Deadening of the soul. The problem of the necrosis of the human soul

8. What is the plot and compositional role of this episode in N.V. Gogol's poem?

The role of this episode in the work of N.V. Gogol is very important, it relates to the development of the plot. For Chichikov, Korobochka is the second person from whom he buys dead souls.

In this episode, we observe the conversation between Chichikov and Korobochka. Also, the image of the Box is revealed. We learn that she is "one of those mothers, small landowners who cry for crop failures, losses, and meanwhile gain a little money in colorful bags, mixed in drawers of chests of drawers."

She is thrifty, distrustful, "club-headed" and stubborn. All her interests are focused on the economy. Even when Chichikov offers to buy dead souls from her, she is afraid of "cheapening."

Thus, we can say that this episode plays a big role. In it, we get acquainted with one of the types of landowners.

9. What other works of Russian literature depict the process of “mortification of the soul” and in what way, in your opinion, do they correlate with “Dead Souls”?

Many writers, such as Gogol, Chekhov, Goncharov, touched upon the problem of the “mortification of souls”.

So, in Chekhov's work "Ionych", we observe the spiritual degradation of a person. At the beginning of the story, Startsev-young educated person. He works a lot in the hospital, walks, condemns those people who simply exist without a purpose in life. But after a while, "Startsev's heart stopped beating." He descends to the level of those people whom he condemned. He became obese, became irritable, played vint every evening with pleasure" and "loved to take out of his pockets pieces of paper obtained by practice." So in Gogol's poem "Dead Souls", we observe the degradation of the landowners. An example is Korobochka, a distrustful, greedy, stingy woman. She, like Ionych, only cares about money.

Also, in the work of I.A. Gonchorov "Oblomov", we see main character Oblomov, who lives aimlessly. He is broken by life, any attempts to resurrect it fail. Oblomov himself does not want to change. He is somewhat similar to the hero of Gogol's work, Plyushkin. Even the objects surrounding Plyushkin bear the imprint of decay and decay.

Thus, the problem of "mortification of the soul" was touched upon by many writers.

Updated: 2018-10-10

Attention!
If you notice an error or typo, highlight the text and press Ctrl+Enter.
Thus, you will provide invaluable benefit to the project and other readers.

Thank you for your attention.

Useful material on the topic

What is the plot-compositional role of this episode in N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls" What other works of Russian literature depict the process of “mortification of the soul” and in what way do you think they correlate with Dead Souls?

On the topic "The problem of necrosis human soul in the works of Russian writers of the 19th century" can be exemplified by the poem by N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls", the novel by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, stories by A.P. Chekhov, among which this topic is most fully revealed in the story "Ionych". We offer you a detailed statement on " Dead souls» N.V. Gogol, which can be the basis of your essay.

Dead and living souls in N.V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls"

Gogol himself defined his art world like this: “And for a long time it was determined for me by a wonderful power to go hand in hand with my strange heroes, to look around at the whole enormously rushing life, look at it through laughter visible to the world and invisible, unknown to it tears.”

Indeed, strange characters in the poem. If N.V. Gogol points in the title to the existence of "dead souls", which means that there are living ones in the work ...

Who is who? Who can be called truly dead and who truly alive? The question is not idle. Especially if we take into account that the poem "Dead Souls" is perceived by Gogol not just as piece of art, but as a book of life, almost a new Gospel, which should change both Russia, and humanity, and himself!

The phrase "dead souls" is ambiguous (there is a lot of readers' guesses, scientific disputes and studies).

The origins of the name are seen in the Gospel - in the thought of the Apostle Paul about eternal life in Christ. (And rightly so).

The researchers found the phrase "dead soul" and on the pages contemporary Gogol literature in the meanings: "the soul of a great sinner, a devastated soul, incapable of love, devoid of hope ...". It is difficult to disagree with such a definition.

There is a direct and obvious meaning arising from the history of the work itself. Since the time of Peter the Great, revisions (checks) of the number of serfs were carried out in Russia every 12-18 years, since the landowner was obliged to pay the government a "capitation" tax for male peasants (for each male soul - the "soul" of the breadwinner of the family). As a result of the revision, revision "tales" (lists) were compiled. If in the period from revision to revision a peasant died, he was still listed on the lists and the landowner paid tax for him - until the lists were compiled.

These are the dead, but considered alive, the swindler-dealer Chichikov decided to buy them on the cheap.

What was the benefit here?

It turns out that the peasants could be pledged to the board of trustees (in the bank), i.e. get money for every dead soul.

So, it is obvious that the “dead soul” is a peasant who has died, but exists in a paper, bureaucratic “guise”, and has become the subject of speculation.

But everything is not so simple in the plot of the poem! In fact, the dead come to life before our eyes and look more alive than others. actors. An interesting observation? Of course! Depicted more or less completely on the pages of the poem, landowners, officials, their wives, innkeepers?! What kind of souls are they? By their appearance, by their extraordinary mobility, they are quite alive. But in fact?

One after another, each spiritually more insignificant than the previous one, the owners of the estates follow in the work: Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich, Plyushkin. Typical Russian landowners.

Manilov is a "knight of the void", a non-objective dreamer, cut off from real life. Sentimental to the point of cloying. For Manilov, everyone around is beautiful. He does not show concern for his serfs, entrusted everything to the clerk, who ruins both the peasants and the landowner himself. He does not know how many peasants have died. There are many flaws in the estate. Everywhere only a claim to sophistication. Why is there an inscription on the gazebo - "Temple of solitary reflection." A book has been lying in the office for two years, opened to page 14. On the windowsill in beautiful rows - ashes from a smoking pipe. Chichikov quickly manages to convince Manilov of the legitimacy of the "gegotion" (deal). "The law... I am dumb before the law." To please the unexpected dear friend”, Chichikov, he not only gives dead souls, but also takes over the design of the bill of sale. And in the city, he solemnly hands the “future Kherson landowner” papers rolled into a tube and tied with a pink ribbon.

The box, which Chichikov happened to have by chance, is a different kind of landowner. Surname "speaking". She has a "good village" and "abundant farming". She doesn't care about anything other than profit. During the auction, she brought Chichikov to exhaustion: she was afraid to sell too cheap. After all, she never sold such a product. And I did not feel fear of sin! Chichikov calls "clubhead". The landowner turned out to be a strong breaker.

After the departure of an unexpected guest, she went to the city to find out at what price the “goods” go. Not a glimpse of the mind, soul, heart! .. In a word - a hoarder.

Nozdryov is a "scandal knight", a lover of revelry, card games. At 35, the same as at 18. Lack of development is a sign of the inanimate. He is a "historical man": "wherever he was, everywhere he could not do without history." Reveled, changed, liar, scammer. Dog lover. Gogol gives a deadly detail, characterizing the landowner. "Nozdryov was among<собак>just like a father among the family ”... he had one passion - to spoil his neighbor. After an offer to sell dead souls, he began to blackmail Chichikov. He was saved by an accident: the captain - police officer came to arrest Nozdryov. The cheerful dirty trickster once again "suffered" for robbery.

