A brief description of plushkin dead souls. Plushkin

Gogol calls his character a hole in all of humanity, and having become acquainted with the image of Plyushkin, the reader understands this characteristic. The landowner, his philosophy, lifestyle, moral portrait cannot leave a person indifferent. Everything revolts in him - refusal to take care of his children, narrow-mindedness, moral deformity, vulgar, humiliating habits.

Appearance

We first meet Plyushkin when he quarrels with a driver in the yard of his own house. Chichikov takes this man for a “woman”, only an old housekeeper can look like this. After learning that the creature in long, holey, greasy clothes is the owner of the estate, Chichikov freezes for a while, trying to recover and find the right tone. The landowner lost his human appearance, lost the remnants of his male appearance - the “dress” that looked out from under his outer garment was clearly feminine, some piece of clothing was wrapped around his neck, and a cap was on his head.

Gogol describes the eyes of our character in an extremely allegorical way: they, like two mice, were visible from under the eyebrows, watching the interlocutor vigilantly and inseparably. In a painful struggle with everyone around, Plyushkin was used to not relaxing for a second: courtyards, neighbors, guests - everyone, in his opinion, tried to take something away, “steal”, rob the master's yard. It was this conviction that made his look unpleasantly suspicious, repulsive. Greed in relation to himself affected the figure, appearance, health of the landowner: a thin, even dry, round-shouldered, untidy, toothless old man, who in his frugality reached an unhealthy extreme. He does not cause pity, only disgust and understanding of boundless human stupidity, terrifying madness.

Life and habits

Plyushkin is not famous for his hospitality, it is extremely important for him that the guest leaves the house as soon as possible. Having huge stocks of food, fabrics, leather, furs, utensils and much more, the landowner brings his house to the extreme degree of desolation, sinks himself and forces his peasants to vegetate in poverty. He is a master at slander, slander and deceit. Every day, humiliating his courtyards with suspicion of theft and embezzlement, he humiliates himself, emphasizing his own tyranny and stupidity.

The speech and mannerisms of the character speak of his unwillingness to put up with the presence of other people in his environment, perhaps a complete recluse would be a salvation for this type. The heavy temper and the inability to live with such a master is confirmed by the fact that the peasants at Plyushkin not only die like flies, but also run away from the landowner.

More than seventy runaway souls (in addition to the dead) he sold to Chichikov. Even the skillful swindler and chameleon Pavel Ivanovich cannot find the right manner in communication, since in front of him is a man who has clearly descended (when meeting at the church, he would definitely give alms to such a creature), with a sharp absurd character. What was the value of Plyushkin's offer to treat the guest to a stale gingerbread or an old tincture in which insects swam. Complementing the picture is the disgusting habit of the landowner to collect all sorts of garbage and things forgotten by the peasants around the village. "The fisherman went hunting" - so they said in the village when he moved along the street in search of "profit".

This quote suggests that the peasants were accustomed to the disgusting manner of "gathering" the landowner, mocked him and openly despised him. The habit of bringing into your home what others have thrown away, lost (garbage, rubbish, rags) characterizes the character as a person who has reached the highest degree of degradation that cannot be understood or justified. Is it an attempt to fill an inner void or a mental illness - is there a difference if other people suffer from this ?!

Plushkin's past

Oddly enough, just a few years ago, Plyushkin was a completely adequate person: the father of three children, a husband, an economical and competent owner. Neighbors came to visit him, learned the art of managing the estate, respected the authority of the owner. The landowner's wife was hospitable and intelligent, helped run a huge household, kept the house in order, and was respected by the peasants. After the death of his wife, the widower became a stingy man, quarreled with everyone in the district, merchants stopped visiting him. One of the daughters died, the other ran away with an officer, and the son, in defiance of his father, went to the city not for civil service, but for the regiment. These events became an excuse to refuse any material assistance to the children, their father became a miser, a liar and a misanthrope.

