The people in Gogol's poem "Dead Souls"

Russia in Gogol's time was ruled by landowners and officials like the heroes of Dead Souls. It is clear in what position the people, the serfs, should have been.
Following Chichikov on his journey from one landowner's estate to another, we observe a bleak picture of the life of the serfs: their lot is poverty, disease, hunger, terrible mortality. The landowners treat the peasants as if they were their slaves: they sell them one by one, without families; manage them like things. “Perhaps I’ll give you a girl,” Korobochka says to Chichikov, “she knows the way with me, just look! Don’t bring it, the merchants have already brought one from me.”
In the seventh chapter, Chichikov reflects on the list of peasants he bought. And before us is revealed a picture of the life and hard work of the people, their patience and courage, violent outbursts of protest. Particularly attractive are the images of Stepan Cork, endowed with heroic strength, a wonderful carpenter-builder, and Uncle Mikhey, who resignedly replaced the murdered Stepan in his dangerous work.
The desire for freedom lives in the soul of the enslaved peasantry. When the peasants are no longer able to endure serfdom, they run away from the landowners. True, flight did not always lead to freedom. Gogol tells the ordinary life of a fugitive: life without a passport, without work, almost always arrest, prison. But the courtyard Plyushkina Popov still preferred life in prisons to returning under the yoke of his master. Abakum Fyrov, fleeing from serfdom, went to barge haulers.
Gogol also speaks of cases of mass indignation. ‘In the episode of the murder of assessor Drobyazhkin, the struggle of the serfs against their oppressors is shown.
The great realist writer Gogol figuratively speaks of the downtroddenness of the people: “The police captain, even if he doesn’t go himself, but send only one cap to his place, then this one cap will drive the peasants to their very place of residence.”
In a country where peasants were ruled by cruel and ignorant boxes, nostrils and sobakevichs, it was not surprising to meet both the stupid Uncle Mitya and Uncle Minya, and the yard Pelageya, who did not know where the right and where the left side was.
But Gogol sees at the same time the mighty strength of the people, crushed but not killed by serfdom. It manifests itself in the talent of Mikheev, Stepan Probka, Milushkin, in the diligence and energy of the Russian person, in his ability not to lose heart under any circumstances. “A Russian person is capable of everything and gets used to any climate. Send him even to Kamchatka, but give only warm mittens, he will clap his hands, an ax in his hands, and went to cut himself a new hut, ”the officials say, discussing the resettlement of Chichikov’s peasants in the Kherson province. Gogol also speaks of the high qualities of the Russian person in his remarks about the “brisk people”, about the “quick Yaroslavl peasant”, about the remarkable ability of the Russian people to accurately characterize a person in one word.
Thus, depicting feudal-feudal Russia, Gogol showed not only landowner-bureaucratic Russia, but also people's Russia, with its staunch and freedom-loving people. He expressed his faith in the living, creative forces of the working masses. A vivid image of the Russian people is given by the writer in his famous likening of Russia to a “troika bird”, personifying the essence of the national Russian character.

(347 words) The main place in the work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is given to the theme of the people. During the life of the author, Russia was ruled by landowners and officials, who were like the heroes of the work "Dead Souls". Therefore, the writer depicted the bleak scenes of the survival of serfs. Noble landowners mercilessly use their labor, sometimes treating them like slaves: they buy and sell like their property, sometimes separating them from the family.

Watching the scam of the protagonist of the poem, Chichikov, it immediately becomes clear in what a sad state the Russian peasantry is arriving. The estates of the landowners are replaced one after another, but the general picture of the sad state of the serfs is the same: a low standard of living, a terrifying percentage of deaths, advanced stages of disease, a constant lack of food and all-consuming poverty. Someone, like Manilov, simply does not care about the condition of people, letting their lives take their course. Someone, like Sobakevich, keeps them in a tight leash, making capital. Someone, like Korobochka, keeps everything in perfect order, but does not understand the needs and aspirations of the peasant, using him only as draft animals. Someone like Nozdryov mindlessly swindles and squanders all the results of peasant labor overnight. And someone like Plyushkin brings his faithful servants to starvation with his greed.