The landowner Sobakevich had everything gigantic in size: a house, peasant huts, furniture. Yes, and he himself looked like a medium-sized bear: he wore a brown frock coat and constantly stepped on other people's feet. And his name was Mikhail Semyonovich. He calls all officials and landowners swindlers. He performs his "feats" only at the dinner table. “When I have pork - put the whole pig on the table, lamb - drag the whole ram, goose - just the goose!” Chichikov's request for the sale of dead souls did not cause him either surprise or fear. He instantly assessed the situation and said: stu a piece!" And he bargained with Chichikov for a long time. He paid the highest price to Sobakevich - two and a half. And in the Board of Trustees, he could receive 200 rubles for each “soul”, i.e. 80 times more. He squeezed money out of Chichikov for the dead, as for the living. "Fist" and "beast" calls the landowner Chichikov.

In the dictionary of V.I. Dalia, the word "fist" is a miser, a deceitful merchant, a tight-fisted businessman. Gogol emphasizes his "lifeless", "wooden" essence. “... It seemed that there was no soul in this topic at all, or he had one, but not at all where it should be.” The meaning of Sobakevich's life is profit.

There is a commandment in the Gospel that Jesus called the main one. It is simple: love for God is alive only in love for man. The word "love" is not applicable to Sobakevich.

The gallery of landowners ends with the image of Plyushkin. The owner of a huge estate. He has over 1000 fortress souls. The estate is an “extinct place”, decay, dust. Only a garden that does not yield to the will of the “knight of stinginess” reminds of life here. A killer detail: on Plyushkin's desk is "a clock with a stopped pendulum, in which a spider has fitted ... a cobweb." (Time has stopped here). Plyushkin does not eat, does not drink, in constant worries: is it easy to rot from year to year such an abyss of goodness. He keeps his serfs starving, so they die like flies (to the delight of Chichikov!). and many have gone on the run. It should be said that in his youth he was only a thrifty master. After the death of his wife, he gradually turned into a miser, broke with his own children, did not show mercy, did not give anything from the inheritance! This is the limit of human fall! A lyrical digression sounds like a hot warning in this chapter: “And a person could descend to such insignificance, pettiness! could change like that… “Take it with you on the road, leaving the soft youthful years in severe hardening courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, you will not pick them up later.

By all definitions, “not revisionists are dead souls, but all these Nozdryovs, Manilovs and the like are dead souls, and we meet them at every step. I fully agree with the opinion of A.I. Herzen.

Dead souls and mercenary officials led by the governor, who likes to embroider on tulle, his subordinates, bribe-takers and embezzlers. Gogol writes sarcastically about the prosecutor who, without looking, signed papers for "the right people."

And only when he died (And death came from fright caused by rumors about Chichikov), people found out that he definitely had a soul. Before that, the soul was not noticed in him.

“The “Kherson landowner” himself, who bought dead souls goes. (Why not buy the dead when they sell the living too.) - a dead soul, "knight of a penny." His life is the pursuit of a golden mirage. He became worthy son his father, who bequeathed to value a penny above friendship and love.

In the poem, not only the denial of the Russia of the Sobakeviches and the Plyushkins, but also the affirmation of the Russia of the Russian people. Per scary world landlords and officials Gogol saw living Russia. Not without flaws and vices.

And the most interesting thing is that the dead revision souls turn out to be truly alive.

“Here is the coachman Mikheev! after all, he didn’t make any more crews, as soon as spring ones. And it’s not like Moscow work happens, which is for one hour, - such strength, it will beat itself and cover it with varnish. ”

“And Cork Stepan, the carpenter? After all, what a force it was! Serve him in the guards, God knows what they gave him, three arshins with a verst in height!

Milushkin, bricklayer! could put a stove in any house.

“Maxim Telyatnikov, shoemaker: what pricks with an awl, then boots, that boots, then thanks” ...

The image of the Russian people, their suffering soul runs through the entire poem. The breadth of the soul, sincere kindness, heroic prowess, sensitivity to a striking apt word, a wide expanse song - this is the true soul of a Russian person. folk soul- This is a trinity bird that knows no barriers.

But that's not all.

N.V. Gogol believed that any person who has fallen and sinful can and should be reborn to a worthy life, realizing his spiritual fall. It is no coincidence that he wrote in a note relating to last days his life: Be not dead souls, but living ones ... "

A.L. Murzina, honored teacher of Kaz. SSR, teacher-methodologist of NP secondary school "Lyceum "Capital"

Many Russian writers were painfully aware of the fact that their contemporary reality gave rise to “new” people who were very far from the ideal that they presented. At various times, N. V. Gogol, G. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A. P. Chekhov expressed an open accusation of life. In their works of genius, they with magnificent sharpness exposed the pernicious, corrupting influence of property on the human character, showed the inevitability of the moral and physical destruction of a person's personality, which neglects the laws of morality. The pinnacle of N.V. Gogol's work is the poem "Dead Souls" - one of the outstanding works of world literature, according to Belinsky's definition, "an education snatched from the hiding place of people's life."

In the poem, Gogol again refers to one of his main themes - the theme of Russian landownership. The picture of the wild, grossly ignorant, stupid, senseless landlord kingdom, the picture of the deep decomposition of Nikolaev Russia is drawn by Gogol with amazing truth in life, with great fullness and power of artistic and realistic embodiment. The gallery of characters created by Gogol vividly demonstrates the gradual and ever deeper necrosis of man. From Manilov to Plyushkin, a frightening picture of the gradual extinction of everything human in man opens up before us.

The provincial city of NN is no better either. which Gogol himself called "a world that cannot be destroyed." But Chichikov occupies a special place among the characters of the work. In it, rather peculiarly, one-sidedly, in its negative aspects, in specific bourgeois adventurism, new development trends appeared. Russian life. It is not for nothing that N.V. Gogol not only calls this new hero of Russian reality “master”, “acquirer”. The writer branded him with the name “scoundrel”, Chichikov subtly traces the new character of a predator-acquirer, who has developed the ability to cunningly adapt to people and circumstances, that he has learned to subordinate moral principles to material interests

Angrily condemning the feudal nobility, N.V. Gogol, in the image of Chichikov, denounced bourgeois predation. It was he who vulgarized the image of a romantic robber, Napoleon, a knight, because he becomes a “knight of a penny”. The most terrible Evil Gogol calls people of this type

From chapter to chapter M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin draws pictures of tyranny, moral mutilations, savagery, deaths following one after another, an ever greater immersion of Golovlevism into twilight. And on the last page: night, not the slightest rustle in the house, a wet March blizzard outside, roads - the dead body of Golovlev's Bishop Iudushka, "the last representative of an escheat family." Porfiry Golovlev, nicknamed in the family since childhood Judas, is the protagonist of the novel. The traits of heartless self-interest developed in Judas to the utmost expression

His moral lignification was so great that, without the slightest shudder, he doomed to death in turn each of his sons - Vladimir, Peter and illegitimate son Volodya. In the category of human predators, Judas represents the most disgusting species, being a hypocritical predator. His predatory desires are always deeply hidden, masked by sweet idle talk and an expression of external devotion and respect for those whom he has designated as his next victim. This complete personification of insignificance keeps others in fear, dominates them, defeats them and brings them death.

Insignificance acquires the meaning of a terrible, oppressive force, and this happens because it is based on feudal morality, law and religion. Judas' violation of all the norms of humanity brought him retribution and inevitably led to an ever greater destruction of his personality. In his degradation, he went through three stages of moral decay: a binge of idle talk, a binge of marno-thinking and a drunken binge that ended the shameful existence of a “blood drinker”.

