who he really is. Literary critic G. A. Gukovsky wrote: “The essence of the Gogol plot is not at all that someone pretended to be someone else, but in the story of how they saw an auditor in Khlestakov.” The wide vital significance of the situation of the "Auditor" is that it could arise almost anywhere. This is the life of the play. In criticism, the comedy of N.V. Gogol is usually called the best social comedy of its time.

N. V. Gogol is an innovator, like any genius. For example, he brought to life the idea of ​​"the movement of life on the stage." The classical repertoire of the modern theater cannot do without The Government Inspector. Gogol's success on the stage is not only in his sociality, but also in the fact that no one before him offered the actor such powerful examples of the Russian word. No one knew the Russian word so well, did not feel its shades, like N.V. Gogol. The writer, it seems to me, seemed to see the face of a Russian person under the form of a Russian word. When you listen to Gogol's speech, sounding from the lips of the actors, you are amazed at how accurately and unmistakably it, this speech, draws the image of the hero with all his human weaknesses.

In the works of N.V. Gogol, through characters, faces, scenes and situations, we are shown in full growth the image of a small landowner of the pre-reform era in all its economic and psychological variations. N.V. Gogol wrote: “I decided to put together everything that was bad in Russia, which I then knew, and laugh at everything at once.”

N. V. Gogol occupies a special place in Russian literature

N. G. Chernyshevsky wrote: “For a long time there has not been a writer in the world who would be as important for his people as Gogol is for Russia.” And S. T. Aksakov said prophetic words: “a lot, a lot of time is needed for the memory of Gogol to lose its freshness; Forgotten, it seems to me, he will never be.

In my essay, I wanted to “collect into one pile” everything that I learned about the famous Gogol comedy, studying books, dictionaries and reference books, and “at one time” give a linguistic and literary commentary on it.

II. FAMOUS COMEDY

1. The history of the creation of the "Auditor"

In October 1835, Gogol wrote to Pushkin: “Do yourself a favour, give some kind of plot, at least some kind of funny or not funny, but a purely Russian anecdote. In the meantime, my hand is trembling to write a comedy Do me a favor, give me a plot, the spirit will be a comedy of five acts and, I swear, it will be funnier than the devil.

And Pushkin gave Gogol a plot.

In one letter, Gogol wrote that Pushkin gave him "the first thought" about the "Inspector General": he told him about a certain Pavel Svinin, who, having arrived in Bessarabia, pretended to be an important Petersburg official, and only when he reached the point that he even became to take petitions from prisoners, "was stopped." Moreover, Pushkin told Gogol how in 1833, while collecting materials on the history of the Pugachev uprising, he was mistaken by the local governor for a secret auditor sent to examine the provincial administration.

Gogol, who asked Pushkin in October 1835 to give him a plot for the play, finished it in early December. But it was the most original version of the comedy. The painful work on it began: Gogol reworked the comedy, now inserting scenes, now cutting them. In January 1836, he wrote in a letter to his friend Pogodin that the comedy was completely ready and rewritten, but he "must, as he now saw, remake several phenomena."

Work on the "Inspector General" went in another direction.

Having begun his dramatic activity at a time when vaudeville dominated the Russian stage, the only task of which was to amuse and amuse the audience, Gogol could not help but succumb to the generally accepted methods widely used by vaudeville actors. And in the early drafts of the play, and in its first editions, you can find a lot of exaggeration, unnecessary deviations from the topic, anecdotes and all kinds of absurdities.

But, in contrast to the numerous purely farcical passages removed by the playwright, all the remaining ridiculous scenes are traditionally vaudeville only in form. In terms of their content, they are completely justified, since they are justified by the characters actors and typical of them.

Gogol's obvious desire for a thorough cleansing of the play from all sorts of excesses was due to the fact that in the mind of the playwright there was a growing conviction in the enormous influence of the theater. “The theater is a great school, its purpose is deep: it reads a lively and useful lesson to a whole crowd, a whole thousand people at a time,” he writes, preparing an article for Pushkin's Sovremennik.

And in another article, Gogol writes: "The theater is by no means a trifle and not at all an empty thing. It is such a pulpit from which one can say a lot of good to the world."

It is clear that, recognizing this huge value theater, Gogol had to remove from his "Inspector General" everything that did not correspond to his understanding of the lofty tasks of the theater.

The further creative process of working on The Inspector General was directed by the playwright to enhance the diatribe-satirical sound of the comedy, which became an image not of a single particular case that occurred in one of the county towns of Russia, but a generalized display of typical phenomena of Russian reality.

In the final version of 1842, Gogol for the first time puts a formidable cry into the mouth of the mayor: “What are you laughing at? laugh at yourself! ”, directed against everyone sitting in the auditorium.

Representatives of the ruling classes, as well as exponents of their views in the press, in an effort to reduce the satirical sound of The Inspector General, argued after the first performance of The Inspector General that "it was not worth watching this stupid farce", that the play is "a most amusing farce, a series of funny caricatures", that "this is an impossibility, a slander, a farce." True, in the original version there were farcical moments in the play, and, through the fault of the theater, they were emphasized by the actors. But Gogol, in the last "canonical" edition of 1842, managed not only to ward off these reproaches, but, adding to the play as an epigraph the folk proverb "There is nothing to blame on the mirror if the face is crooked", with all the sharpness once again pointed out the "crooked faces" of his contemporaries

Immediately Gogol explains the "origin of the Inspector General": "I decided to collect all the bad things that I only knew, and at one time laugh at everything."

These are some examples of Gogol's work on The Inspector General, who tried to enhance the socially accusatory significance of the comedy.

2. Language skill is the most important element of writing

Gogol is a wizard of the word. The bright, figurative, richest speech of Gogol with extraordinary completeness and clarity conveys the most diverse shades of character, the manner of speaking of each of his characters. He perfectly felt all the inexhaustible richness of the Russian language.

Belinsky described the main feature of Gogol's "syllable" as follows, that is, his style and language: "Gogol does not write, but draws; his images breathe the living colors of reality. You see and hear them. Every word, every phrase expresses his thought sharply, definitely, in relief, and in vain would you like to come up with another word or another phrase to express this thought.

Gogol himself said with unusual fullness about “our extraordinary language”: “It contains all the tones and shades, all the transitions of sounds, it is boundless and can, living like life, be enriched every minute”

His word is always fraught with a meaning unexpected for the reader. And Gogol, as an artist, experiences the greatest joy when it seems possible to turn a word into an unexpected facet.

There are no hollow, hollow words in Gogol's language. The powerful expressive and pictorial power of Gogol's language was based on the writer's ability to make the word precise, concrete, and plastic. Language became not only a form in which an object was expressed or an idea was embodied, but also, as it were, the material itself.

It is here that the source of the artistic energy of Gogol's word.

The work of this writer on the language of his works is striking not only by the thoroughness, but also by the novelty of the approach to the language.

Gogol seeks to free the phrase from everything superfluous, optional, to make it compact and convey the idea as accurately as possible.

Gogol was always occupied with the word itself - its sound, its sound texture. Hearing or inventing some unusual, outlandish surname, he immediately hurries to write it down: someday it will fit. He collected information received from people in his notes, and they waited there for an opportunity to turn into parts of poetic paintings.

So, Gogol writes down: "Emenet Alexandrovich Pooschryaev" - and, as it were, admires the word, its unexpected sound, its aesthetics.

Gogol felt the great pictorial, pictorial and plastic power of the word. “You marvel at the preciousness of our language,” he wrote, “that no sound is a gift; everything is grainy, large, like the pearl itself, and, really, there is another name for the more precious thing itself. So one Gogol could say. Bearing in mind the amazing richness of the Russian language, the variety of its forms, its colorfulness and ambiguity, Gogol notes that such a language "is already a poet in itself." In the well-aimed, brisk and “smart” Russian word, the writer saw the most vivid reflection of the living soul of the people.

Language skill is an extremely important, perhaps even the most important element of writing art. But the concept of artistic mastery, according to Gogol, is even more capacious, because it more directly absorbs all aspects of the work - both its form and content.

Gogol almost never expresses his thoughts in a straightforward manner. He expresses it with the help of a complex metaphor or comparison, an ironic allegory or a parable. It is this path that seems to him the most correct and effective, because it involves the active perception of the reader and makes the image more impressive.

Gogol achieves this expressiveness in other ways, say, by layering one detail on another. His description is always distinguished by an abundance of characteristic details.

Gogol's works are remarkable for their remarkable polyphony. Each character has what Gogol himself called the "store of speech", i.e., that originality of the language, which creates a complete illusion of a living, sounding word, and not indicated only by the corresponding signs on paper. The language palette of Gogol's heroes is multicolored and diverse. The style of speech very accurately conveys their inner world. Each character has their own tongue pattern. Gogol attached exceptional importance to this aspect of writing. The artist must be able to "grab the character's speech pattern", otherwise there is no character.

Gogol, in the words of Andrei Bely, "laughs at the efforts of the guardians of the purity of language to squeeze language into grammar." And the speech of the characters, and even the language of the author - everything was free from the oppression of traditional book-grammatical norms and seemed snatched from the very thick of life.

Work on style meant for the writer the search for the most expressive word. Gogol saw in the word not only a means of information, but, above all, a source of poetry, it itself is poetry. That is why he is ready to sacrifice the grammatical structure of the phrase, its "correctness" from the point of view of everyday norms, and even accuracy in the name of preserving expression.

Work on the word was for Gogol the most difficult "torment of creativity." He perfected each phrase with the utmost effort of all spiritual forces. Gogol wrote to A. V. Nikitenko: “You yourself understand that every phrase came to me through deliberation, long considerations, that it’s harder for me to part with it than for another writer who doesn’t cost anything in one minute to replace one with another.”

In his "Author's Confession" Gogol revealed one of the secrets of his creative laboratory. To make the depicted face "more palpable", he wrote, "all those countless little things and details are needed that say that the taken face really lived in the world."

The novelty of an object is especially attractive to Gogol when it appears in a characteristic verbal expression. That is why, in addition to the subject itself, Gogol was always occupied with the word denoting this subject, and he admired this word, trying to find the best use for it.