However, in the soul of the serf people there is a thirst for freedom. When captivity becomes an unbearable burden, they run away from their "slave owners". Only now, flight rarely ends in liberation. Nikolai Vasilievich reveals the typical life of a fugitive: without a job, without a passport, in most cases in prison. Although Popov, who worked as a courtyard for Plyushkin, chose prison instead of working for his master, such a choice can be characterized as throwing between two evils, of which the lesser is chosen.

The country under the rule of rude and ruthless masters gave rise to uneducated uncle Minya and the courtyard Pelageya, who did not understand which side was right and which was left. However, before us opens the power of the Russian people, infringed, but not torn to pieces by serfdom. It is all in such people as the brave Stepan Probka, the gifted Mikheev, and simply in the hard-working and energetic Russian people who do not lose heart in any, even the most difficult situations.

In the image of feudal-serf Russia, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol revealed Russia not only as a landowner-bureaucratic, but also a people's country, with its gifted and strong population. He showed his confidence in the bright future of the motherland, if its support - the peasantry - rises from its knees.

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Russia in Gogol's time was ruled by landowners and officials like the heroes of Dead Souls. It is clear in what position the people, the serfs, should have been.
Following Chichikov on his journey from one landowner's estate to another, we observe a bleak picture of the life of the serfs: their lot is poverty, disease, hunger, terrible mortality. The landowners treat the peasants as if they were their slaves: they sell them one by one, without families; manage them like things. “Perhaps I’ll give you a girl,” Korobochka says to Chichikov, “she knows the way with me, just look! Don’t bring it, the merchants have already brought one from me.”
In the seventh chapter, Chichikov reflects on the list of peasants he bought. And before us is revealed a picture of the life and hard work of the people, their patience and courage, violent outbursts of protest. Particularly attractive are the images of Stepan Cork, endowed with heroic strength, a wonderful carpenter-builder, and Uncle Mikhey, who resignedly replaced the murdered Stepan in his dangerous work.
The desire for freedom lives in the soul of the enslaved peasantry. When the peasants are no longer able to endure serfdom, they run away from the landowners. True, flight did not always lead to freedom. Gogol tells the ordinary life of a fugitive: life without a passport, without work, almost always arrest, prison. But the courtyard Plyushkina Popov still preferred life in prisons to returning under the yoke of his master. Abakum Fyrov, fleeing from serfdom, went to barge haulers.
Gogol also speaks of cases of mass indignation. In the episode of the assassination of the assessor Drobyazhkin, the struggle of the serfs against their oppressors is shown.
The great realist writer Gogol figuratively speaks of the downtroddenness of the people: “The police captain, even if he doesn’t go himself, but send only one cap to his place, then this one cap will drive the peasants to their very place of residence.”
In a country where peasants were ruled by cruel and ignorant boxes, nostrils and sobakevichs, it was not surprising to meet both the stupid Uncle Mitya and Uncle Minya, and the yard Pelageya, who did not know where the right and where the left side was.
But Gogol sees at the same time the mighty strength of the people, crushed but not killed by serfdom. It manifests itself in the talent of Mikheev, Stepan Probka, Milushkin, in the diligence and energy of the Russian person, in his ability not to lose heart under any circumstances. “A Russian person is capable of everything and gets used to any climate. Send him even to Kamchatka, but give only warm mittens, he will clap his hands, an ax in his hands, and went to cut himself a new hut, ”the officials say, discussing the resettlement of Chichikov’s peasants in the Kherson province. Gogol also speaks of the high qualities of the Russian person in his remarks about the “brisk people”, about the “quick Yaroslavl peasant”, about the remarkable ability of the Russian people to accurately characterize a person in one word.
Thus, depicting feudal-feudal Russia, Gogol showed not only landowner-bureaucratic Russia, but also people's Russia, with its staunch and freedom-loving people. He expressed his faith in the living, creative forces of the working masses. A vivid image of the Russian people is given by the writer in his famous likening of Russia to a “troika bird”, personifying the essence of the national Russian character.