The image of Judas Golovlev is a symbol of the social and moral decay of the nobility. A.P. Chekhov's short story “Ionych” continues and deepens the theme of internal rebirth, the vulgarization of an intellectual in a philistine environment, which sucks, which destroys a person. Chekhov proves that a smart, educated person can become vulgar, morally extinguished not only if there is no work, work, goal in his life, but also if this work, this work is aimed at achieving a base goal - personal enrichment. Chekhov shows how the atmosphere of Russian life drowns out everything that is morally good and healthy in a person. The trouble and at the same time the fault of Startsev, the future Ionych, was that he ceased to resist internally, turned out to be too susceptible and pliable to the surrounding vulgarity

Along with the impoverishment of Startsev's soul, all connections with beauty, music, and nature disappear. His favorite pastime is transferring money in the evenings. He is indifferent to everyone around him and to himself. At the end of the short story, we have before us a real covetous man, whom “greed has overcome”. Before us is a doctor who has lost his main quality - philanthropy

In the end, life turns mercilessly for Ionych himself. Yes, he is rich, he “has an estate and two houses in the city,” but he is lonely, “he lives a boring life, nothing all so ch. ru 2001 2005 does not interest him.” And most importantly, he loses his memory of the past, forgets his love, which "was his only joy and, probably, his last." Ionych renounced his culture, intelligence, his work and his love. Before us is a mercilessly strict story about a man who stopped resisting environment and ceased to be human

So best writers critical realism, whose work has become a classic of Russian literature, sharply and mercilessly exposed not only the “dead souls” of the heroes, but also the society that gives rise to the Chichikovs, Jews, and Ionychs.

Save -» The problem of mortification of the human soul in the works of Russian writers of the 19th century. The finished work appeared.

The problem of the mortification of the human soul in the works of Russians writers of the 19th century

Shamova Olga Yurievna,

teacher of Russian language and literature

MBOU secondary school No. 53 of the city of Kirov.

Gogol was looking for answers to questions more important than problems artistic creativity, even if very refined, - although they could not help but lure his imagination: after all, he was an artist. He was an artist of the highest level, but he also possessed a heightened religious talent, and it prevailed in him over a purely artistic thirst for creativity. Gogol was aware that art, no matter how high it ascended, would remain among the treasures on earth. For Gogol, however, treasures in heaven were always more necessary.

Belinsky felt this with irritation. This was later spoken and written by many, many who tried to comprehend the fate of Gogol - in different ways, of course, evaluating. Gogol's religious wandering was not without wanderings and falls. One thing is certain: it was Gogol who directed Russian literature to the conscious service of Orthodox Truth. It seems that K. Mochulsky was the first to clearly formulate this: “In the moral field, Gogol was brilliantly gifted; he was destined to abruptly turn all Russian literature from aesthetics to religion, to move it from the path of Pushkin to the path of Dostoevsky. All the features that characterize the "great Russian literature" that has become world-wide were outlined by Gogol: its religious and moral structure, its civic and social character, its militant and practical character, its prophetic pathos and messianism. From Gogol begins a wide road, world expanses. Here is the main treasure bequeathed by Gogol, which everyone could and can inherit - with an internal need. This inner need to give is the true acquisition of non-imaginary values. One of the great Fathers of the Church, Maximus the Confessor, said about it this way: "Mine is only that which I have given."

We will try to consider the most difficult question of the meaning of life from the point of view of the Christian faith on the example of the heroes of the famous work N.V. Gogol, a landmark work for all Russian literature, his great poem "Dead Souls"

The title of the poem is multifaceted, it combines the plot and spiritual plans of the work. It must also be said that the combination "dead souls" was "invented" by Gogol. The language had a combination of "wanted souls". From a letter from Pogodin to Gogol on May 6, 1847: There are no "Dead Souls" in Russian. There are revision souls, ascribed souls, lost ones, and profited ones. Gogol wanted to give these words a special meaning not only to Chichikov's scam, but to the whole work. The fact that in the title Gogol points to landowners and officials, Chichikov himself, was already obvious to the first readers of Gogol. A.I. Herzen wrote in his diary in 1842: "... not revisionists - dead souls, but all these Nozdrevs, Manilovs and all the others - these are dead souls and we meet them at every step." Everyone understands lexical meaning the words "dead" - deprived of life, dead. But it is also clear that in the poem "dead souls" are quite living people who even, let's say, succeed, first of all, in their own opinion. So why are they "dead" even though they are alive. Obviously, the answer to this question is that their life does not have the higher meaning that it should have.

Gogol puts into the mouth of old Murazov (in the second volume of Dead Souls) one of his most sincere thoughts: “It’s not a pity that you became guilty before others, but it’s a pity that you became guilty before yourself - before rich forces and gifts, which have been handed down to you. Your purpose is to be a great man, but you have lost yourself and ruined yourself. These words addressed to Chichikov, no doubt, were recognized by the author as addressed to every person. The heroes of the poem, passing in front of the reader in exactly the order in which the brilliant Gogol placed them, stand on the steps of the stairs, but the stairs leading not up, but down. Not towards God, but in a completely different direction. Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, Plyushkin. From my own experience, I can say that the guys are very attracted and the image of Plyushkin evokes the greatest response in them. Therefore, I would like to focus on this hero, standing at the very end of the gallery of Gogol's landowners.

As the writer and literary critic Igor Volgin said, "Gogol's landowners are types cast in bronze." Great Talent Gogol draws them with scrupulous accuracy and brightness. Gogol describes the estate, the house, the appearance of the heroes, the speech of the heroes is expressive. All of them react differently to Chichikov's offer to sell them dead peasants. But the story about Plyushkin differs significantly from the chapters about other landowners. The sixth chapter of the poem opens with a lyrical digression in which the writer recalls his youth. In that digression we see a very important word - vulgarity. Vulgarity - keyword when it comes to the work of Gogol. Pushkin first uttered it, and Gogol assimilated and approved this concept in relation to the life he depicted: “They talked a lot about me, analyzing some of my sides, but they did not determine my main being. Only Pushkin heard him. He always told me that no other writer had this gift to expose the vulgarity of life so vividly, to be able to outline the vulgarity of a vulgar person in such force that all that trifle that escapes the eye would flash big into the eyes of everyone. Here is my main property, which belongs to me alone and which, for sure, other writers do not have. It subsequently deepened even more deeply in me ... ”, - this is how Gogol later testified (in Selected Places ...). Father Vasily Zenkovsky, who devoted, perhaps, the best pages of his research on Gogol to the topic of vulgarity, wrote: “The theme of vulgarity is, therefore, the theme of the impoverishment and perversion of the soul, the insignificance and emptiness of its movements in the presence of other forces that can lift a person. Wherever it is a matter of vulgarity, one can hear the hidden sadness of the author - if not real “tears through laughter”, then a mournful feeling of the tragedy of everything that a person’s life actually boils down to, of which it actually consists. Vulgarity is an essential part of the reality that Gogol describes...”

Pay attention to the last words of Fr. Vasily Zenkovsky: "... a sad feeling of the tragedy of everything that a person's life actually boils down to, of which it actually consists." The chapter on Plyushkin, like no other, is imbued with this sense of tragedy.