3. A sign of Gogol's style and vision of the world is humor

Gogol’s artistic merits should also include “an unprecedented, unheard-of natural language, never-before-known humor,” recalled in 1881 one of the greatest art critics V. V. Stasov.

One of the most characteristic signs of Gogol's vision of the world and style is humor. Gogol's work is permeated through and through with humor. Its basis was the striking observation of this writer and his deepest understanding of man.

Rejecting "dissolute" laughter born "from the idle emptiness of idle time", Gogol recognized only laughter "born from love for a person." In The Theater Journey, the author, through the mouth of the "first comic actor," says that laughter is "created to laugh at everything that dishonors the true beauty of a person." And in general, "laughter is more significant and deeper than people think." Laughter is a great tool for educating a person. Therefore, one should laugh not at the “crooked nose of a person”, but at his “crooked soul”.

Gogol in The Inspector General uses satirical device, to which Russian literature, especially comedyography, has often turned since the time of Sumarokov and Fonvizin. Gogol greatly diversifies this technique, exploiting it very inventively and witty. But in developing the verbal means of the comic, Gogol most often follows paths new and unknown to former writers.

The means by which he achieves comic effect are extremely varied. For Gogol, the word is an inexhaustible source of laughter. Perhaps hardly any of the Russian writers can compete with him in this respect.

Analyzing Gogol's text, one must always distinguish between the true meaning of the phrase and the apparent one. Behind the apparent lack of logic in the hero's reasoning, something completely different is often hidden. Here is the first meeting of the mayor with Khlestakov in the hotel. Their conversation is an example of comedic art. But what is it based on?

After a short exchange of greetings, the mayor explains that he wandered here, to the hotel, on the duty of the mayor, so to speak, on duty, commanding him to take care of the "passing". Khlestakov, not yet understanding what was happening, frightened by the mayor, carries nonsense: they say, he is not to blame and will soon be paid for everything. This is followed by several replicas on both sides. Both interlocutors talk about their own. They are afraid of each other and do not find contact yet. The mayor took the mention of Khlestakov's lack of money as a hint, and instantly the thought of a bribe arises in his head. Overcoming doubts, worries, fears, he offers his "help" to a "high-ranking" guest who is in trouble. “Help” is immediately accepted with gratitude, and the interlocutors quickly come to an agreement.

True, Khlestakov still does not understand the meaning of what happened, and the mayor also still does not know how events will develop further. But both felt that the immediate threat to each of them had passed, they both triumphed in victory. Here comes the break. The mayor begins to behave more boldly. A visitor wants to be considered incognito? Please, “we’ll also let the Turuses in: we’ll pretend as if we don’t know at all what kind of person he is.” It is, of course, the mayor who says "aside", but aloud he pronounces words expressing respect and servility.

The mayor and Khlestakov, to mutual satisfaction, find a common language. But the cunning and “on his own mind” Anton Antonovich plays a double game: he says one thing to Khlestakov, but thinks another about himself. Every now and then he utters "to the side" ironic remarks addressed to the visitor: "what bullets it casts!", "Nicely tied a knot! Lies, lies and will not break anywhere! The essence of the matter is that both interlocutors perfectly understand each other and the conversation is conducted not along different or opposite lines, but along one line.

The whole episode is highlighted by Gogol's irony. The dramaturgy of this very complex scene is designed with pinpoint precision. Here, the direct meaning of the conversation between the characters is intertwined all the time, and the hidden one, which, as always, turns out to be the most important.

The mayor and Khlestakov are the spokesmen for one and the same de reality. Both are rogues and rogues, although they reveal themselves in different ways. They have a common logic of behavior and language. The inconsistencies and oddities in the behavior of the capital's guest do not in any way puzzle the mayor, for they fully correspond to his ideas about how an important official from St. Petersburg should behave.

So laughter constantly turns into tears in the subtext of Gogol's works.

Belinsky said that the plot of The Inspector General rests “on a comic struggle that arouses laughter; however, in this laughter one hears not only gaiety, but also vengeance for humiliated human dignity, and, thus, in a different way than in tragedy, but again, the triumph of the moral law is revealed. This “moral law” was expressed by Gogol in laughter , which gained tragic power in The Inspector General.

Laughter was not only a weapon with which the writer fought against the hated world of darkness and violence. Gogol's laughter reflected his dream of a different, more perfect reality.

4. The speech of heroes is a mirror of their soul

The speech of heroes is a mirror of their soul. The manner of conversation, vocabulary, syntactic features of the phrase - everything served Gogol as a means of depicting the characters' characters. His heroes are shown not only in funny plot positions, but also in funny poses, in the absurdity of speeches, which further exacerbate their comedy.

The heroes are brightly and vividly characterized by their behavior and a special manner of speech. At the same time, the speech of Gogol's heroes does not need remarks: gesture, facial expressions, intonation - all this is already felt in the very text of the phrase. The poverty of thought, the limitedness of concepts, combined with stupid self-confidence and frivolous decisiveness of judgments - these are the characteristic features of provincial officials, reflected in their speech.

Each speaks the language of his time and environment, and at the same time, the speech of each of the characters is unique. The language of the merchants or locksmith Poshlepkina, the speech of the judge who “read five or six books”, the hunter “guesses”, who “gives weight to every word”, characterize them in the best possible way.

In the martyr's speech of the mayor, colored with colloquial colors, rapid transitions from rudeness and fury to stupidity and flattering servility reveal all his base nature. The limitations of his horizons are visible in every phrase. Belinsky also pointed out the inability of the mayor to find the right expressions, as soon as the matter touches on something that goes beyond his usual ideas. But how bright and full-bodied the words of the mayor are about subjects that are well known to him in practice - for example, about bribes. "Look! You don’t take it according to order!” - he shouts to the quarterly, revealing in this brief but expressive formula the whole philosophy of bribery, which lies in the fact that each "rank" is entitled to a proportionate bribe.

He conducts official conversations in clerical language, or in bureaucratic language: “the amount has been allocated”, “they will be taken to bad supervision”, “to inform the news”.

He makes extensive use of the vocabulary acquired in the service in the lower ranks: "Ek, where enough!" “I’ll give it to pepper”, “what bullets it casts”, “stretched out like the devil knows what it is”, “fig with butter”, etc. Along with such vulgarisms, he is not averse to inventing a word himself (“fintirlyushki”); he is able to lead, and even make up a saying himself - "before virtue, all is dust and vanity." He also has words in his language that show the presence of some knowledge - “Assyrians”, “Babylonians”, “Alexander the Great”. He also uses foreign words: “Voltarian”, “frishtik”, “allegory”, “equivok”. He is not averse to resorting to maxims: “a smart person or a drunkard, or he will make such a face that at least endure the saints”, “the more it breaks, the more it means the activities of the city governor.”

Against the general linguistic background of the comedy, the speech of the St. Petersburg little official Khlestakov stands out, claiming to be the capital's "secular" education. For the beauty of the style, he likes to use various pretentious literary expressions: “pick flowers of pleasure”, “we will retire under the canopy of the jets”, etc. In the scene of lies, he gives full scope to his disorderly imagination. He lies with inspiration, with rapture, he himself believes in the “thirty-five thousand couriers” sent for him, and in the fact that counts and princes are “hustling” in his hall. In the fairy tale with which he amuses his imagination, all his inner poverty, all the poverty of his insignificant nature, is revealed. His speech - jerky, jumping from subject to subject - shows a complete inability to stop his attention on anything even for a minute. “I have extraordinary lightness in my thoughts,” he says boastfully. Feeling that they are listening to him, and finally having the opportunity to splurge, knowing only two or three French words - “bonton”, “moveton” and “comprenet vu?” - he easily achieves his goal - Marya Antonovna exclaims with delight : "You speak in the capital."

Striving for secular speech, however, he does not find the right words and marks time, repeating the word that has fallen into the language: “How happy I am, madam, that I have a kind of pleasure to see you. I'm sitting next to you"

Khlestakov knows how to flatter himself. He greets the tavern servant, calls him “brother”, “dear”, asks about his health - just to get dinner. And having received dinner, he scolds the servant and calls him a fool three times. And he scolds the master together with the servant: “Swindlers, scoundrels! Idlers! When the servant wants to take a plate from Khlestakov, Khlestakov, defending the “food”, says: “Well, well, well, leave it, fool; you are used to dealing with others there; I, brother, am not of that kind! Do not advise me"

The rest of the faces are located between these two poles: some in the style of speech adjoin the rudeness and primitiveness of the mayor (judge, policemen, merchants, locksmith, non-commissioned officer's widow), others - to the "secularism" and deliberate sophistication of Khlestakov (Anna Andreevna, postmaster), moreover, both of them preserve individual and social differences in the language. So, the speech of the judge is complicated by the claim to "profound thinking", in the speech of Strawberry the elements of slyness and servility are emphasized. The postmaster's speech, ingenuous and smooth, is characterized by an element of "literaryness": "various passages are described, and what edification is better than in Moskovskie Vedomosti." Between all the voices, Bobchinsky's restless chatter, like a drum roll, is interrupted by Dobchinsky: “He! And he doesn’t pay money, and he doesn’t go. Who should be if not him? And the road trip is registered in Saratov.

The county doctor is brilliantly characterized, who “difficulty” communicates with patients: he doesn’t know a word of Russian” and only “makes a sound, partly similar to the letter and and somewhat to e”. If we add to this that the playwright gave him the name Gibner, which is German cannot but evoke associations with the verb meaning “destroy”, “poison”, it will become clear how the playwright described with unusual brevity the medical care of his time that existed in district (and only in district) cities.

And only the speech of two characters acting on the periphery of the plot and playing a service role in the comedy does not have a sharply comic coloring. This is Osip's mocking and ironic speech, despite the touch of St. Petersburg lackey jargon (“life is delicate and political”, “haberdashery treatment”), preserving a lively folk basis. To a certain extent, this is the speech of Marya Antonovna, more than the speech of other characters, approaching the speech norm.