The writing

In the poem "Dead Souls" Gogol wanted to show "all Russia". In it, the writer recreates various types of Russian landowners idly living in their noble estates, paints with satirical colors images of officials, bribe-takers and thieves who have concentrated state power in their hands. The author also introduces a new person here - a nascent bourgeois, a businessman, an acquirer, and he defines all these heroes as "dead souls." But behind the "dead souls" are living souls. This is the Russian people, with whom the writer linked his hopes for a better future for Russia. Therefore, Gogol's poem ends with the symbolic image of a troika bird. It contains the result of many years of Gogol's reflections on the fate of Russia, the present and future of its people. After all, it is the people who oppose the world of officials, landowners, businessmen, as a living soul - a dead one.

Why does the thought of the Russian people fill the writer's soul with joy, why does caustic, angry satire give way to high pathos? Probably because the writer saw in the dark and downtrodden Russian people immense forces, huge potentialities. This means that the main idea of ​​the poem is in the rapid run of Russia forward, in the movement towards a happy future for the Russian people. Despite the dominance in the era of Gogol "dead souls" over the living, he sees Russia's unstoppable movement for the better.

Who is driving her? Against the backdrop of the dead-heartedness of manila, boxes, plushkins, the lively and lively Russian mind, the people's prowess, the wide scope of the soul, stand out especially in relief. It is these qualities, according to Gogol, that are the basis of the national Russian character. And they were embodied in the images of the heroes Stepan Cork, Abakum Fyrov. Moreover, the failed landowner Chichikov, who acquired him as a "dead soul", reflects on Stepan and his possible fate. But this Russian bogatyr, "who would have been fit for the guard," appears more alive than living people with dead souls. These peasants, dead or crushed by feudal oppression, are industrious and talented. The glory of the wonderful carriage maker Mikheev is alive in the memory of people even after his death. Even Sobakevich, with involuntary respect, says that that glorious master should only work for the sovereign.

In the mean, laconic lines of the poem, the crippled fates of people from the people stand before us. The miraculous shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, who wanted to get his own house and a shop, is getting drunk. But, having paid the master a decent quitrent, this talented craftsman was deceived by the supplier of rotten leather. Senseless and absurd is the death of Gregory Go-you-don't-go, who, out of anguish, turned into a tavern, and then straight into the hole. Bitter and humiliating is the fate of Plyushkin's runaway serfs, who are doomed to hide from the police all their lives. They have little choice: to sit in prison or stick with other masters and work for them. A literate yard man, Popov, roaming about without a passport, is constantly subjected to interrogations and humiliations, and he himself bitterly mocks his fate. The image of Abakum Fyrov, who fell in love with a free life, sticking to barge haulers, is remembered in the poem. After all, the hardest hard labor of the barge gang sometimes ended with a noisy and cheerful festive festivities with songs and round dances. It is here that the national prowess, the scope of the Russian soul, is manifested in full breadth.

But the writer sees that these wonderful qualities of the people are crushed and mutilated by serfdom, the power of dead-hearted landowners and officials. Therefore, Gogol does not idealize the Russian peasantry. His flagrant ignorance, the narrowness of the spiritual world, for example, are evidenced by the images of the stupid Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minya, who can’t breed horses entangled in traces, or the image of a yard girl Pelageya, who “does not know where the right is, where the left is.” Humorously, the author describes at the beginning of the poem a thoughtful conversation between two men, arguing about whether the wheel will reach Moscow or Kazan. The striving for mental activity turns into stupid idle talk, because the life of the peasants is so meager and insignificant that it does not give them sufficient material for reflection. Causes laughter and "noble motivation for enlightenment" serf servant Chichikov Petrushka, because he is attracted not by the content of books, but by the process of reading. Gogol writes that it was all the same to him what to read: the adventures of a hero in love, a primer, a prayer book or chemistry. These episodes are a clear indication of the underdevelopment and squalor of the spiritual world of a significant part of the yard serfs. The same is evidenced by the image of the coachman Selifan, who, drunk, makes lengthy speeches addressed to horses.