The garden, once wonderful and alive, fell into disrepair. An analogy with the garden of the human soul suggests itself. A village in which everything: both roads and peasant houses - resemble half-decayed bodies (comparison of logs and dismantled roofs with protruding ribs), rotten bread in huge stacks. Two! rural churches, empty, stained and cracked. The house, almost already dead, with closed windows - eyes (one and a half only looked at this world). The cold coming from Plyushkin's house. Plyushkin himself in a terrible greasy dressing gown. A story about his constant collecting of all sorts of unnecessary things. And most importantly - this is the story of Plyushkin's life, the story of his rebirth from a zealous smart owner and a kind husband and father into a "hole in humanity", into a "demon", according to buyers who stopped going to him. The reader sees Gogol's grief over "to what insignificance, pettiness, nastiness a person can descend." “Quickly everything turns into a person; before you have time to look back, a terrible worm has already grown inside, autocratically turning all the vital juices to itself. And more than once, not only a broad passion, but an insignificant passion for something small grew in one born for the best deeds, made him forget great and holy duties and see the great and holy in insignificant trinkets, ”writes Gogol. (You can correlate these words with a detail: a chandelier is like a cocoon with a worm sitting inside it under the ceiling in Plyushkin's room).

Why? Why did this happen to the person? Because Gogol's hero (all his landlord heroes, and Chichikov as well) lives in a horizontal direction, he loses his connection with the sky and ceases to be a man. He doesn't use his energy for that. “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?” - we read in the Gospel of Mark. What is the use of all these riches that have rotted and brought happiness and joy to no one. “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal, For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Plyushkin does not see that his heart is where everything is rotten, everything is empty and cold. It is terrible that he also condemns other people for their love of money (clerks who ask for payment for their work). Spiritually dead, really a dead soul, Plyushkin mentions God several times, but these are just words. His faith is dead, because it is not the meaning of life for him, does not lead to spiritual life, does not bear fruit.

Metropolitan Anthony of Surozh said: “Will our well-being close our eyes to the fact that life has depth, and meaning, and purpose, and that we are striving for a meeting with God, and that this meeting will be the last and truly terrible judgment, if we do not will there be love - pure, true love? “Spiritual progress is ultimately and best evidenced by only one thing: our ability to love. To love - in the sense of pure respect, service, selfless affection that does not require reciprocal payment; in the sense of “sympathy”, or “empathy”, which encourages us to forget about ourselves in order to “sympathize”, “feel in another,” wrote Olivier Clement, French theologian, historian, professor at the St. Sergius Orthodox Institute in Paris, author many books. There is no love, mercy in Plyushkin's life: he sends curses to his children, the peasants are only thieves and swindlers for him, he suspects and condemns everyone, he is completely alone. The first step on the path to God is to see your passions and sins, to realize them, to repent. But this is not the case in Plyushkin's life. And so "he himself turned, finally, into some kind of hole in humanity." And his very life becomes like death in the midst of stench and decay. How scary. But it is even more terrible that Gogol, who perfectly knows the hearts of people in which, according to Dostoevsky, the devil fights with God, tries to reach out to every reader, especially the young one. Everyone knows the words of the writer: “And to what insignificance, pettiness, disgustingness a person could descend! could have changed! And does it look like it's true? Everything seems to be true, everything can happen to a person. The current fiery young man would jump back in horror if they showed him his own portrait in old age. Take with you on your journey, emerging from your soft youthful years into a stern, hardening courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, you will not pick them up later!

Gogol liked to repeat that his images would not be alive if every reader did not feel that they were taken "from the same body from which we are." This property of Gogol's images - a certain recognizability, closeness to the soul of each of us - was already noted by the writer's contemporaries. “Are not all of us, after youth, one way or another, leading one of the lives of Gogol's heroes? - Herzen wrote in his diary in July 1842. “One remains with Manilov’s stupid daydreaming, the other rampages a la Nosdreff, the third is Plyushkin ...” “Each of us,” said Belinsky, “whatever he may be good man If he penetrates into himself with the impartiality with which he penetrates into others, he will certainly find in himself, to a greater or lesser extent, many of the elements of many of Gogol's heroes. Gogol's great book, written in the middle of the 19th century, is also addressed to us. There is a deep spiritual meaning in the book. It was revealed by Gogol in his suicide note: “Be not dead, but living souls. There is no other door than that indicated by Jesus Christ, and everyone, climbing otherwise, is a thief and a robber. According to Gogol, the souls of his heroes did not die at all. In them, as in every person, lies true life - the image of God, and at the same time the hope of rebirth. Jesus said: I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). The writer proceeded in the poem from the gospel tradition, to which the understanding of the “dead” soul as spiritually dead goes back. Gogol's idea is consonant with the Christian moral law formulated by the holy Apostle Paul: "As in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:22). Connected with this is the main idea of "Dead Souls" - the idea of the spiritual resurrection of fallen man. It was to be embodied first of all by the protagonist of the poem. “And, perhaps, in this same Chichikov there is something that will later plunge a person into dust and kneel before the wisdom of heaven,” the author predicts the future revival of his hero, that is, the revival of his soul. Not only Chichikov, but also other heroes had to be reborn in spirit - even Plyushkin, perhaps the most "dead" of all. To the question of Archimandrite Theodore whether the other characters of the first volume would be resurrected, Gogol answered with a smile: "If they want to." Spiritual rebirth is one of the highest abilities bestowed on a person, and, according to Gogol, this path is open to everyone. And this revival was to take place on the basis of “our fundamental nature, forgotten by us”, and serve as an example not only for compatriots, but for all mankind. This was one of the "super tasks" of Gogol's poem Dead Souls.

And in conclusion, I want to quote Yuri Mann's statement: "According to the publisher of the poem, Dead Souls is a great book, but it is understandable only to a Russian person, foreigners will not understand it." But in England, a collection was published called "1001 Works You Must Read Before You Die." There are two books by N.V. Gogol. The first is the poem "Dead Souls".

Literature

Answer to ticket number 12

Souls dead and alive in the poem by N.V. Gogol's Dead Souls.

1. The main conflict of the poem by N.V. Gogol's Dead Souls.

2. Characteristics of various types of landlords. Souls of the Dead:

Sobakevich;

box;

3. The image of Chichikov.

4. Living souls - the embodiment of the talent of the people.

5. Moral degradation people - the result of the moral emptiness of society.

1. The pinnacle of creativity N.V. Gogol became the poem "Dead Souls". Starting to create his grandiose work, he wrote to Zhukovsky that “all Russia will appear in it!”. Gogol put the main contradiction of contemporary reality between the gigantic spiritual forces of the people and their bondage as the basis for the conflict of the poem. Realizing this conflict, he turned to the most pressing problems of that period: the state of the landlord economy, the moral character of the local and bureaucratic nobility, the relationship of the peasantry with the authorities, the fate of the people in Russia. In Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" a whole gallery of moral monsters, types that have become common names, is displayed. Gogol consistently depicts officials, landowners and the main character of Chichikov's poem. The plot of the poem is built as a story of the adventures of Chichikov, an official who buys up “dead souls”.