The characterological basis of a replica can consist of several components. Among them, it is possible to superimpose on the familiar speech element (on the “native environment”_ elements of a new social and speech layer.

That's how it's built speech portrait Osip in The Inspector General. Urban vernacular as a trace of "metropolitan life" colors his speech. Already in his first monologue, when he “lies on a master’s bed” and talks about the amenities of “capital life”, Khlestakov’s lackey uses words and phrases that are far from village vernacular. There are also “keyatras” and walking “along the prefecture”.

In a detailed replica as a figurative-speech whole, lexical and phraseological means of expression are usually supported and enhanced by the aesthetic use of the grammatical form of the word.

Let's take for analysis one remark of the mayor in the scene with the merchants.

Mayor. “What, darlings, how are you? How is your item going? What, samovar, arshinniki, complain? Archwilds, proto-beasts, worldly swindlers! to complain? What, did you take a lot? So, they think, so they will put him in jail! Do you know, seven devils and one witch in your teeth, that ”(Inspector, d. V, yavl. II).

First of all, the change in emotional tone is striking: the feigned affectionate, artificially polite coloring of the initial part: “What, my dears, how are you? How is your product going? - only a foreshadowing of a formidable cry and is present here for emotional contrast. The whole subsequent part is not just scolding, but self-exposure. Samovar makers, arshinniki, archwives, protobeasts, worldly swindlers - “the usual surroundings”, the general background that reveals the main “trump card” of Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky: “What, they took a lot? So, they think, so they will put him in jail! ". Here the mayor acts as a witness from the outside, therefore he speaks of the merchants and himself in the third person. And the last verb form "planted" is very important. These are the same indefinite persons who must punish the thief-governor. Thus, colloquial and abusive vocabulary does not constitute the main content of the replica, it only forms the characterological background against which all other means of speech representation stand out more clearly.

Lexical repetition as a technique enhances the pictorial possibilities of a repeating word, focuses the reader's attention precisely on this technique and on this word.

Not only colloquial forms and phrases, which carry their revealing, characterological function, are introduced into the replica, but an individualizing intonational-rhythmic pattern, characteristic of live speech, is reported. So, the replica of the mayor, stunned by the discovery that the auditor is by no means an auditor, but a “wick”, and the real audit is ahead; is not just emotionally colored, but is almost a cry: “That's when he stabbed, so stabbed! Killed, killed, completely killed! I don't see anything.

I see some kind of pig snouts instead of faces, but nothing else Turn it back, turn it back! (Waves his hand)." The system of repetitions, arranged in a certain gradation, in ascending order, is united by intonation, dramatically tense, ending in silence, gradually fading.

A new cry: “Get him back, get him back!” - this is a new twist on the topic. Thus, not only “dialogical movement” is conveyed in the replica, but also “eventfulness”, the deployment of a certain link in the development of plot action, is felt.

No matter how many characters there are in The Inspector General, they all appear before our eyes, as if they were alive. Even Derzhimorda, with his voice “like from a barrel” and the habit of putting lanterns under his eyes for order and right, and he forever cuts into memory, although he only appears on stage once. All this together makes The Inspector General the greatest example of dramatic art. Every word here is a striking typical feature.

Speaking of artistic features The Inspector General, one must pay attention to his remarks, which were not used in such a variety of ways by any playwright, neither before Gogol nor after him, and did not have the significance that Gogol attached to them.

Gogol's remarks indicate a change in intonation.

The mayor then “mumbles in an undertone” or says, “letting out a sigh”, “sighing”; then "screams"; then “shouts, jumping for joy”; then he “threatens his fist at himself” and “knocks his feet on the floor in anger.” The remarks perfectly characterize Khlestakov, who either says, “stretching himself and imagining a footman”, then “rubs his hands and shuffles his foot”, then “claps his hands and slightly bounces on a chair”, then “bravely knocks his fists on the table”, then “looks at Anna Andreevna and poses in front of her”, then “slips and almost flops on the floor, but is respectfully supported by officials”.

Gogol is much more than other authors dramatic works, uses technical remarks indicating that the characters “sit down”, “sit down”, “shake with fear”, say “to the side”, “out loud”, “to themselves”. Or remarks that reveal the state of the speaker: “thinking”, “bulging eyes”; “makes a grimace”, “wiggles his hands around his forehead”, “grabs his head” and “waves his arms”.

The playwright shows how someone enters - "out of breath", "in a hurry", "on tiptoe"; how he leaves - "hurriedly", "thoughtfully".

The inner state of the mayor is very expressively conveyed by the author's remarks, as well as statements aloud and aside to himself.

Among the remarks there are such: “A handle is spinning at the door, Khlestakov turns pale and shrinks”; or the director's descriptions of entire game scenes: “The door opens, and Bobchinsky, eavesdropping from the other side, flies with her onto the stage. Everyone makes exclamations. Bobchinsky rises.

Extraordinarily interesting are the remarks concerning the curtain at the end of each act.

At the end of the act of the first act, the mayor shouts out the window: “Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!” until the curtain falls, and according to the author's note, "So the curtain closes both of them (mother and daughter) standing at the window." Or in the second act, “the curtain falls,” as Gogol points out, after the words thrown by the mayor Bobchinsky as he was leaving the stage: “You too! found no other place to fall! and stretched out like the devil knows what it is. The departure of the mayor from the stage "on tiptoe" after the quarter ends the third act. Fourth act: Khlestakov's off-stage farewell and his departure - “the bell is ringing; the curtain falls."

Finally, the finale of the last act, ending with the arrival of the gendarme, is accompanied by a detailed remark, reporting that everyone was struck like thunder: "The sound of amazement unanimously emanates from the ladies' lips," and "the whole group, suddenly changing position, remains petrified."

Moreover, this is followed by the famous remark of the “silent scene”, which is the only one in world drama. Here is a detailed and precise mesen-scene, indicating where and how each character stands. Who turned “into a question mark”, who tilted his head “somewhat to one side”, as if listening to something, and “the judge with outstretched arms, crouching almost to the ground and making a movement with his lips”, as if “wanted to whistle or say: “Here you, grandmother, and St. George's Day! And the mayor "in the middle in the form of a pillar with outstretched arms and his head thrown back." Even the gaping mouths and bulging eyes of Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky and the “expression of the faces of three ladies” and “other guests” are noted.

Thus, Gogol always subtly and accurately uses the speech material of the character as a means of his social and psychological characteristics. Belinsky was the first to draw attention to the fact that Gogol "makes his characters speak in accordance with their characters."

5. The art of composition

“Gogol,” writes S. N. Durylin, “with ingenious courage and simplicity began the comedy with a direct frank exposition of its dramatic content. This exposition, with the words: “I invited you, gentlemen,” essentially did not change, (the author) begins the play with a direct blow of thunder in a clear sky, and the officials begin by joint efforts to compose a lightning rod that should paralyze all the power of the unexpected blow of the revision on their autocracy and prosperity."

Comedy exposition - scenes preceding the action. However, isn't the words "the auditor is coming to visit us" already the beginning of the main conflict? The first remarks of the mayor can be seen as an exposition, merging with the plot of a comedy. They introduce into the main theme of the comedy, the theme of fear of impending retribution. Belinsky was the first to say that the main theme of the comedy is the fear of exposure. Consider the mayor's remark about his dream from the point of view of the composition of The Inspector General.

Mayor. I seemed to have a presentiment: all night long I dreamed of two extraordinary rats. Really, I have never seen such things: black, unnatural size! came, sniffed - and went away.

The mayor did not forget the dream because, “as if on purpose”, he received a notification from a friend that “an official left incognito from St. Petersburg with a secret order to review everything related to civil administration in the province.”

V. G. Belinsky attached great compositional significance to the sleep of the mayor. "Dream in hand! exclaims Belinsky. - Superstition further intimidates an already frightened conscience; conscience strengthens superstition."

The mayor in a remark reads the letter of Andrei Ivanovich Chmykhov: “Dear friend, godfather and benefactor, I hasten to inform you, by the way, that an official has arrived with an order to inspect the entire province and especially our district (significantly raises his finger up). I learned this from the most reliable people, although he presents himself as a private individual.

Attention should be paid to the role of two letters in the composition of The Inspector General. The first of them - a letter from Andrei Ivanovich Chmykhov - opens the comedy. The second - from Khlestakov to Tryapichkin - completes it.

The mayor assigns a responsible mission to the postmaster: “for our common good”, “print a little” and read every letter, “incoming and outgoing”, “that arrives at the post office”. The implementation of this advice by the postmaster is of great importance in the entire composition of The Inspector General, especially in the denouement of the comedy.

Gogol was able to clothe his great public comedy in an unusually finished and strict form. The construction of the "Inspector" is a masterpiece of art. The first phrase of the mayor, announcing the arrival of the auditor, ties up the action. The mayor does not have time to give the necessary orders, as Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky appear. Running out of breath into the mayor's room, Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky talk about the official who came from St. Petersburg, who, in their opinion, is the "incognito" - the auditor.

In the "Inspector" there are two strings. The first is the initial remark of the mayor, expressing his fear, which led to a mistake. These first phrases of the mayor are the beginning of the whole further course of the comedy.

The second plot - the phenomenon of the third act of the first - is connected with Khlestakov.

In the first act of The Inspector General, the exposition coexists along with the first and second plots of the comedy.

The first plot, lies in the first remark of the mayor, the mayor and city officials are seized with fear of retribution for their sins (phenomenon I).

The second plot - the mayor and his subordinates are mistaken for the auditor Khlestakov, about whom they were told by Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky (phenomenon III).

Along with showing people "sitting in the wrong places", the action develops. All these people are seized with fear, which pushes them towards unity and self-defense. the mayor from the very first remarks mobilizes them to action. Still not knowing anything about Khlestakov, they are preparing to confront the auditor. The first remarks of the mayor - this is not a private, but a general plot that knits the comedy "into one big, common knot." That same plot, which, according to Gogol, “should embrace all the faces, and not just one or two, touch on what excites, more or less, all the characters. Here every hero: the course and course of the play produces a shock to the whole machine: not a single wheel should remain rusty and not included in the case.