Completes the gallery of persons with whom Chichikov makes deals, the landowner Plyushkin - "a hole in humanity." Gogol notes that such a phenomenon is rare in Russia, where everything likes to turn around rather than shrink. Acquaintance with this hero is preceded by a landscape, the details of which reveal the soul of the hero. Dilapidated wooden buildings, dark old logs on the huts, roofs resembling a sieve, windows without glass, stuffed with rags, reveal Plyushkin as a bad owner with a dead soul. But the picture of the garden, although dead and deaf, creates a different impression. When describing it, Gogol used more joyful and lighter tones - trees, “a regular marble sparkling column”, “air”, “cleanliness”, “tidiness” ... And through all this, the life of the owner himself peeps, whose soul has faded, like nature in the wilderness this garden. In Plyushkin's house, too, everything speaks of the spiritual decay of his personality: heaped furniture, a broken chair, a dried lemon, a piece of rag, a toothpick ... Yes, and he himself looks like an old housekeeper, only gray eyes, like mice, run from under high-grown eyebrows . Everything dies, rots and collapses around Plyushkin. The story of the transformation of an intelligent person into a “hole in humanity”, which the author introduces us to, leaves an indelible impression. The ultimate degree of human decline is captured by Gogol in the image of the richest landowner of the province (more than a thousand serfs) Plyushkin. The portrait of Plyushkin bears an indelible imprint of the hero's life practice, his attitude to the world; it clearly indicates the erasure of the human personality, its necrosis. To an outsider's eye, Plyushkin appears to be a creature, extremely amorphous and indefinite. The only purpose of his life is the accumulation of things. As a result, he does not distinguish the important, the necessary from the little things, the useful from the unimportant. Everything that comes to his hand is of interest. Plyushkin becomes a slave to things. The thirst for hoarding pushes him onto the path of all sorts of restrictions. But he himself does not experience any discomfort from this. Unlike other landowners, the story of his life is given in full. She reveals the origins of his passion. The more the thirst for hoarding becomes, the more insignificant his life becomes. At a certain stage of degradation, Plyushkin ceases to feel the need to communicate with people. The biography of the character allows you to trace the path from a "thrifty" owner to a half-crazy miser. "Earlier, he was a good, zealous owner, even the neighbors went to him to learn how to manage. But the wife died, the eldest daughter married a military man, the son began to make a career in the army (Plyushkin was extremely hostile to the military), soon the youngest daughter also died, and he was left alone and became the guardian of his wealth. But this wealth was worse than poverty. It was accumulated without purpose, without finding not only reasonable, but also any use. He began to perceive his children as plunderers of his property, not experiencing any joy when meeting with them. In the end, he ended up all alone. Plyushkin in senseless hoarding sank to the extreme. As a result, that moral degradation of the personality began, which made a “hole in humanity” out of a good owner, a sickly miser who collects all sorts of rubbish, be it an old bucket, a piece of paper or a pen. This comparison indicates the pettiness, suspicion, greed of the hero. Just as a mouse drags everything it finds into its hole, so Plyushkin walked the streets of his village and picked up all sorts of rubbish: an old sole, a shard, a nail, a rag. All this he dragged into the house and put in a heap. The landowner's room was striking in its wretchedness and disorder. Dirty or yellowed things and little things were piled everywhere. Plyushkin turned into a kind of sexless creature. Before us, the tragedy of loneliness is played out, developing into a nightmarish picture of lonely old age. To an outsider's eye, Plyushkin appears to be a creature, extremely amorphous and indefinite. “While he (Chichikov) was examining all the strange decoration, the side door opened, and the same housekeeper that he met in the yard came in. But then he saw that it was rather a housekeeper than a housekeeper; the housekeeper, at least, does not shave his beard, but this one, on the contrary, shaved, and, it seemed, quite rarely, because his entire chin with the lower part of his cheek looked like a comb made of iron wire, which is used to clean horses in the stable. For all the general amorphous appearance of Plyushkin, separate sharp features appear in his portrait. In this combination of formlessness and sharply distinguished features - the whole of Plyushkin. “His face did not represent anything special,” “one chin only protruded very far forward, so that he had to cover it with a handkerchief every time so as not to spit; little eyes had not yet gone out and were running from under high-growing eyebrows, like mice, when, sticking out their pointed muzzles from dark holes, pricking up their ears and blinking their mustaches, they look out for a cat or a naughty boy hiding somewhere, and suspiciously sniffing the very air. . Small shifting eyes, diligently looking out for everything around, perfectly characterize both Plyushkin's petty greed and alertness. But with special attention when describing Plyushkin's portrait, the writer stops at the hero's costume. “His outfit was much more remarkable: no means and efforts could have got to the bottom of what his dressing gown was concocted from: the sleeves, and the upper floors were so greasy and shiny that they looked like yuft, which goes on boots; behind, instead of two, four floors dangled, from which cotton paper climbed in flakes. He also had something tied around his neck that could not be made out: whether it was a stocking, a garter, or an underbelly, but not a tie. This description vividly reveals the most important feature of Plyushkin - his all-consuming stinginess, although nothing is said about this quality in the description of the portrait.