2. Almost half of the first volume of the poem is devoted to the characteristics of various types of Russian landowners. Gogol creates five characters, five portraits that are so different from each other, and at the same time, typical features of a Russian landowner appear in each of them. The images of the landowners whom Chichikov visits are presented in contrast in the poem, since they carry various vices. One after another, each spiritually more insignificant than the previous one, the owners of the estates follow in the work: Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, Plyushkin. If Manilov is sentimental and sweet to the point of cloying, then Sobakevich is straightforward and rude. Their views on life are polar: for Manilov, everyone around them is beautiful, for Sobakevich they are robbers and swindlers. Manilov shows no real concern for the welfare of the peasants, for the welfare of the family; he entrusted all management to the rogue clerk, who ruins both the peasants and the landowner. But Sobakevich is a strong owner, ready for any scam for the sake of profit. Manilov is a careless dreamer, Sobakevich is a cynical fist-burner. Korobochka's heartlessness is manifested in petty hoarding; the only thing that worries her is the price of hemp, honey; “not to sell too cheap” and when selling dead souls. Korobochka reminds Sobakevich of stinginess, passion for profit, although the stupidity of the "clubhead" brings these qualities to a comical limit. The “hoarders”, Sobakevich and Korobochka, are opposed by the “squanderers” - Nozdrev and Plyushkin. Nozdryov is a desperate wast and reveler, a devastator and destroyer of the economy. His energy turned into a scandalous fuss, aimless and destructive.

If Nozdryov let his entire fortune go to the wind, then Plyushkin turned his own into one appearance. Gogol shows the last line to which the mortification of the soul can lead a person using the example of Plyushkin, whose image completes the gallery of landowners. This hero is no longer so much ridiculous as scary and pathetic, because, unlike previous characters, he loses not only spirituality, but also his human appearance. Chichikov, seeing him, wonders for a long time whether this is a man or a woman, and, finally, decides that the housekeeper is in front of him. Meanwhile, this is a landowner, the owner of more than a thousand souls and huge storerooms. True, in these pantries bread rots, flour turns into stone, cloth and canvas into dust. A no less terrible picture is presented to the eye in the manor house, where everything is covered with dust and cobwebs, and in the corner of the room “a heap of what is coarser and unworthy to lie on the tables is piled up. It was difficult to decide what exactly was in this heap”, just as it was difficult “to get to the bottom of what was concocted ... dressing gown” of the owner. How did it happen that a rich, educated man, a nobleman turned into a “hole in humanity”? To answer this question. Gogol refers to the hero's past. (He writes about the rest of the landlords as about already formed types.) The writer very accurately traces the degradation of a person, and the reader understands that a person is not born a monster, but becomes one. So this soul could live! But Gogol notices that over time a person submits himself to the laws prevailing in society and betrays the ideals of youth.

All Gogol's landowners are bright, individual, memorable characters. But with all their external diversity, the essence remains unchanged: having possession of living souls, they themselves have long turned into dead souls. We do not see the true movements of a living soul either in an empty dreamer, or in a strong-minded housewife, or in a “cheerful boor,” or in a landowner-fist resembling a bear. All this is just an appearance with a complete lack of spiritual content, which is why these heroes are ridiculous. Convincing the reader that his landowners are not exceptional, but typical, the writer also names other nobles, characterizing them even by their surnames: Svinin, Trepakin, Blokhin, Kisses, Careless, etc.

3. Gogol shows the reason for the mortification of the human soul by the example of the formation of the character of the main character - Chichikov. A bleak childhood, devoid of parental love and affection, service and an example of bribe-taking officials - these factors formed a scoundrel who is like his entire environment. But he turned out to be more greedy in his striving for acquisition than Korobochka, more callous than Sobakevich and more insolent than Nozdryov in the means of enrichment. In the final chapter, supplementing Chichikov's biography, he is finally exposed as a clever predator, acquirer and entrepreneur of the bourgeois warehouse, a civilized scoundrel, the master of life. But Chichikov, differing from the landlords in entrepreneurial spirit, is also a "dead" soul. The "shining joy" of life is inaccessible to him. The happiness of a “decent person” Chichikov is based on money. Calculation ousted all human feelings from him and made him a “dead” soul. Gogol shows the appearance in Russian life of a new man who has neither a noble family, nor a title, nor an estate, but who, at the cost of his own efforts, thanks to his mind and resourcefulness, is trying to make a fortune for himself. His ideal is a penny; marriage is conceived by him as a bargain. His passions and tastes are purely material. Having quickly guessed the person, he knows how to approach everyone in a special way, subtly calculating his moves. The inner diversity, elusiveness is also emphasized by his appearance, described by Gogol in vague terms: “A gentleman was sitting in the britzka, neither too fat nor too thin, one cannot say that he was old, but not so that he was too young.” Gogol was able to discern in his contemporary society the individual features of the emerging type and brought them together in the image of Chichikov. The officials of the city of NN are even more impersonal than the landowners. Their deadness is shown in the ball scene: people are not visible, muslins, atlases, muslins, hats, tailcoats, uniforms, shoulders, necks, ribbons are everywhere. The whole interest of life is concentrated on gossip, gossip, petty vanity, envy. They differ from each other only in the size of the bribe; all idlers, they have no interests, these are also “dead” souls.

4. But behind the “dead” souls of Chichikov, officials and landowners, Gogol discerned the living souls of the peasants, the strength of the national character. In the words of A. I. Herzen, in Gogol's poem, "behind dead souls - living souls" appear. The talent of the people is revealed in the dexterity of the coachman Mikheev, the shoemaker Telyatnikov, the bricklayer Milushkin, the carpenter Stepan Cork. The strength and sharpness of the people's mind were reflected in the glibness and accuracy of the Russian word, the depth and integrity of the Russian feeling - in the sincerity of the Russian song, the breadth and generosity of the soul - in the brightness and unrestrained fun folk holidays. The boundless dependence on the usurping power of the landlords, who condemn the peasants to forced, exhausting labor, to hopeless ignorance, gives rise to stupid Mityaev and Minyaev, downtrodden Proshek and Pelageya, who do not know “where the right is, where the left is”, submissive, lazy, depraved Petrushki and Selifanov. Gogol sees how high and good qualities are distorted in the realm of “dead” souls, how peasants die, driven to despair, rushing into any risky business, just to get out of serfdom.

Not finding the truth from the supreme power, Captain Kopeikin, helping himself, becomes the ataman of the robbers. "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin" reminds the authorities of the threat of a revolutionary uprising in Russia.

5. Serfdom death destroys the good inclinations in a person, destroys the people. Against the backdrop of the majestic, boundless expanses of Russia, the real pictures of Russian life seem especially bitter. Having outlined Russia in the poem “from one side” in its negative essence, in “stunning pictures of triumphant evil and suffering hatred”, Gogol once again convinces that in his time “it is impossible to otherwise direct society or even the entire generation towards beauty, until you show all the depth of his true abomination.”