The exposition and both plots of the comedy reveal the unity of the comedic circumstances and the typical characters of the actors. In the first act of The Inspector General, one can see the conditionality of the action in the comedy by the character of its characters.

In the second act, Osip utters the following remark:

Osip. Kindness would really be something worthwhile, otherwise, after all, a simple lady

It was necessary for Gogol to name the position held by Khlestakov, since in the “scene of lies” Khlestakov would inform the officials (quite, however, unexpectedly for himself) that he “once was mistaken even for the commander in chief.” The phrase about the “Elistratishka” appeared already in the second draft version of the Inspector General.

The significance of this monologue of Osip in the composition of The Government Inspector is very great. While the mayor and his subordinates believed that the official who came from St. Petersburg was the auditor, in Osip's monologue the notorious "incognito" appeared in its true form. Khlestakov, from whom "the power of universal fear created a wonderful comic face," turned out to be exposed even before he appeared on stage.

It is absolutely unbelievable that such a hardened swindler, such a clever rogue and an experienced owner of the city could take Khlestakov for an auditor who "arrived by personal order." But the "life-giving laughter" of the artist helped us forget about it: analyzing the internal situation of the play, the viewer and reader of Gogol admits that the mayor's fear, due to his endless crimes in office, eclipsed his eyes and allowed him to see the auditor in Khlestakov.

The protagonist of the comedy, according to the idea and statements of Gogol, is really Khlestakov. But since Khlestakov was turned into an auditor by the fear of the mayor, then the whole action of the comedy develops with the main participation of the mayor.

In Gogol's play, there are two centers, two persons leading and directing the development of the action of the comedy: the mayor and Khlestakov. Each of these characters is experiencing the moment of its highest rise, its triumph; and then everyone goes through debunking.

The dynamics of the development of the action in The Inspector General is so great precisely because in the comedy there are not one, but two plots, not one, but two climaxes, and not one, but two denouements, in the center of which stands either Khlestakov or the mayor.

The culmination of the disclosure of Khlestakov's personality is the moment of his inspired lies to the officials and the mayor's family. In the third act, it is in the "scene of lies" that Khlestakov's image reaches its highest revelation. Gogol gives his main character here the most vivid illumination. The denouement of the whole line of Khlestakov is the phenomenon of VIII of the fifth act - the appearance of the postmaster with a printed letter from Khlestakov.

Consider the postmaster's remark from the point of view of the composition of The Inspector General:

Postmaster. Amazing stuff, gentlemen! The official, whom we took for an auditor, was not an auditor.

This phenomenon is the denouement of the comedy conflict of The Inspector General. Khlestakov's letter to Tryapichkin, printed by the postmaster Shpekin, showed the officials, and first of all the mayor, their general delusion regarding Khlestakov, this is the completion of Khlestakov's storyline, the denouement of the line that develops from the III phenomenon of the first act.

Postmaster. They bring me a letter in the mail. I looked at the address, I see it: Post Office Street. I was so dumbfounded. Well, I think to myself, Right, found the mess in the post office and notifies the authorities. I took it and printed it.

The naivety and innocence of the postmaster, the fear inherent in him, as in every official (Pochtamtskaya Street is correctly associated with the central office of the postal department in St. not an auditor.

The appearance of the letter in the "Inspector" is not an accident. It is convincingly motivated at the beginning of the comedy by the order that the mayor gives to the postmaster - to print letters that fall into his hands. Literary and theater critics invariably draw attention to the exceptional harmony of the composition of The Inspector General, which begins with the reading of a letter about the arrival of the auditor and ends with his very arrival in the city.

“This finale,” said V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, “represents one of the most remarkable phenomena of stage literature. You know him very well.

Taking advantage of the same surprises, which are ingenious in their simplicity and naturalness, Gogol first releases the postmaster with the news that the official whom everyone took for the auditor was not an auditor, then, delving into human passions, brings the dramatic situation to the highest tension and to the most acute the moment of the height of passions gives with one blow such a denouement, which is not equal in any literature.

The action develops unusually consistently and clearly and ends only at the end of the comedy. According to Gogol, each wheel comes into action. The mayor's advice to the postmaster to look through the letters has an effect at the end of the comedy, when he opens Khlestakov's letter and finds out the mistake. The letter about the possible arrival of the auditor justifies the appearance of the gendarme at the end of the comedy. The exposure of Khlestakov and the arrival of a real auditor restore the symmetry and give a complete ending. Gogol used everything rational that was contained in the compositional art of classicism. The ingeniously executed unity of action gives an amazing wholeness to the play.

The second storyline is connected with the mayor; a comedic conflict is tied up in the first remarks of the mayor, who involves all the officials in the task of struggle facing him, the last monologue of the mayor unleashes a comedic conflict.

Having put the words about “clickers” and “paper-crackers” into the mouth of the mayor, Gogol openly said that his enemies from the reactionary camp are those who take the side of the mayor.

The highest rise, the culmination falls on the scenes of the triumph of the mayor and his family, the scenes of congratulations to him by officials. The final scene of the VIII phenomenon of the fifth action is the denouement, the complete collapse of the mayor's dreams. With regard to this denouement, Belinsky says that “the end of the comedy should take place where the mayor finds out that he was punished by a ghost and that he still has to be punished by reality, or at least new troubles and losses in order to evade punishment from reality." Belinsky, as it were, emphasizes with these words that the other auditor, who “arrived by personal order”, will put the mayor in the same position in which he was under the imaginary auditor - Khlestakov. The mayor is again waiting for the same "troubles", the same bribes.

Gogol really used in The Inspector General "everything rational that was contained in the compositional art of classicism." But he himself introduced his own, new word into the art of drama composition.

silent scene

In “An Excerpt from a Letter,” Gogol spoke of how little the scene satisfied him: “It didn’t come out at all. The curtain closes at some vague moment, and the play seems to be unfinished. But it's not my fault. They didn't want to listen to me."

In Forewarning, Gogol talks about how he thinks this living picture. If we compare what is said about the Silent Scene in the 1842 edition. , with the fact that Gogol wrote about her in "Forewarning" 1846. , it will become noticeable that Gogol, even in this scene in 1846. somewhat muffled the sharpness of the characteristics of each character. For example, let's point to the description in this scene of Strawberries.

Strawberries in the Silent Scene 1842

On the left side of the mayor Strawberry, tilting his head On the left side of the mayor Strawberry somewhat to one side, as if listening to something with raised eyebrows and fingers raised to his mouth, like a person who was badly burned by something.

Strawberry in the Silent Scene in his role as an informer, he is at the last moment, and then, "as if listening to something." Finding out everything, listening for the next denunciation at the first convenient moment.

In Strawberry "Forewarning" there is more movement, more clarity for the actor to convey his image on stage, but less of the characteristic features of this hero. Another person, not necessarily Strawberry, could convey pain and fear, as from a burn.

In "Forewarning" there are already elements of a different interpretation of the heroes of "The Inspector General", to a certain extent close to "Decoupling of the Inspector", which was written simultaneously with "Forewarning". Gogol tries to explain a lot by the moral deafness of the mayor and other officials.

The heroes of the comedy in The Forewarning are no longer bad because of the lack of rights of the people and their social privileges, but because of their moral instability and deafness, for which retribution awaits them.

6. Dictionary of obsolete concepts, personal names and little-known words

Commentary on the Actions and Phenomena of Comedy

Act I

Phenomenon 1

Mayor. Mayor - until the middle of the 19th century, this was the name of the head of the county town, to whom all city authorities (the police and lower judicial institutions) were subordinate.

Mayor: I invited you, gentlemen, in order to tell you the unpleasant news: an auditor is coming to us (an official sent to examine someone's activities to establish the correctness and legality of actions, to audit).

Mayor: Inspector from St. Petersburg, incognito (incognito - secretly, hiding his rank, rank, official position, his surname under a fictitious one). And also with a secret order (with a secret order, order).

Mayor (reads a letter from Artemy Ivanovich Chmykhov): Dear friend, godfather and benefactor (godfather, godmother - the so-called "godfather" and "godmother" who participated in the rite of baptism of an infant. In relation to the parents of their godson and to each other, they were called godfather and godfather and were considered godfathers) I hasten to notify (notify) you that an official has arrived

Ammos Fedorovich: This means this: Yes, Russia wants to wage war, and the ministry (ministry - this is how the government was disparagingly called in a conversation, and not any ministry of tsarist Russia) sent an official.

Mayor: Without a doubt, a passing official will want first of all to inspect charitable institutions (charitable institutions - institutions created by private individuals to "please God" - hospitals, orphanages, homes for the crippled and the elderly; the trustee of charitable institutions is an official, in charge of them).

Mayor: I would also advise you, Ammos Fedorovich, to pay attention to government places (government places - state government offices or premises occupied by them; here: county court. Presence - “a judge’s room or in general a room where they sit, members of an advisory body are present).

Mayor: In addition, it’s bad that you have all sorts of rubbish drying up in your very presence, and above the closet (closet) a hunting rapnik (arapnik is a long belt whip attached to a short stick; used for clapping on dog hunting, for swatting hares). Also an assessor (an official, a representative from the population or from a class, elected or taken by lot, participating in the work, in the consideration of court cases. Here: a member of the county court, sitting "in the presence")

Mayor: This is already so arranged by God himself, and Voltairians (Voltairian - the old pronunciation of the word “Voltairian, - a follower of the French free-thinking writer and philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) - this is how in the 19th century reactionaries and ignoramuses called freethinkers who did not take into account existing customs, and often in general free thinker) in vain speak against it.

Gorodnichiy: However, I just mentioned the county court (the county is the administrative-territorial part of the province) They are people, of course, scientists and were brought up in different boards (the board is here: a higher educational institution).

Luka Lukich: Just the other day, when our leader came into the classroom (the leader is here: leader of the nobility, elected from the district or provincial nobility).