When he first saw Plyushkin, Chichikov “for a long time could not recognize what gender the figure was: a woman or a man. Her dress was completely indefinite, very similar to a woman's hood, on her head was a cap worn by village yard women, only her voice seemed to him somewhat hoarse for a woman: “Oh, a woman! he thought to himself, and immediately added: “Oh, no!” "Of course, grandma!" Chichikov could not even imagine that this was a Russian master, a landowner, the owner of serf souls. The passion for accumulation unrecognizably disfigured Plyushkin; he saves only for the sake of hoarding... He starved the peasants to death, and they are "dying like flies" (80 souls in three years). He himself lives from hand to mouth, dresses like a beggar. With a terrible mien of a half-madman, he declares that "the people are painfully gluttonous with him, from idleness he got into the habit of cracking." About 70 peasants fled from Plyushkin, became outlaws, unable to endure a hungry life. His servants run barefoot until late winter, since the stingy Plyushkin has only boots for everyone, and even then they are put on only when the servants enter the porch of the manor's house. He considers the peasants to be parasites and thieves, he hates them and sees in them beings of a lower order. Already the appearance of the village speaks of the hopeless lot of serfs. The deep decline of the entire serf way of life is most clearly expressed precisely in the image of Plyushkin.

Plyushkin and his ilk hindered the economic development of Russia: “On the vast territory of Plyushkin’s estate (and he has about 1000 souls), economic life froze: mills, felters, cloth factories, carpentry machines, spinning mills stopped moving; hay and bread rotted, luggage and haystacks turned into pure dung, flour turned into stone, into cloth, canvases and household materials were terrible to touch. it became rot and dust." In the village of Plyushkin, Chichikov notices "some special dilapidation." Entering the house, Chichikov sees a strange heap of furniture and some street rubbish. Plyushkin is an insignificant slave of his own things. He lives worse than "the last shepherd of Sobakevich." Countless riches go to waste. Gogol's words sound warning: "And to what insignificance, pettiness, disgustingness a person could descend! He could change like that! .. Everything can happen to a person." Plyushkin folded pieces of paper, pieces, sealing wax, etc. The detail in the interior is symbolic: “a clock with a stopped pendulum”. So Plyushkin's life froze, stopped, lost ties with the outside world.

Plyushkin begins to resent the greed of officials who take bribes: “The clerks are so shameless! Before, it used to be that you could get away with half a copper and a sack of flour, but now send a whole cartload of cereals, and add a red piece of paper, such a love of money! And the landowner himself is greedy to the last extreme. In the scene of the sale of dead souls, the main feature of the hero is expressively revealed - stinginess, brought to the point of absurdity, which has crossed all boundaries. First of all, Plyushkin's reaction to Chichikov's proposal attracts attention. For a moment, the landowner is speechless with joy. Greed has so "saturated" his brain that he is afraid to miss the opportunity to get rich. He had no normal human feelings left in his soul. Plyushkin, like a wooden block, he does not love anyone, does not regret at all. He can only experience something for a moment, in this case, the joy of a bargain. Chichikov quickly finds a common language with Plyushkin. Only one thing worries the "patched" gentleman: how not to incur losses when making a purchase of a fortress. Soon, the fear and care familiar to him return to the landowner, because the purchase of a fortress will entail some expenses. He cannot bear this.

From the scene of the sale of "dead souls" you can learn new examples of his stinginess. So, for Plyushkin, for the whole household: both for the young and for the old, "there were only boots that were supposed to be in the hallway." Or another example. The owner wants to treat Chichikov with a liquor, which used to contain "goats and all sorts of rubbish", and the liquor was placed in a decanter, which "was covered in dust, like in a jersey." He scolds the servants. For example, he addresses Proshka: “Fool! Oh wow, fool!" And the master calls Mavra a "robber". Plyushkin suspects everyone of stealing: “After all, my people are either a thief or a swindler: in a day they will rob them so that there will be nothing to hang a caftan on.” Plyushkin is deliberately trying to be mean in order to "snatch" an extra penny from Chichikov. Characteristic in this scene is that Plyushkin bargains with Chichikov for a long time. At the same time, his hands tremble and tremble with greed, "like mercury." Gogol finds a very interesting comparison, testifying to the complete power of money over Plyushkin. The author's assessment of the character is merciless: “And to what insignificance, pettiness, disgustingness a person could descend! Could change like that!” The writer calls on young people to preserve "all human movements" in order to avoid degradation, so as not to turn into Plyushkin and his ilk.