Orthodox psychotherapy [patristic course of healing the soul] Vlachos Metropolitan Hierofey

From the book Orthodox psychotherapy [patristic course in healing the soul] author Vlachos Metropolitan Hierofei

From the book Questions to the Priest the author Shulyak Sergey

12. Do all souls acquire immortality, or only the souls of believers, and true ones at that? Question: Do all souls acquire immortality, or only the souls of believers, and true ones at that? Priest Alexander Men answers: I'm afraid that this would greatly narrow the field of immortality. By nature, the human soul

From the book I peer into life. book of thoughts author Ilyin Ivan Alexandrovich

From the book Hasidic Traditions author Buber Martin

ILLNESS In his old age, Rabbi Zusya fell ill and spent the last seven years of his life in bed, for, as they write about him, he took upon himself suffering for the sake of the redemption of Israel. Somehow a Clairvoyant from Lublin and Rabbi Hirsch Leib from Olik came to visit him. When they left Zusya,

From the book Conversations about the life of Italian fathers and about the immortality of the author's soul

6. Just as the life of the soul in the body is known from the movement of the members, so the life of the soul after the death of the body of the saints is known from the miracles of Peter. But the life of the soul that is in the body, I can know from the very movements of the body, because if there were no soul in the body, the members of the body could not move; in

From the book The Mystery of Life author (Mamontov) Archimandrite Victor

28. One must believe that just as the souls of the perfect are in heaven, so the souls of sinners, after being separated from the body, are in hell Gregory. If pious conversation has fully convinced you that the souls of the saints are in heaven, then it is absolutely necessary to believe that the souls of the wicked are in hell. By

From the book Ladder, or Spiritual Tablets author Ladder John

ILLNESS What is illness in its nature, in its essence? Sickness is in no way designed by God. It is not something created by God. She is a disorder in the body. Physical illness always contains some particle of death. Going through sickness, man

From the book of Moments by Bart Carl

Illness About the need for attention during bodily illness, and why? .What battles rise up against the sick in the world, and what kind against monastics? The Lord delivers the sickness of the body from the sicknesses of the soul. .We should not slyly explain to ourselves the causes of diseases in others,

From the book Conversations on the Life of the Italian Fathers and on the Immortality of the Soul author Dialog Gregory

Sickness Lord! that's who you love, sick. John 11:3 Sickness is the moment when chaos rises up against God's creation; this is the appearance of the devil and his servants - demons. Illness is powerless in relation to God, for it is real and dangerous only as an element of what God

the author Gippius Anna

Chapter six. Just as the life of the soul in the body is known from the movement of the members, so the life of the soul after the death of the body of the saints is known from the miracles of Peter. But the life of the soul in the body, I can know from the very movements of the body, because if there were no soul in the body, the members of the body could not

From the book of teaching author Kavsokalivit Porfiry

Chapter twenty eight. One must believe that just as the souls of the perfect are in heaven, so the souls of sinners, after being separated from the body, are in hell Gregory. If pious conversation has fully convinced you that the souls of the saints are in heaven, then it is absolutely necessary to believe that the souls

From the book What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it author Theophan the Recluse

THE BIRTH OF THE SOUL AND THE KILLING OF THE SOUL

From the book The main gift to your child the author Gippius Anna

If you don't understand religion in its depths (vaphos), if you don't live it, then piety (crackia) turns into a mental illness, and into a terrible illness. But for many, religion is a struggle, anxiety and stress. Therefore, many "religious" people are considered unhappy people,

From the book Soulful Teachings author Optina Macarius

13. The true happiness of a person is life in the spirit. The thinnest shell of the soul, serving as an intermediary between it and the body and a means of communication between souls and with the world of saints and angels. Light and dark state of the shell of the soul Wanted to answer the letter placed at the end of the last letter

From the author's book

THE BIRTH OF THE SOUL AND THE KILLING OF THE SOUL When the soul appears Existing and pastChildren who are to be born Vast halls of the Azure Palace, where children who are to be born are waiting ... Children in beautiful azure clothes. Some are playing, others are walking, others are talking or

From the author's book

ILLNESS It is necessary to accept illnesses as a visitation from God. Write that illnesses and sorrows visit you. This is a sign of God's mercy to you: for the Lord loves him, punishes him, beats every son, whom he accepts (Heb. 12, 6), then it is necessary to thank the Lord for His fatherly for you

“This son of mine was dead” (Lk. 15:22) is said in the Gospel about the prodigal son. Mortification of this kind is an invisible but undeniable spiritual death. This is coldness to faith and complete indifference to one's afterlife.

Just as pain is no longer felt in a paralyzed hand, so in such a soul there is no longer sympathy for anything spiritual. This condition is the result of a long carefree life. Careless, however, about its one spiritual side: about the soul, about eternity, about God, but at the same time unusually caring about its material part.

Therefore, at a young age, as a rule, there is no necrosis of the soul. It is characteristic of the elderly and even the old. It is perfectly combined with the gentleness of character and with a life impeccable in appearance, it is reconciled with any rank, and even a spiritual one. Deadness is a coldness already assimilated by the soul, a constant quality of the soul.

For example, a person is persuaded, advised, they prove the benefits of faith in God, they are called to pray, confess, take communion; he listens, but as if he does not understand anything, does not contradict and does not even get angry, but simply does not seem to hear. Such a person, finding only emptiness in himself, lives entirely outside himself, in external, created things.

All the forces of his soul are turned only to the sinful, earthly, or at least to the vain. The mind is occupied with much knowledge, much reading, curiosity; the emptiness of the heart is filled with worldly and secular entertainments, worries about material things and other objects that delight his senses. The emptiness of the will is filled with many desires and striving for the vain.

But most of all it is worthy of regret that such a person does not see the fatality of his spiritual state, does not feel any danger, does not worry about the responsibility for his sins. He does not even think about the need to change his life. It often happens that those who are dead in spirit, but not obviously vicious, revere themselves and are revered sinless from others like them.

To get out of this extremely dangerous state, a person often needs a strong shock, intimidation and tenderness of the heart. To be touched by the heart means to have pity on oneself in view of the terrible fate beyond the grave that awaits an unrepentant sinner.

Also, a cold heart will be warmed if a person begins to read the Gospel often, pray fervently, and meditate on the torments beyond the grave. But chronic diseases are not quickly and easily cured. Similarly, from the insensitivity of the soul to everything divine, one can be healed only after a considerable time has passed.

On the topic “The problem of the necrosis of the human soul in the works of Russian writers of the 19th century”, one can use the example of the poem by N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls", the novel by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, stories by A.P. Chekhov, among which this topic is most fully revealed in the story "Ionych". We offer you a detailed statement on "Dead Souls" by N.V. Gogol, which can be used as the basis of your essay.

Dead and living souls in N.V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls"

Gogol himself defined his artistic world as follows: “And for a long time it has been determined for me by the wonderful power to go hand in hand with my strange heroes, to look around at the whole enormously rushing life, look at it through laughter visible to the world and invisible, unknown to it tears.”

Indeed, strange characters in the poem. If N.V. Gogol points in the title to the existence of "dead souls", which means that there are living ones in the work ...

Who is who? Who can be called truly dead and who truly alive? The question is not idle. Especially if we take into account that the poem "Dead Souls" is perceived by Gogol not just as a work of art, but as a book of life, almost a new Gospel, which should change both Russia, and humanity, and himself!

The phrase "dead souls" is ambiguous (there is a lot of readers' guesses, scientific disputes and studies).

The origins of the name are seen in the Gospel - in the thought of the Apostle Paul about eternal life in Christ. (And rightly so).

Researchers have found the phrase "dead soul" and on the pages of literature contemporary to Gogol in the meanings: "the soul of a great sinner, a devastated soul, incapable of love, devoid of hope ...". It is difficult to disagree with such a definition.

These are the dead, but considered alive, the swindler-dealer Chichikov decided to buy them on the cheap.