Mayor: I once listened to him (history teacher): well, for now he was talking about the Assyrians and Babylonians (Assyrians and Babylonians - the ancient peoples of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) - still nothing, but how did he get to Alexander the Great (Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BC) AD) - the famous commander and statesman ancient world. From 336g. - king of Macedonia).

Phenomenon 2

Postmaster (postmaster - the head of the post office, who was also in charge of postal horses that carried both mail and people on the chaise from one postal station to the next): You will read another letter with pleasure - this is how different passages are described (passage - case, incident (from French words passage), and edification (instruction, teaching) is better than in Moskovskie Vedomosti! (Moskovskie Vedomosti (1756-1894) - a newspaper that was published first 2 times a week, then three times and, finally, daily; it was published by Moscow University since 1766. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, it ceased to be university and continued to go to the state account, and became reactionary).

Postmaster: Recently, a lieutenant wrote to a friend: “My life, dear friend, is flowing,” he says, “in the empyrean (in the empyrean - here: in bliss (empyrean in Evnegrekian myths - paradise): there are many young ladies, music plays, standard gallops "(Standard - a flag with a coat of arms, a regimental banner in the cavalry. The lieutenant, enthusiastically describing the ball at which "young ladies play a lot of music", instead of talking about the dancing standard junker who wore the regimental banner, says that the "standard" itself jumps").

Ammos Fedorovich - To the Governor: After all, you heard that Chertovich and Varkhovinsky started a lawsuit (litigation is a civil lawsuit).

Mayor - to Ammos Fedorovich: So you are waiting for the door to open - and shast (Shast - unexpectedly, suddenly enter, run in).

Phenomenon 3

Bobchinsky - to the Governor: And Pyotr Ivanovich already heard about this from your housekeeper (the housekeeper is a servant who was in charge of the family's food supplies).

Bobchinsky: Let's go to Pochechuev, but on the road Pyotr Ivanovich says: “Let's go,” he says, “to a tavern” (a tavern is an inexpensive dining room for visitors, for the general public, a hotel with a restaurant).

Bobchinsky - To the mayor: We had just entered the hotel, when suddenly a young man

Dobchinsky: Not bad appearance, in a particular dress (Particular dress - civilian, informal).

Bobchinsky: But Pyotr Ivanovich already blinked his finger and called the innkeeper, sir (the innkeeper is the owner of the inn).

Bobchinsky - to the Governor about Khlestakov from the words of the innkeeper Vlas: “Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov, sir, and,” he says, “certifies himself very strangely” (attest - here: give a distinctive characteristic, recommendation, reveal your character, behave).

Dobchinsky (To Gorodnichi): “And the road (road - a document indicating the surname, rank, rank and route of the person riding on postal - “passenger” horses) is registered in Saratov.

Mayor: In these two weeks, a non-commissioned officer's wife was whipped! (non-commissioned officer - the lowest rank of command of the tsarist army, from the soldiers. Non-commissioned officer - the wife of a non-commissioned officer. The mayor, having learned that the official who had arrived lives in the city for two weeks, of all his illegal acts, first of all remembered the flogged non-commissioned officer "officer's wife. Shortly before the writing of the "Inspector" there was a strict prohibition to resort to corporal punishment of non-commissioned officers' wives. To mitigate his crime, in a conversation with Khlestakov, the mayor speaks of a non-commissioned officer's widow).

Ammos Fedorovich (to the Mayor): Let your head go ahead (The head, that is, the "city head" - the head of the city self-government bodies - the city duma and the council that was in charge of the city's economy. He was elected from among the so-called vowel members of the Duma) here and in the book "Acts of John Mason ": (John Mason (1705-1763) - English writer, the author of religious books, whose writings were published more than once in Russian in the 18th and early XIX centuries).

Mayor (to Svistunov): Go now for a private bailiff (a private bailiff is the head of a police unit in a city divided into separate districts called police stations).

Artemy Filippovich (to Ammos Fedorovich): The patients are ordered to give gabersup (gabersup - oatmeal soup)

Phenomenon 4

Mayor - (to the quarterly) - (quarterly - a policeman who oversaw order in a certain quarter of the city): Run now, take tenths (tenth - performer of various police duties; appointed from city residents, one from every tenth house) Yes, look: you ! you! I know you; You don’t take it according to order!” (does not comply with the service category)

Phenomenon 5

Private bailiff. Derzhimorda rode on a fire pipe (a fire pipe is a fire truck, the main part of which was a “filler pipe”, i.e. a pump).

Mayor: “Yes, if a visiting official asks for service (Service is here: soldiers, lower police ranks).

Mayor: “Yes, do not let the soldiers out into the street without anything, this crappy garrison (garrison is a derogatory name for garrison soldiers).

Act II

Phenomenon 1

Osip:. And it would, and it would have become very much for runs (runs - fare on state (postal) horses; “state run” (gratuitous) was allowed for officials traveling on official business, which should have been indicated in the road trip). If only there was money, but life is political: keyatry (keatr is a distorted word for “theater”).

Haberdashery (haberdashery - here: delicate, polite, gallant), damn it, treatment (treatment). And the cloth is so important, English! (English) “does not do business, goes for a walk around the preshpekt (preshpekt is a distorted word for “prospect”)

Phenomenon 2

Khlestakov (to Osip): Look, is there no tobacco in the cap (cap is a paper bag that resembled a headdress; tobacco was sold in it)?

Osip (to Khlestakov): We, he says, are some kind of sherman (Shiromyzhnik (or sharomyzhnik, sheromyzhnik) is a person living at someone else's expense. It is believed that this swear word came from the French treatment cher ami - dear friend - the treatment used the French who fled from Russia in 1812, at the request of the peasants to accept and feed them) and scoundrels were seen

Phenomenon 3

Khlestakov: “In vegetable shops (a vegetable shop is a petty shop where you could buy bread, tobacco, herring, sausage, etc., and in a vegetable shop, except for vegetables, nothing was sold) they don’t lend anything”

Phenomenon 5

Khlestakov: “It’s a pity that Joachim (Joachim is a well-known St. Petersburg carriage master and landlord in the 30s of the XIX century. Gogol lived in his house on the Petersburg side. According to legend, in response to his harassment about paying for an apartment, Gogol in the presence of his writers told him: “Leave me alone, or I’ll put you in a comedy”) didn’t rent a carriage (a large closed four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage on springs), but it would be nice to come home in a carriage, and put Osip in a livery (Livery is the clothes of the servants of the lordly servants trimmed with galloon houses (porters and lackeys).Exit footmen who accompanied the gentlemen sat on the goats with the coachman or stood on the heels (behind the carriage).

Phenomenon 6

Khlestakov: “Canals! (rogues, swindlers) scoundrels! And even at least some sauce or cake"

Phenomenon 7

Khlestakov (after talking with Osip) What if he really drags me to prison? (a prison is a place of detention for defendants who have already received a sentence, but have not yet been sent to a settlement in Siberia or hard labor. Gogol points out that there were both prisons and city prisons in the county town. With this exaggeration, Gogol vividly characterizes the prison-police regime of tsarist Russia).

Phenomenon 8

Mayor Khlestakov: “I wish you hello!” (to be healthy, to exist safely). It is my duty, as a mayor (an official with the rights of a governor who manages the town administration (a city with adjacent lands), the head of the city) to take care of the local city”

Khlestakov (to the Governor): “No, the priest demands me. He thinks that he has come and now Vladimir is in your buttonhole and they will give you (Vladimir in the buttonhole - that is, Vladimir of the 4th degree; the civil “Order of St. Vladimir” had four degrees - the most the lowest (4th) was worn on the chest).

Khlestakov (Gorodnichiy): “I am much more pleasant in a private house (a private house is a private apartment, furnished in a homely way, and not a government, office or hotel room) than in this tavern (drinking establishment).

Event 10

The mayor (to Khlestakov): “As you intend: in your crew (light non-cargo spring wagon, carriage).

Mayor: “I will write here (writes, speaks to himself). But let's see how things go after frishtik (frishtik is a distorted pronunciation of the German word for breakfast).

Act III

Phenomenon 1

Anna Andreevna (to Marya Antonovna): “Well, we’ve been waiting for an hour, and all of you with your stupid affectation (devoid of simplicity and naturalness, mannered).

Phenomenon 2

Dobchinsky (Anna Andreevna) about Khlestakov: “No, more chantret (chantret is a distorted word “brown hair”).

“Well, Anna Andreevna, I’ll run now to see how he surveys (examines) there.

Phenomenon 3

Anna Andreevna: “Well, Masha, now we need to take care of the toilet (items of clothing, wardrobe, get dressed, put our appearance in order).

Right, you say - if only in defiance (disagree with someone, contradicting someone)

It (dress) will be much better for you, because I want to wear fawn (fawn - pale - yellow. According to the "Library for Reading" for 1835, Petersburg dandies "the most fashionable colors are fawn and green").

Phenomenon 4

Mishka (to Osip): “You see how! That's why we have a turmoil (turmoil, confusion) raised.

Phenomenon 5

The mayor (to Khlestakov): “But here, one might say, there is no other thought (thought, reflection) to earn the attention of the authorities with deanery (decent, decent) and vigilance (very attentive).

Khlestakov: “What is the name of this fish? Labardan-s (Labardan - freshly salted cod).

The mayor (to Khlestakov): “I dare to report to you, the (very difficult) duty of the mayor is puzzling! “Lord, my God, how can I arrange it so that the authorities see my jealousy (zeal, zeal) and be satisfied?” But before virtue (high morality) everything is dust and vanity.

Luka Lukich (about the mayor):! And I, the scoundrel, ponted (vypontirovat - win at cards) a hundred rubles yesterday.

Khlestakov (Gorodnichy): “If, for example, you go on strike, then how to bend from three corners (bend from three corners - in gambling card games, triple the bet (by bending the corners of the cards) well, then of course

Phenomenon 6

Anna Andreevna (to Khlestakov): “I think that after the capital, voyage (voyage - travel (from the French word voyage)) seemed very unpleasant to you.