The description of the life and customs of the hero reveals all his disgusting qualities. In the heart of the character, stinginess has taken all the place, and there is no longer any hope for saving his soul. The deep decline of the entire feudal way of life in Russia was most realistically reflected in the image of Plyushkin.

The image of Plyushkin is important for the realization of the ideological concept of the whole work. The author in the poem raises the problem of human degradation. The hero completes the portrait gallery of landowners, each of whom is spiritually more insignificant than the previous one. Plyushkin closes the chain. He is a terrible example of moral and physical degeneration. The author claims that "dead souls" such as Plyushkin and others are ruining Russia.

The image of Plyushkin is the final in a series of images of landowners. N.V. Gogol left this landowner to the very end for a reason. The landlords are presented in the sequence "one more vulgar than the other", from which we can conclude that Plyushkin is the most vulgar, base and greedy person.

If we recall how this character used to be, it becomes clear that he was a good landowner who knew how to manage the household. Neighbors came to him to learn his wise stinginess. His economy prospered, and Plyushkin himself was an excellent family man. His stinginess gained significant momentum over the years, and as a result, he became a terrible miser that even his entire household was in a ruined state. He spared money for absolutely everything. Perhaps, in this way, the death of his wife was reflected in him.

When Chichikov came to Plyushkin, he was shocked by what he saw. All the buildings were in an insignificant state, no one followed them and had not done repairs for a long time. The peasants on Plyushkin's farm were dying like flies, he didn't think about anyone at all. His soul died, and his thoughts were occupied with hoarding. One thing is not clear - why does he need so much money? To whom will he leave all his savings? He cursed his son, and he does not want to help his daughter, who needs help. Plyushkin sank to such an extent that he did not even need his own children.

He is lonely, no one cares about him, and he does not need anyone. He drags all sorts of junk into the house and Chichikov sees that Plyushkin's house is littered with unnecessary and useless rubbish. Plyushkin lived a worthless life. His stinginess drove him to the extreme. His mind seems to be clouded, he does not even realize why he saves money and why he saves so much on everything. The character does not even look like a landowner, but like a beggar. Plyushkin is sincerely sorry, but he himself is to blame for the life to which he brought himself.

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"Dead Souls" appeared in literature as an example of manuscripts that burn. As you know, Gogol, the author of the work, burned the second part of Dead Souls. Despite this, the text has firmly taken root on the pages of school literature programs. Gogol brought out many characters in the work: the names of some of them became common nouns. For example, the name of Plyushkin, which we will discuss below.

The symbolism of the surname

Gogol did not neglect symbolism in his works. Very often the names and surnames of the heroes of his works are symbolic. With the help of opposition to the characteristics of the hero or synonymy, they contribute to the disclosure of certain characteristics of the character.

Basically, the disclosure of symbolism does not require certain knowledge - the answer always lies on the surface. The same trend is observed in the case of Plyushkin.

The word "plyushkin" means a person who is distinguished by extraordinary stinginess and greed. The purpose of his life becomes the accumulation of a certain state (both in the form of finance, and in the form of products or raw materials) without a specific goal.

In other words, he saves in order to save. The accumulated good, as a rule, does not come true anywhere and is used with minimal expense.

This designation is fully consistent with the description of Plushkin.

Appearance and condition of the costume

Plyushkin is endowed with effeminate features in the poem. He has an elongated and unnecessarily thin face. Plyushkin did not have distinctive facial features. Nikolai Vasilievich claims that his face was not much different from the faces of other old people with emaciated faces.

A distinctive feature of Plyushkin's appearance was an exorbitantly long chin. The landowner had to cover him with a handkerchief so as not to spit. The image was complemented by small eyes. They had not yet lost their liveliness and looked like small animals. Plyushkin never shaved, his overgrown beard did not look the most attractive way and resembled a comb for horses.

Plyushkin had not a single tooth.