What was the benefit here?

It turns out that the peasants could be pledged to the board of trustees (in the bank), i.e. get money for every dead soul.

So, it is obvious that the “dead soul” is a peasant who has died, but exists in a paper, bureaucratic “guise”, and has become the subject of speculation.

But everything is not so simple in the plot of the poem! In fact, the dead come to life before our eyes and look more alive than other actors. An interesting observation? Of course! Depicted more or less completely on the pages of the poem, landowners, officials, their wives, innkeepers?! What kind of souls are they? By their appearance, by their extraordinary mobility, they are quite alive. But in fact?

Manilov is a "knight of the void", a non-objective dreamer, cut off from real life. Sentimental to the point of cloying. For Manilov, everyone around is beautiful. He does not show concern for his serfs, entrusted everything to the clerk, who ruins both the peasants and the landowner himself. He does not know how many peasants have died. There are many flaws in the estate. Everywhere only a claim to sophistication. Why is there an inscription on the gazebo - "Temple of solitary reflection." A book has been lying in the office for two years, opened to page 14. On the windowsill in beautiful rows - ashes from a smoking pipe. Chichikov quickly manages to convince Manilov of the legitimacy of the "gegotion" (deal). "The law... I am dumb before the law." In order to please his “unexpected dear friend”, Chichikov, he not only gives dead souls, but also takes upon himself the execution of the bill of sale. And in the city, he solemnly hands the “future Kherson landowner” papers rolled into a tube and tied with a pink ribbon.

After the departure of an unexpected guest, she went to the city to find out at what price the “goods” go. Not a glimpse of the mind, soul, heart! .. In a word - a hoarder.

Nozdryov is a "scandal knight", a lover of revelry, card games. At 35, the same as at 18. Lack of development is a sign of the inanimate. He is a "historical man": "wherever he was, everywhere he could not do without history." Reveled, changed, liar, scammer. Dog lover. Gogol gives a deadly detail, characterizing the landowner. “Nozdryov was among absolutely like a father among the family” ... he had one passion - to spoil his neighbor. After an offer to sell dead souls, he began to blackmail Chichikov. He was saved by an accident: the captain - police officer came to arrest Nozdryov. The cheerful dirty trickster once again "suffered" for robbery.

There is a commandment in the Gospel that Jesus called the main one. It is simple: love for God is alive only in love for man. The word "love" is not applicable to Sobakevich.

The gallery of landowners ends with the image of Plyushkin. The owner of a huge estate. He has over 1000 fortress souls. The estate is an “extinct place”, decay, dust. Only a garden that does not yield to the will of the “knight of stinginess” reminds of life here. A killer detail: on Plyushkin's desk is "a clock with a stopped pendulum, in which a spider has fitted ... a cobweb." (Time has stopped here). Plyushkin does not eat, does not drink, in constant worries: is it easy to rot from year to year such an abyss of goodness. He keeps his serfs starving, so they die like flies (to the delight of Chichikov!). and many have gone on the run. It should be said that in his youth he was only a thrifty master. After the death of his wife, he gradually turned into a miser, broke with his own children, did not show mercy, did not give anything from the inheritance! This is the limit of human fall! A lyrical digression sounds like a hot warning in this chapter: “And a person could descend to such insignificance, pettiness! could have changed so much… “Take it with you on the road, leaving the soft youthful years in the severe hardening courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them on the road, you will not pick them up later.

By all definitions, “not revisionists are dead souls, but all these Nozdryovs, Manilovs and the like are dead souls, and we meet them at every step. I fully agree with the opinion of A.I. Herzen.

And only when he died (And death came from fright caused by rumors about Chichikov), people found out that he definitely had a soul. Before that, the soul was not noticed in him.

“The “Kherson landowner” himself, who bought dead souls goes. (Why not buy the dead when they sell the living too.) - a dead soul, "knight of a penny." His life is the pursuit of a golden mirage. He became a worthy son of his father, who bequeathed to value a penny above friendship and love.

In the poem, not only the denial of the Russia of the Sobakeviches and the Plyushkins, but also the affirmation of the Russia of the Russian people. Behind the terrible world of landlords and officials, Gogol discerned living Russia. Not without flaws and vices.

And the most interesting thing is that the dead revision souls turn out to be truly alive.

“And Cork Stepan, the carpenter? After all, what a force it was! Serve him in the guards, God knows what they gave him, three arshins with a verst in height!

Milushkin, bricklayer! could put a stove in any house.

“Maxim Telyatnikov, shoemaker: what pricks with an awl, then boots, that boots, then thanks” ...

The image of the Russian people, their suffering soul runs through the entire poem. The breadth of the soul, sincere kindness, heroic prowess, sensitivity to a striking apt word, a wide expanse song - this is the true soul of a Russian person. The people's soul is a troika bird that knows no barriers.

But that's not all.

N.V. Gogol believed that any person who has fallen and sinful can and should be reborn to a worthy life, realizing his spiritual fall. It is no coincidence that he wrote in a note relating to the last days of his life: Be not dead souls, but alive ... "

A.L. Murzina, honored teacher of Kaz. SSR, teacher-methodologist of NP secondary school "Lyceum "Capital"

Shamova Olga Yurievna,

teacher of Russian language and literature

MBOU secondary school No. 53 of the city of Kirov.

Gogol was looking for answers to questions more important than the problems of artistic creation, even if they were very subtle, although they could not but entice his imagination: after all, he was an artist. He was an artist of the highest level, but he also possessed a heightened religious talent, and it prevailed in him over a purely artistic thirst for creativity. Gogol was aware that art, no matter how high it ascended, would remain among the treasures on earth. For Gogol, however, treasures in heaven were always more necessary.

We will try to consider the most difficult question of the meaning of life from the point of view of the Christian faith on the example of the heroes of the most famous work of N.V. Gogol, a landmark work for all Russian literature, his great poem "Dead Souls"

The title of the poem is multifaceted, it combines the plot and spiritual plans of the work. It must also be said that the combination "dead souls" was "invented" by Gogol. The language had a combination of "wanted souls". From a letter from Pogodin to Gogol on May 6, 1847: There are no "Dead Souls" in Russian. There are revision souls, ascribed souls, lost ones, and profited ones. Gogol wanted to give these words a special meaning not only to Chichikov's scam, but to the whole work. The fact that in the title Gogol points to landowners and officials, Chichikov himself, was already obvious to the first readers of Gogol. A.I. Herzen wrote in his diary in 1842: "... not revisionists - dead souls, but all these Nozdrevs, Manilovs and all the others - these are dead souls and we meet them at every step." Everyone understands the lexical meaning of the word "dead" - deprived of life, dead. But it is also clear that in the poem "dead souls" are quite living people who even, let's say, succeed, first of all, in their own opinion. So why are they "dead" even though they are alive. Obviously, the answer to this question is that their life does not have the higher meaning that it should have.