Khlestakov (to Anna Andreevna): “I only go into the department (department - department of government agencies, for example, ministries in Tsarist Russia) for two minutes only to say: This is it!” They even wanted to make me a collegiate assessor (a collegiate assessor is a civil rank of the eighth grade, the lowest rank of those who were called “high nobility”) to do "

Khlestakov: “I don’t like ceremonies” (compulsion, constraint in actions).

Khlestakov (to Anna Andreevna): “I, too, are different vaudeville players (vaudeville is a light, usually one-act comic play with verses for singing).

“However, there are many of my works: “The Marriage of Figaro” (“The Marriage of Figaro” - the famous comedy of the French playwright Beaumarchais (1732 - 1799), which appeared in 1787), “Robert the Devil” (“Robert” (“Robert the Devil”) is the title of an opera by the French composer Meyerbeer (1791-1864).

Khlestakov “Everything that was under the name of Baron Brambeus (Baron Brambeus is the pseudonym of the famous reactionary writer in the 30-40s, journalist O. I. Senkovsky, editor of the Library for Reading magazine) “Frigate of Hope” (“Frigate of Hope” - the story of Marlinsky (pseudonym of the Decembrist A. A. Bestuzhev, (1797 - 1837)) and "Moscow Telegraph" ("Moscow Telegraph" - an advanced magazine published by N. A. Polev from 1825; was closed in 1834 by order of Nikolai1) I wrote all this.

Anna Andreevna (to Khlestakov): “So, is it true that “Yuri Miloslavsky” (“Yuri Miloslavsky” is a historical novel by M. Zagoskin, which appeared in 1829 and was a great success) is your work?

Khlestakov (to Anna Andreevna): “There we have whist (whist is a card game).

Khlestakov: When you run up, you will only tell the cook (a servant in the kitchen preparing food).

Khlestakov "I gave them all a warning" (punishment as a lesson for the future)

Tomorrow they will make me a field march now ”(highest general rank).

Phenomenon 9

The mayor (about Khlestakov): “Of course, he lied (telling, he added fiction and lies).

Mayor: “Well, you are women! All of you are tricks! (trinket - trinket, trifles, nonsense).

Mayor (one). Eka, in fact, an opportunity (opportunity - here: an unpleasant incident).

The mayor (about Khlestakov): But for a long time the davicha was fastened in the tavern, he made such allegories (allegory - here: fables) and equivocations (equivok - (equivok) - ambiguity, hint)

Event 10

The mayor (to Osip) so here's a couple of tselkoviks (ruble) for tea.

Event 11

Mayor: “And you - to stand on the porch and not move. And do not let anyone into the house of a stranger (strangers, strangers), especially merchants!

Action IV

Phenomenon 1

Ammos Fedorovich (about the mayor): “God is with him: he goes to the palace, and the state council (the state council is the highest government agency in tsarist Russia, which considered issues of state administration and discussed bills) scolds!

Artemy Filippovich: “Why do we have a whole squadron here? (squadron - unit, pandemonium).

Artemy Filippovich: “Yes, Ammos Fedorovich, there is no one but you. Every word you have, Cicero (Cicero - (I century BC) - a Roman politician, famous for his eloquence) flew off the tongue.

Phenomenon 2

Khlestakov: “I love cordiality” (cordiality is a cordial, affectionate and open attitude towards people).

Phenomenon 3

Khlestakov (to Ammos Fedorovich): “Do you know what? Lend them to me (in debt, with subsequent return). I know, I spent on the road (spent, spent my money).

Phenomenon 4

Postmaster (to Khlestakov): “I have the honor to introduce myself: postmaster, court adviser (court adviser is a civil rank of the seventh class, equal to a colonel in the tsarist army)

Khlestakov (to the Postmaster): After all, it is only in the capital that there is a bonton (bonton - secular courtesy, refinement in circulation (from the French expression bon ton - good tone)) and there are no provincial geese.

Phenomenon 5

Luka Lukic (to Khlestakov): I have the honor to introduce myself: superintendent of schools, titular adviser (titular adviser - civil rank of the ninth grade) Khlopov.

Khlestakov (to Luka Lukich): Bewildered? (to be afraid, to be shy).

Phenomenon 6

Artemy Filippovich (to Khlestakov): The judge, too, in government places (presence - the room where the petitioners are received) keeps dogs and behavior of the most reprehensible (deserving of censure, condemnation).

I don’t know how the authorities could entrust him with such a position: he is worse than a Jacobin (a Jacobin was a member of the extreme left political party in the era of the French bourgeois revolution. A common name in Russia in the first half of the 19th century for freethinkers, revolutionaries).

Phenomenon 7

Dobchinsky (to Bobchinsky): “I don’t have it with me, because my money is placed in the order of public charity (the order of public charity is an institution that was in charge of hospitals, shelters, and also issued loans and accepted cash deposits for interest).

Bobchinsky (Dobchinsky): “I have only forty banknotes (banknotes are paper banknotes, the rate of which was lower than the rate of silver and gold coins. Allocate - allocate funds, money).

Bobchinsky (to Dobchinsky): “I know you have a hole in your pocket on the right side (a hole in your clothes, a torn place).

Dobchinsky (to Khlestakov): “Sorry that they made you so difficult (difficult, burdened) with your presence.

Phenomenon 9

Khlestakov (to Osip): “Tell the coachmen to roll and sing songs like courier (courier - government courier)!

Osip (behind the scenes): “Take the letter to the post office, but tell them to bring the best courier troika to the master now (the courier troika is a troika of horses for couriers who carried urgent government papers).

Osip (looking out the window) (to Khlestakov): “Some merchants want to enter, but the quarter (guard) does not allow it.

Event 10

One of the merchants to Khlestakov: “Wait (wait - here: apartment duty; accommodation by the city authorities in private civilian houses of military units or individual military personnel) completely froze, even climb into the noose.

Merchants (to Khlestakov): “That is, not to mention, what kind of delicacy, all sorts of rubbish takes, that my inmate (the inmate - in the old days that was the name of the clerk in the shop) will not eat”

Merchants: Hey! And try to contradict (object, argue), he will bring a whole regiment to you to wait.

Osip Khlestakov: “Your Excellency! (titled rank) why don't you take it?

Event 11

Locksmith (to Khlestakov): “You are welcome: I hit the mayor with my forehead! (with a forehead to beat - respectfully ask for something; Chelo is an outdated word meaning forehead. In the old days, when submitting petitions, they bowed low, that is, they “beat with their foreheads” on the ground).

“Yes, my husband was ordered to shave his forehead into soldiers (shave his forehead into soldiers - take him into soldiers; in the old days, those who were called up for military service shaved their hair on their foreheads).

Locksmith: “It was necessary to take the tailor’s son, so he joined (joined - poke around, rush) to the son of the merchant Panteleeva”

Phenomenon 13

Anna Andreevna (seeing Khlestakov on his knees). Ah, what a passage! (passage - here: a strange and unexpected case) If I'm not mistaken, you are making a declaration (proposal) about my daughter?

Event 14

Anna Andreevna (Marya Antonovna): “What kind of windiness (frivolity) is this?

Event 15

Anna Andreevna (to the Governor): “Oh, what a blockhead (stupid person, blockhead) really!

"Farewell, Your Excellency!" (Your Excellency - an appeal in tsarist Russia to persons of higher ranks, starting with a general in military service and a real state adviser - in civilian).

Action V

Phenomenon 1

Governor (to Anna Andreevna): The cavalry will be hung over your shoulder (cavalry - here: a wide sash with the highest orders, which was worn over the shoulder, its ends were fastened at the hip: red - under Stanislav and Anna 1st degree; blue - with the Order of the Empire of Andrei First-Called, - the persons of the royal house and the largest commanders, for example, Suvorov, Kutuzov, had it).

Anna Andreevna (to the Governor): I would like to have such amber in my room (ambre is a fragrance (from the French word amber).

Phenomenon 2

Mayor (to merchants): What about you? - you start out as cheats (scammers)

One of the merchants: The Evil one beguiled (an expression of regret, remorse for an unsuccessful, reprehensible, incomprehensible action, act).

Phenomenon 7

Private bailiff (Gorodnichy): “I have the honor to congratulate you and wish you prosperity (well-being) for many years!

Korobkin (to the mayor): “Next year I’ll take my son, give him your patronage (patronage in the device, in promotion, in order to get somewhere under patronage).

Phenomenon 8

Postmaster (to the mayor): “I already called for a courier (a messenger for posting business papers, an official for traveling with hasty assignments) in order to send him with a relay (relay - a distorted pronunciation of the word “relay” - urgent mail forwarding with a special horse courier "by hand" (from the French word estafette)).

The postmaster (reads): “And now I live with the mayor, zhuyu (zhuzhivat - spend time in frivolous pleasures, enjoy life (from the French word jouir).

Korobkin (continues) Judge Lyapkin - Tyapkin in the strongest degree bad manners (bauvais ton - from the French expression mauvais ton. Gogol, transferring the French expression denoting "bad taste" to an ill-mannered person who does not know how to behave in society, created a new word)

One of the ladies: “What a reprimand (reprimand - here: trouble (from the French word reprimande - lesson, reprimand) unexpected.

Korobkin's wife: “That's for sure, that's an unprecedented embarrassment! (embarrassment is correct: “embarrassment” is a scandal, an awkward situation).

Mayor: “Not only will you go to ridicule - there is a clicker (clicker - the nickname of clerks in court - hence the scribbler, liar, liar. Here: the contemptuous name of the writer), paper marak, will insert you into a comedy.

Well, what was in this heliport (a frivolous, windy person) that looked like an auditor?

The last phenomenon

Gendarme: An official who arrived by personal order (by personal order - by order (order) of the tsar) from Petersburg, an official demands you to come to him right away.

silent scene

On the left side of the mayor: Strawberries; behind him, the judge with his arms outstretched, and making a movement with his lips, as if he wanted to say: “Here you are, grandmother, and St. George's day!” (“Here you are, grandmother, and St. George’s Day” is an old folk saying. On St. George’s Day (November 26, old style), peasants could move from one landowner to another. This law was repealed in late XVI century, and the peasants were thus enslaved. This is where the saying comes from.)