Plushkin's costume wants to look better. To be honest, it’s impossible to call his clothes a suit - they look so worn and strange that they resemble the rags of a tramp. Usually Plyushkin is dressed in an incomprehensible dress, similar to a woman's hood. His hat was also borrowed from the women's wardrobe - it was a classic cap of yard women.

The costume was in terrible condition. When Chichikov saw Plyushkin for the first time, he could not determine his gender for a long time - Plyushkin, in his behavior and appearance, was very reminiscent of a housekeeper. After the identity of the strange housekeeper was established, Chichikov came to the conclusion that Plyushkin did not look like a landowner at all - if he were near the church, he could easily be mistaken for a beggar.

Plushkin's family and his past

Plyushkin was not always such a person when he was young, his appearance and character were absolutely different from the current ones.

A few years ago Plyushkin was not alone. He was a man quite happily married. His wife definitely had a positive influence on the landowner. After the birth of the children, Plyushkin's life also pleasantly changed, but this did not last long - soon his wife died, leaving Plyushkin three children - two girls and a boy.

Plyushkin hardly survived the loss of his wife, it was difficult for him to cope with the blues, so he moved more and more away from his usual rhythm of life.

We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the poem by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol "Dead Souls".

A picky and quarrelsome character contributed to the final discord - the eldest daughter and son left their father's house without the blessing of their father. The youngest daughter died some time later. The eldest daughter, despite the difficult nature of her father, tries to maintain relations with him and even brings him children to visit. I lost contact with my son a long time ago. How his fate turned out and whether he is alive - the old man does not know.

Personality characteristic

Plyushkin is a difficult person. It is likely that certain inclinations for the development of certain qualities were laid in him earlier, but under the influence of family life and personal well-being, they did not acquire such a characteristic appearance.

Plyushkin was seized with anxiety - his concern and anxiety had long passed the permissible measure and became some kind of obsessive thought. After the death of his wife and daughter, he finally became callous in soul - the concepts of sympathy and love for others are alien to him.

This trend is observed not only in relation to strangers in the related plan of people, but also to the closest relatives.

The landowner leads a solitary life, he hardly communicates with his neighbors, he has no friends. Plyushkin likes to spend time alone, he is attracted by the ascetic way of life, the arrival of guests is associated with something unpleasant for him. He does not understand why people visit each other and considers it a waste of time - many useful things can be done during this time period.

It is impossible to find those who want to make friends with Plyushkin - everyone eschews the eccentric old man.

Plyushkin lives without a definite purpose in life. Due to his stinginess and pettiness, he was able to accumulate significant capital, but he does not plan to somehow use the accumulated money and raw materials - Plyushkin likes the accumulation process itself.

Despite significant financial reserves, Plyushkin lives very poorly - he is sorry to spend money not only on his relatives and friends, but also on himself - his clothes have long turned into rags, the house is leaky, but Plyushkin sees no point in improving something - his and so everything suits.

Plyushkin likes to complain and show off. It seems to him that he has only little - and he does not have enough food, and there is too little land, and even an extra tuft of hay cannot be found on the farm. In fact, everything is different - its food supplies are so large that they become unusable right in storage.

The second thing in life that brings pleasure in Plyushkin's life is quarrels and scandals - he is always dissatisfied with something and likes to express his dissatisfaction in the most unattractive form. Plyushkin is too picky person, it is impossible to please him.

Plyushkin himself does not notice his shortcomings, he believes that in fact everyone treats him with prejudice and cannot appreciate his kindness and care.

Plushkin's estate

No matter how Plyushkin complained about his employment with the estate, it is worth recognizing that as a landowner Plyushkin was not the best and most talented.

His large estate is not much different from an abandoned place. The gates and the fence along the garden were utterly worn out - in some places the fence collapsed, and no one was in a hurry to close up the holes that had formed.

On the territory of his village there used to be two churches, but now they are in disrepair.

Plyushkin's house is in a terrible state - probably it has not been repaired for many years. From the street, the house looks like a non-residential one - the windows in the estate were boarded up, only a few were opened. In some places, mold appeared, the tree was overgrown with moss.

Inside the house does not look better - the house is always dark and cold. The only room in which natural light penetrates is Plyushkin's room.

The whole house is like a garbage dump - Plyushkin never throws anything away. He thinks that these things can still be useful to him.

Plyushkin's office is also in chaos and disorder. Here is a broken chair that can no longer be repaired, a clock that does not work. In the corner of the room is a dump - what lies in a pile is difficult to make out. From the general heap stands out the sole from old shoes and a broken shovel handle.