As the writer and literary critic Igor Volgin said, "Gogol's landowners are types cast in bronze." Gogol's great talent draws them with scrupulous precision and brightness. Gogol describes the estate, the house, the appearance of the heroes, the speech of the heroes is expressive. All of them react differently to Chichikov's offer to sell them dead peasants. But the story about Plyushkin differs significantly from the chapters about other landowners. The sixth chapter of the poem opens with a lyrical digression in which the writer recalls his youth. In this lyrical digression, we see a very important word - vulgarity. Vulgarity is the key word when it comes to Gogol's work. Pushkin first uttered it, and Gogol assimilated and approved this concept in relation to the life he depicted: “They talked a lot about me, analyzing some of my sides, but they did not determine my main being. Only Pushkin heard him. He always told me that no other writer had this gift to expose the vulgarity of life so vividly, to be able to outline the vulgarity of a vulgar person in such force that all that trifle that escapes the eye would flash big into the eyes of everyone. Here is my main property, which belongs to me alone and which, for sure, other writers do not have. It subsequently deepened even more deeply in me ... ”, - this is how Gogol later testified (in Selected Places ...). Father Vasily Zenkovsky, who devoted, perhaps, the best pages of his research on Gogol to the topic of vulgarity, wrote: “The theme of vulgarity is, therefore, the theme of the impoverishment and perversion of the soul, the insignificance and emptiness of its movements in the presence of other forces that can lift a person. Wherever it is a matter of vulgarity, one can hear the hidden sadness of the author - if not real “tears through laughter”, then a mournful feeling of the tragedy of everything that a person’s life actually boils down to, of which it actually consists. Vulgarity is an essential part of the reality that Gogol describes...”

The garden, once wonderful and alive, fell into disrepair. An analogy with the garden of the human soul suggests itself. A village in which everything: both roads and peasant houses - resemble half-decayed bodies (comparison of logs and dismantled roofs with protruding ribs), rotten bread in huge stacks. Two! rural churches, deserted, stained and cracked. The house, almost already dead, with closed windows - eyes (one and a half only looked at this world). The cold coming from Plyushkin's house. Plyushkin himself in a terrible greasy dressing gown. A story about his constant collecting of all sorts of unnecessary things. And most importantly - this is the story of Plyushkin's life, the story of his rebirth from a zealous smart owner and a kind husband and father into a "hole in humanity", into a "demon", according to buyers who stopped going to him. The reader sees Gogol's grief over "to what insignificance, pettiness, nastiness a person can descend." “Quickly everything turns into a person; before you have time to look back, a terrible worm has already grown inside, autocratically turning all the vital juices to itself. And more than once, not only a broad passion, but an insignificant passion for something small grew in one born for the best deeds, made him forget great and holy duties and see the great and holy in insignificant trinkets, ”writes Gogol. (You can correlate these words with a detail: a chandelier is like a cocoon with a worm sitting inside it under the ceiling in Plyushkin's room).

Gogol liked to repeat that his images would not be alive if every reader did not feel that they were taken "from the same body from which we are." This property of Gogol's images - a certain recognizability, closeness to the soul of each of us - was already noted by the writer's contemporaries. “Are not all of us, after youth, one way or another, leading one of the lives of Gogol's heroes? - Herzen wrote in his diary in July 1842. - One remains with Manilov's stupid dreaminess, the other - rampages a la Nosdreff, the third - Plyushkin ... " in others, he will certainly find in himself, to a greater or lesser extent, many of the elements of many of Gogol's heroes. Gogol's great book, written in the middle of the 19th century, is also addressed to us. There is a deep spiritual meaning in the book. It was revealed by Gogol in his suicide note: “Be not dead, but living souls. There is no other door than that indicated by Jesus Christ, and everyone, climbing otherwise, is a thief and a robber. According to Gogol, the souls of his heroes did not die at all. In them, as in every person, lies true life - the image of God, and at the same time the hope of rebirth. Jesus said: I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). The writer proceeded in the poem from the gospel tradition, to which the understanding of the “dead” soul as spiritually dead goes back. Gogol's idea is consonant with the Christian moral law formulated by the holy Apostle Paul: "As in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:22). Connected with this is the main idea of "Dead Souls" - the idea of the spiritual resurrection of fallen man. It was to be embodied first of all by the protagonist of the poem. “And, perhaps, in this same Chichikov there is something that will later plunge a person into dust and kneel before the wisdom of heaven,” the author predicts the future revival of his hero, that is, the revival of his soul. Not only Chichikov, but also other heroes had to be reborn in spirit - even Plyushkin, perhaps the most "dead" of all. To the question of Archimandrite Theodore whether the other characters of the first volume would be resurrected, Gogol answered with a smile: "If they want to." Spiritual rebirth is one of the highest abilities bestowed on a person, and, according to Gogol, this path is open to everyone. And this revival was to take place on the basis of “our fundamental nature, forgotten by us”, and serve as an example not only for compatriots, but for all mankind. This was one of the "super tasks" of Gogol's poem Dead Souls.

Orthodox psychotherapy [patristic course of healing the soul] Vlachos Metropolitan Hierofey

From the book Orthodox psychotherapy [patristic course in healing the soul] author Vlachos Metropolitan Hierofei

From the book Questions to the Priest the author Shulyak Sergey

From the book I peer into life. book of thoughts author Ilyin Ivan Alexandrovich

From the book Hasidic Traditions author Buber Martin

From the book Conversations about the life of Italian fathers and about the immortality of the author's soul

From the book The Mystery of Life author (Mamontov) Archimandrite Victor

From the book Ladder, or Spiritual Tablets author Ladder John

From the book of Moments by Bart Carl

From the book Conversations on the Life of the Italian Fathers and on the Immortality of the Soul author Dialog Gregory

the author Gippius Anna

From the book of teaching author Kavsokalivit Porfiry

From the book What is spiritual life and how to tune in to it author Theophan the Recluse

THE BIRTH OF THE SOUL AND THE KILLING OF THE SOUL

From the book The main gift to your child the author Gippius Anna

From the book Soulful Teachings author Optina Macarius

From the author's book

Literature

Answer to ticket number 12

Souls dead and alive in the poem by N.V. Gogol's Dead Souls.

1. The main conflict of the poem by N.V. Gogol's Dead Souls.

2. Characteristics of various types of landlords. Souls of the Dead:

Sobakevich;

box;

3. The image of Chichikov.

4. Living souls - the embodiment of the talent of the people.

5. The moral degradation of the people is the result of the moral emptiness of society.

4. But behind the “dead” souls of Chichikov, officials and landowners, Gogol discerned the living souls of the peasants, the strength of the national character. In the words of A. I. Herzen, in Gogol's poem, "behind dead souls - living souls" appear. The talent of the people is revealed in the dexterity of the coachman Mikheev, the shoemaker Telyatnikov, the bricklayer Milushkin, the carpenter Stepan Cork. The strength and sharpness of the people's mind was reflected in the glibness and accuracy of the Russian word, the depth and integrity of the Russian feeling - in the sincerity of the Russian song, the breadth and generosity of the soul - in the brightness and unrestrained fun of folk holidays. The boundless dependence on the usurping power of the landlords, who condemn the peasants to forced, exhausting labor, to hopeless ignorance, gives rise to stupid Mityaev and Minyaev, downtrodden Proshek and Pelageya, who do not know “where the right is, where the left is”, submissive, lazy, depraved Petrushki and Selifanov. Gogol sees how high and good qualities are distorted in the realm of “dead” souls, how peasants die, driven to despair, rushing into any risky business, just to get out of serfdom.

Women's Portal Flero

Dead and living souls in N.V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls"

Dead and living souls in N.V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls"

RELATED ARTICLES