III. CONCLUSION

The value of N. V. Gogol's comedy "The Government Inspector"

"Revisor" is an unsurpassed work of world drama, its true masterpiece.

Everyone who wrote about this work unanimously noted its significance.

Pisarev wrote: “The name of Gogol is dear to the Russian heart; Gogol was our first folk, exclusively Russian poet; no one understood better than him all the shades of Russian life and the Russian character, no one depicted Russian society so amazingly correctly; the best contemporary figures in our literature can be called followers of Gogol; all their works bear the stamp of his influence, the traces of which will probably remain in Russian literature for a long time to come.”

“In our country, with their laughter and applause, the public protested against the stupid and captious administration, against the predatory police of the general “bad direction,” wrote Herzen, who saw in The Inspector General “a terrible confession of modern Russia”

N. G. Chernyshevsky noted that "for a long time there was no writer in the world who would be as important for his people as Gogol for Russia."

What is its role?

The Inspector General was an outstanding event in the history of Russian literature, especially drama. Even during Gogol's lifetime, in 1846, Turgenev perspicaciously remarked that The Inspector General "showed the road along which our dramatic literature would eventually follow." And thirteen years later, Ostrovsky already had the right to testify that since Gogol this literature "has stood on the firm ground of reality and is moving along a straight road."

Belinsky called Gogol "the Columbus of Russian literature". The writers who replaced Gogol, such as Nekrasov, Chernyshevsky, Goncharov, Leskov, Saltykov-Shchedrin and many others, developed Gogol's traditions in their own way.

There is no doubt the influence that Gogol had with his "Inspector General" on the approval and development of the critical direction of dramaturgy, primarily Ostrovsky, Sukhovo-Kobylin and Saltykov-Shchedrin.

"The Inspector General" is a comedy where "Russian characters" are brought to the stage. "Our rogues" were ridiculed, but in addition, social vices and social ulcers, generated by the autocratic-feudal system, were exposed.

Bribery, embezzlement, extortion, widespread among government officials, were shown with such brightness and persuasiveness by Gogol that his "Inspector General" acquired the force of a document exposing the existing system not only of Gogol's time, but also of subsequent times.

Thus, the significance of the comedy The Inspector General was enormous in the first half of the 19th century, and it has not lost its significance even today. Comedy does not leave indifferent any reader, any spectator. The problems posed in it have worried and have worried more than one generation of readers.

Many characters have a general meaning. So, many of Khlestakov's character traits are common among the most different people(it was not for nothing that Gogol said: “Everyone, even for a minute, if not for a few minutes, has been or is being made by Khlestakov’s Word, rarely anyone has not been one at least once in his life”

The importance of comedy in our time is also great, because, after reading The Inspector General or watching a play, a person begins to think about the vices of society and his own shortcomings and tries to eradicate them. And Gogol's skill in characterization and in the field of language remains unsurpassed!

Having written the essay, I believe that I have achieved the following goals: I revealed the linguistic and literary features of Gogol's comedy and completed the following tasks: I spoke about the linguistic and compositional skills of the writer, about the speech of the characters, commented on some obsolete words and expressions with the help of literary manuals and dictionaries.

In the process of work, my interest in Gogol's work increased even more.

The time when N.V. Gogol lived and worked was marked by major social and historical events. The childhood years of the writer coincided with the defeat of Napoleon in the Patriotic War of 1812, Russia's entry into the broad international arena. The youthful years of Nikolai Gogol belong to the period when the Decembrists made plans for the revolutionary reorganization of Russia, and then openly opposed autocracy and serfdom. In the literary field, N.V. Gogol entered the time of cruel political reaction. His creative activity develops in the 30-40s

years of the 19th century, when the ruling circles of Nicholas I sought to eradicate any free-thinking, social independence.
The appearance in 1836 of the comedy The Inspector General acquired social importance not only because the author criticized and ridiculed the vices and shortcomings of Tsarist Russia, but also because with his comedy the writer called on viewers and readers to look into their souls, to think about universal values. Gogol did not share the ideas of the revolutionary reorganization of society, but he firmly believed in the purifying power of laughter, believed in the triumph of justice, which would certainly win as soon as

people are aware of the fatality of evil. So, in his play, N.V. Gogol sets himself the goal of “laughing hard” at everything that is “worthy of the ridicule of the universal”.
In the comedy The Inspector General, the author chooses a small provincial town as the scene of action, from which “if you ride for three years, you won’t reach any state.” N.V. Gogol makes city officials and “a phantasmagoric face”, Khlestakov, the heroes of the play. The genius of the author allowed him, using the example of a small island of life, to reveal those features and conflicts that characterized the social development of an entire historical era. He managed to create artistic images of a huge social and moral range. The small town in the play captured all the characteristic features of social relations of that time.
The main conflict on which the comedy is built lies in the deep contradiction between what city officials are doing and ideas about the public good, the interests of city residents. Lawlessness, embezzlement, bribery - all this is depicted in the "Inspector" not as individual vices of individual officials, but as generally recognized "norms of life", outside of which those in power cannot imagine their existence. Readers and viewers do not doubt for a minute that somewhere life goes according to other laws. All the norms of relations between people in the city of the “Inspector General” look like universal in the play. Where, for example, do officials have such confidence that an inspector who has come from St. Petersburg will agree to take part in a dinner at the mayor's, will not refuse to take obvious bribes? Yes, because they know this from the experience of their city, but is it really so different from the capital?
Gogol is occupied not only with the social vices of society, but also with its moral and spiritual state. In The Inspector General, the author painted a terrible picture of the internal disunity of people who are able to unite only for a while under the influence of a common feeling of fear for all. In life, people are led by arrogance, arrogance, servility, the desire to take a more advantageous place, to get better. People have lost the idea of ​​the true meaning of life. One can sin, it is enough just, like a mayor, to regularly attend church every Sunday. To hide the true essence of their actions, officials are also helped by a fantastic lie, which is in many ways akin to Khlestakov's. Lyapkin-Tyapkin takes bribes with greyhound puppies and calls it "a completely different matter." In the city's hospitals, people are "recovering like flies." The postmaster opens other people's letters only because "death loves to know what's new in the world."
It is no coincidence that N.V. Gogol completely alters the traditional stage plot and plot development in his play, saying that “do they not now have more electricity, money capital, a profitable marriage than love?” The true values ​​of human nature for city officials have been replaced by ideas of rank. Khlopov, the superintendent of the schools, a modest titular adviser, frankly admits that if someone of a higher rank speaks to him, he “has no soul, and his tongue is stuck in the mud.” It is the reverent fear of a “significant person” that leads to the fact that officials, who are well aware of all the emptiness and stupidity of Khlestakov, portray complete respect, and not only portray, but really experience it.
Describing his play "The Inspector General" as a public comedy, N.V. Gogol repeatedly emphasized the deep generalizing content of its images. The unpunished arbitrariness of the mayor, the dull diligence of Derzhimorda, the caustic innocence of the postmaster - all these are deep social generalizations. Each of the characters in the comedy symbolizes a certain range of human qualities, allowing the author to show how small modern man is, how much ideas of heroism and nobility remain in him. Thus, the author prepares us to understand one of the main ideas of the poem "Dead Souls", in which he will show that there is nothing more terrible than ordinary, crushing evil.
The image of Khlestakov, whom the author did not accidentally consider the main character of the work, can also be considered a huge creative success of the writer. It was Khlestakov who most fully expressed the essence of the era in which there is no normal human logic, in which a person is judged not by his spiritual qualities, but by his social position. And in order to take a high position, just a case is enough that will take you “from rags to riches”, you do not need to make any efforts, take care of the public good.
Thus, it can be argued that, having brought out generalized types of people and relations between them in comedy, N.V. Gogol was able to reflect the life of contemporary Russia in his work with great power. Inspired by the ideas of the high vocation of man, the writer spoke out against everything low, vicious and unspiritual, against the fall of social norms and human morality. The enormous social significance of the play lies in the power of its impact on the audience, who must realize that everything they see on the stage takes place around them and in real life.

The writer himself believed that the only honest face in the play is laughter. “It’s strange: I’m sorry,” Gogol wrote in Theatrical Razezd, “that no one noticed the honest face that was in my play. Yes, there was one honest, noble face that acted in it throughout its entire duration. That honest, noble face was laughter.” Remember his words from the "Author's Confession": "If you laugh, then it's better to laugh hard and at what is really worthy of universal ridicule. In The Inspector General, I decided to put together everything that was bad in Russia, which I then knew, all the injustices that are being done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required of a person, and at one time laugh at everything.
Perfectly understanding the power of satire and laughter, Gogol tried to improve the life of society with their help. He draws special attention to the artistic skill, which manifested itself in the composition of the play, the modeling of the characters of the characters and in the very problems of the work. Gogol's comedy is notable for its unusual structure. From the first words of the mayor, action is tied up,