Ignorance, darkness, drunkenness, downtroddenness - these are the features of the Russian people that have been formed in it thanks to centuries of serfdom. This means that the autocratic-feudal system of Russia not only hindered the economic development of the country, but also criminally ruined the soul of the Russian people. In the poem one can hear the protest of the peasantry against their tormentors and oppressors - the landowners and officials. For example, it is expressed in the revolt of the peasants of the village of Vshivaya Spes and the village of Borovka, who razed the zemstvo police in the person of the assessor Drobyazhkin. The same protest sounds in the popular word, in well-aimed proverbs and sayings. For example, when Chichikov asked a peasant he met about Plyushkin, he awarded this gentleman with the devastatingly accurate nickname "patched". Gogol writes: "The Russian people express themselves strongly, and if they reward someone with a word, then it will go to their family and offspring, he will drag him with him to the service, and to retirement, and to St. Petersburg, and to the ends of the world." The writer is convinced that no nation has such a bold and lively well-aimed word. The majestic, boundless expanses of Russia and the bitter fate of its people suggest the possibility and necessity of fundamental changes in the country, since "a remote, full of strength nationality" is incompatible with a beggarly situation, stupefying bondage, the domination of "dead souls".

The topic that the author raises expands from page to page. Buying dead souls becomes a description of the life of the peasantry. The people in the poem "Dead Souls" rise with their diversity, talent, kindness and insane desire to live.

Feature of the Russian character

The classic lovingly describes the characters from the people. A Russian person is not afraid of a difficult climate, severe frosts. He is not afraid of Kamchatka. A man will sew mittens for himself, if he gets cold, he will clap his hands. With one ax he will cut down a hut for himself, which will stand for more than one century. The people, under the pen of the author, come out with a surprisingly beautiful image:

• charming face of the Madonna;
• rounded oval of the cheeks;
• wide size.

In Russia, everything is wide and spacious: fields, mountains, forests. The writer puts his face, lips and legs on the same line with them. The widest part of the people is its soul.

Russian word

Gogol loves Russian speech. He favors French words and expressions, but a man's weighty biting word is often brighter than foreign phrases. There is no alien language in the poem, everything is native to the people.

The names of the characters are interesting. Somewhere they look grotesque, someone can laugh at them, but in them the ability of the people to grab the most weighty and alive from the environment.

• Zavalishin - the desire to fall on its side;
• Polezhaev - love of relaxation;
• Sopikov - quiet sniffing through the nose during sleep;
• Khrapovitsky - a dead dream with "snores", a whistling nose.

Gogol points out the words that work "miracles on a Russian person." One of those words is forward. Russian appeals raise uprisings, sink deep into the soul. The Russian word makes me shudder. In a word, the Russian people can characterize an entire estate.

The mighty power of the Russian peasant

Chichikov, through the mouth of Gogol, talks about the people, studying the list of peasants bought by him. There are no living ones in the list, but the author presents everyone in such a way that their image rises before the reader. Moreover, it is easier to see the dead than the landowners, blurred from the abundance of food or dried up from greed. Gogol shows the hardships of the life of the common people. Serf bondage, humiliation lead to escapes. Freedom is not given to everyone. Most fall into even greater bondage. It is surprising that the desire to be free in men does not die. The peasants are fighting for their rights - the murder of Drobyazhkin. Gogol emphasizes one feature - glibness. It is in everything - in movements, in mind, in talent.

Labor and people

Beautiful palaces, multi-window halls, painted walls hide the work of talented craftsmen from the people. The craftsmen create masterpieces from stone blocks. Formless and dead, they come to life under the master's axe. The reader sees how the creation of the people perishes. Manilov's ponds are overgrown, Nozdryov's kennels are emptying, Plyushkin's rooms are covered with dust. The daring nature seems to highlight the wretchedness of the dying estates. Against the backdrop of amazing landscapes, the eyes of men from the list of audit souls shine. They are no more, but the memory and deeds are alive.

A storehouse of intelligence and cunning

The people in the poem are not just hardworking, they are wise and cunning. Gogol admires the Russian man, but confesses his vices. What amazing features the writer emphasizes:

• the ability to communicate: the shades of the conversation, incomprehensible to foreigners, will depend on the number of souls of the person they are talking to;
• decisiveness: will not go into reasoning when it is necessary to act;
• unwillingness to confess guilt;
• the ability to envy the necessary acquaintances.

Even the negative qualities of character distinguish the Russian from others.

The concept of the people in the work becomes so broad that it is difficult to cover it. It will not work to write an essay “The people in the poem“ Dead Souls ”if you are based on one social stratum. The people are peasants, landowners, officials, everyone whom the writer tried to portray.

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