However, the events that usually precede the plot and are associated with the exposition become known to the viewer much later - they are scattered throughout the play.
The denouement of the comedy is also unusual - at first it is difficult to determine it. At first glance, it is planned by the departure of Khlestakov: a proposal was made for the wedding of the mayor's daughter, the officials are glad that they managed to hold the auditor. But the audience knows that Khlestakov is a dummy, that the action cannot end there. Shpekin appears and tells who Khlestakov is. Everyone understands that they are fooled. The culprits were also found - Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky. Everyone is overshadowed, most of all the mayor. The action is on the decline. And suddenly - a message from the gendarme about the arrival of a real auditor. This is new in the dramaturgy of that time. As the researchers of Gogol's work note, “it is even difficult to decide what is before us - whether the denouement, or the climax, or the beginning of a new, completely different from the previous action. Most likely, both that, and another, and the third "
The well-known director V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko said: “This finale represents one of the most remarkable phenomena of stage literature. Just as with one phrase of the mayor he started the play, so with one phrase of the gendarme he unleashes it - a phrase that again makes a stunning impression due to its unexpectedness and at the same time absolute necessity". Gogol attached great importance to the finale. It is no coincidence that he described this scene in the most detailed way. There is even a drawing of her, which is attributed to the author of the comedy; Having learned from the postmaster who Khlestakov is, everyone is amazed and upset, they feel uneasy. They, such rascals, mistook the “wick” for the auditor, rewarded him, warmed him up, and even equipped him on the road like a great nobleman. But the worst of all was the new news, from which you can really be dumbfounded: a real auditor had arrived. What new things does this meeting prepare for officials, will they be able to hold on to their positions?
“In The Inspector General,” Belinsky wrote, “there are no better scenes, because there are no worse ones, but all are excellent, as necessary parts, artistically forming a single whole, rounded by internal content.”
There are two main conflicts in the play:
- internal - a clash between the mayor and the townspeople: “Merchant and citizenship confuse me.”
- external - between city officials and the auditor. “With this second conflict, the author raises the question of ways, methods of solving the main, main conflict of the play between the existing police-bureaucratic government and the population, although this conflict has almost never been staged.”
However, it should be talked about, because the writer, as noted above, did not limit his task only to laughing at the county officials. Gogol creates typical characters, which reflected the characteristic features of the people of the autocratic-serf era. The role of each, the most insignificant personality in the play is noticeable, because it carries a great semantic load. An example is the silent character Dr. Gibner. His name Christian means “merciful, compassionate”, but Gogol provides him with such a surname that removes everything connected with mercy: the doctor Gibner is far from the masses, does not spend medicines on their treatment, and therefore in the hospital people “recover like flies” , i.e., they die. It is no coincidence that the name Gibner and the word “perish” are of the same root. Or another example: a non-commissioned officer's widow who appears for a moment and utters only a few lines, but from them you can compose a biography of a person, imagine an entire era.

1. N. V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" is an attempt by the author to show the whole life of Russia, to comprehend the character of the Russian people, to determine the further paths of its development. N.V. Gogol himself said that the plot ...
2. The episode "Chichikov at Plyushkin's" is interesting from an ideological and artistic point of view. The author managed to draw living, bright pictures Chichikov's meeting with the most repulsive landowner, with "a hole in humanity." Plyushkin Chichikov Pavel Ivanovich visited the last ...
3. The poem by N. V. Gogolyam “Dead Souls” is perceived by readers primarily as a satirical work. Meanwhile, the author himself did not even consider it as such. On July 25, 1845, Gogol wrote to his good...
4. “Taras Bulba” by Gogol is a story about the heroic past of our country. In it, Gogol tells us about how courageously the Cossacks fought for their homeland and faith against the Basurmans. Action...
5. This work by N. V. Gogol combines realistic pictures of everyday life, images of folk fantasy, and historical motifs, which together paint a broad and multifaceted picture of the life of the Ukrainian people. By creating your...
6. The Inspector General belongs to those works that capture the reader and the viewer instantly and as if by surprise. Gogol wrote about his work: “I decided to collect all the bad things that I knew, and for ...
7. The time in which such a person as Taras Bulba was brought up. The story depicts events that took place in the 17th century. It was hard for Ukraine, as foreign invaders haunted the Ukrainian people,...
8. If we turn to the structure of the poem, we can see that representatives of the ruling classes are displayed in it: nobles, officials, "millionaires", etc. The people are not directly shown in the poem, not counting the servants...
9. Russia, where are you going? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer. N. V. Gogol Examining the gallery of characters drawn by Gogol in the first volume “ dead souls”, you involuntarily ask yourself the question: which of ...
10. How differently and unexpectedly the truly human, spiritual essence of Taras and Ostap is shown. Outwardly severe and adamant, it would seem, even cruel and rude, Bulba “thought about the old. He thought about...
11. The realism of The Inspector General differs from the realism of, say, Ostrovsky's Thunderstorm or Chekhov's The Seagull. As V. Bryusov rightly noted: “For Gogol, there is nothing average, ordinary, he knows only the immeasurable and infinite.” Not at all...
12. In 1852, after the death of Gogol, Nekrasov wrote a beautiful poem, which can be an epigraph to all of Gogol's work: “Feeding his chest with hatred, arming his lips with satire, he goes through a thorny path with his ...
13. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol began writing the poem in 1895 in St. Petersburg on Pushkin's insistent advice. After long wanderings around Europe, Gogol settled in Rome, where he devoted himself entirely to work on...
14. In the center of "Taras Bulba" is a heroic image of the people fighting for their freedom and independence. Never before in Russian literature has the scope and expanse of life been so fully and vividly depicted. folk life....
15. The story is a favorite genre of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. The image of the protagonist of the story "Taras Bulba" was created on the basis of the images of prominent figures of the national liberation movement of the Ukrainian people - Nalivaiko, Taras Tryasylo, Loboda, Gunya, ...
16. Work on " Dead souls” Gogol began back in 1835 on the advice of Pushkin and on the plot suggested by him. The writer himself repeatedly emphasized the grandeur and breadth of his plan: “... what a huge, what ...
“The life and customs of provincial Russia” based on one or several works by Gogol How many good people we have, but how many weeds there are, from which there is no life for the good. To their stage!...
17. The great writer N.V. Gogol owns a huge number of works, including the Night before Christmas. Fantasy and humor are intertwined in it and make the reader smile. The beginning of the work is meanness that ...

Composition Gogol N.V. - Auditor

Topic: - The social significance of N.V. Gogol's comedy "The Government Inspector"

The time when N.V. Gogol lived and worked was marked by major social and historical events.
The childhood years of the writer coincided with the defeat of Napoleon in the Patriotic War of 1812, Russia's entry into the broad international arena. The youthful years of Nikolai Gogol belong to the period when the Decembrists made plans for the revolutionary reorganization of Russia, and then openly opposed autocracy and serfdom. In the literary field, N.V. Gogol entered the time of cruel political reaction. His creative activity develops in the 30-40s of the 19th century, when the ruling circles of Nicholas I sought to eradicate any free-thinking, social independence.
The appearance in 1836 of the comedy "The Inspector General" acquired social importance not only because the author criticized and ridiculed the vices and shortcomings of tsarist Russia, but also because with his comedy the writer called on viewers and readers to look into their souls, to think about universal values. Gogol did not share the ideas of the revolutionary reorganization of society, but he firmly believed in the purifying power of laughter, believed in the triumph of justice, which will certainly win as soon as people realize the whole fatality of evil. So, in his play, N.V. Gogol sets himself the goal of “laughing hard” at everything that is “worthy of ridicule of the general”.
In the comedy The Inspector General, the author chooses a small provincial town as the scene of action, from which “if you ride for three years, you won’t reach any state.” N.V. Gogol makes city officials and “a phantasmagoric face”, Khlestakov, the heroes of the play. The genius of the author allowed him, using the example of a small island of life, to reveal those features and conflicts that characterized the social development of an entire historical era. He managed to create artistic images of a huge social and moral range. The small town in the play captured all the characteristic features of the social relations of that time. The main conflict on which the comedy is built lies in the deep contradiction between what city officials are doing and ideas about the public good, the interests of the city's residents. Lawlessness, embezzlement, bribery - all this is depicted in the "Inspector" not as individual vices of individual officials, but as generally recognized "norms of life", outside of which those in power cannot imagine their existence. Readers and viewers do not doubt for a minute that somewhere life goes according to other laws. All the norms of relations “between people in the city of the “Inspector” look like universal in the play. How, for example, do officials have such confidence that the auditor who came from St. that they know this from the experience of their city, but is it really so different from the capital?
Gogol is occupied not only with the social vices of society, but also with its moral and spiritual state. In The Inspector General, the author painted a terrible picture of the internal disunity of people who are able to unite only for a while under the influence of a common feeling of fear for all. In life, people are led by arrogance, arrogance, servility, the desire to take a more advantageous place, to get better. People have lost the idea of ​​the true meaning of life. One can sin, it is enough just, like a mayor, to regularly attend church every Sunday. To hide the true essence of their actions, officials are also helped by a fantastic lie, which is in many ways akin to Khlestakov's. Lyapkin-Tyapkin takes bribes with greyhound puppies and calls it "a completely different matter." In the city's hospitals, people are "recovering like flies." The postmaster opens other people's letters only because "death loves to know what's new in the world."
It is no coincidence that N.V. Gogol completely alters the traditional stage plot and plot development in his play, saying that “do they now have more electricity, money capital, a profitable marriage than love?”. The true values ​​of human nature for city officials have been replaced by ideas of rank. Khlopov, the superintendent of the schools, a modest titular adviser, frankly admits that if someone of a higher rank speaks to him, he “has no soul, and his tongue is stuck in the mud.” It is the reverent fear of a “significant person” that leads to the fact that officials, who are well aware of all the emptiness and stupidity of Khlestakov, portray complete respect, and not only portray, but really experience it.
Describing his play "The Inspector General" as a public comedy, N.V. Gogol repeatedly emphasized the deep generalizing content of its images. The unpunished arbitrariness of the mayor, the dull diligence of Derzhimorda, the caustic innocence of the postmaster - all these are deep social generalizations. Each of the characters in the comedy symbolizes a certain range of human qualities, allowing the author to show how small modern man is, how much ideas of heroism and nobility remain in him.
The image of Khlestakov, whom the author did not accidentally consider the main character of the work, can also be considered a huge creative success of the writer. It was Khlestakov who most fully expressed the essence of the era in which there is no normal human logic, in which a person is judged not by his spiritual qualities, but by his social position. And in order to take a high position, just a case is enough that will take you “from rags to riches”, you do not need to make any efforts, take care of the public good.
Thus, it can be argued that, having brought out generalized types of people and relations between them in a comedy, N.V. Gogol was able to reflect the life of contemporary Russia in his work with great power. Inspired by the ideas of the high vocation of man, the writer spoke out against everything low, vicious and unspiritual, against the fall of social norms and human morality. The enormous social significance of the play lies in the power of its impact on the audience, who must realize that everything they see on the stage takes place around them and in real life.