It seems that the rooms were never cleaned - there was cobwebs and dust everywhere. Plyushkin's desk was also out of order - there were papers mixed with rubbish.

Attitude towards serfs

Plyushkin owns a large number of serfs - about 1000 people. Of course, caring for and correcting the work of so many people require certain strengths and skills. However, there is no need to talk about the positive achievements of Plyushkin's activities.

Plyushkin treats his peasants uncomfortably and cruelly. They differ little in appearance from their master - their clothes are torn, their houses are dilapidated, and the people themselves are immensely thin and hungry. From time to time, one of Plyushkin's serfs decides to escape, because the life of a fugitive becomes more attractive than that of Plyushkin's serf. Plyushkin sells about 200 "dead souls" to Chichikov - this is the number of people who died and serfs who fled from him in a few years. Compared with the "dead souls" of the other landlords, the number of peasants sold to Chichikov looks terrifying.

We suggest that you familiarize yourself with the story of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol "The Overcoat".

Peasant houses look even worse than the estate of the landowner. In the village it is impossible to find a single house with a whole roof - rain and snow freely penetrate into the dwelling. There are no windows in the houses either - the holes in the windows are patched up with rags or old clothes.

Plyushkin speaks extremely disapprovingly of his serfs - in his eyes they are lazy and loafers, but in fact this is slander - Plyushkin's serfs work hard and honestly. They sow grain, grind flour, dry fish, make fabrics, make various household items from wood, in particular dishes.

According to Plyushkin, his serfs are the most thieving and inept - they do everything somehow, without diligence, besides, they constantly rob their master. In fact, everything is not so: Plyushkin intimidated his peasants so much that they are ready to die of cold and hunger, but they will not take anything from their landowner's warehouse.

Thus, in the image of Plyushkin, the qualities of a greedy and stingy person were embodied. Plyushkin is not capable of feeling affection for people, or at least sympathy - he is hostile to absolutely everyone. He considers himself a good owner, but in fact this is self-deception. Plyushkin does not care about his serfs, he starves them, undeservedly accuses them of theft and laziness.

Plyushkin and the portrait of the hero of "Dead Souls"

Stepan Plyushkin, a character in the fictional world of Nikolai Gogol, the author describes utterly eloquently. Perhaps the image of Plyushkin succeeded Gogol so well that the name of the hero began to be used outside of literature in order to indicate painful stinginess and greed. According to the text of Dead Souls, it becomes known that Plyushkin once had a family: a wife, two daughters and a son. However, now the old man was left alone, and the house fell into disrepair. Plyushkin is an image of pathological hoarding, a character trait whose description has taken pride of place on the pages of psychoanalytic literature.

Plushkin family

So, in his younger years, the landowner got married, and Plyushkin had children. During this period, the hero's estate prospered, and the owner himself was known as a thrifty and rich owner. Apparently, over time, the once positive features of Plyushkin were exaggerated beyond recognition, turning rather into negative characteristics. Gogol devotes a significant place to the description of the gradual degradation of the old man. There were times when Plyushkin's neighbors used to visit the landowner to learn the art of housekeeping and the wisdom of saving money. Plyushkin wore, perhaps, not new clothes, but slightly worn, but neat. Wornness in this case testified to thrift, and not to stinginess.

In addition, Plyushkin, oddly enough, was distinguished by pleasant external features and voice. The hostess - the wife of the landowner - seemed to be a hospitable woman, as they say - hospitable. Daughters with blond curls looked like roses. The son gave the impression of an active, lively, broken boy. The guests were well received, the children were happy to see new faces in the house. Gogol mentions that Plyushkin's son turned out to be especially friendly: the child liked to kiss anyone who crossed the threshold of the estate. Plyushkin loved his family, took care of his children and wife. For his daughters, the landowner hired a companion who lived on the mezzanine in the house.

The death of his wife and the fate of Plyushkin's eldest daughter

The measured life of the landowner ends when the mistress of the house dies. Most of the worries fall on the widower, Stepan. The eldest daughter, Alexandra, did not inspire confidence in Plushkin. And it was no coincidence: after some (rather short) time, the girl ran away from her father's house with the captain, whom she soon married. Plyushkin, on the other hand, did not like and dislike the military, because he was convinced that officers were addicted to cards, gambling and cheating. With the departure of the eldest daughter, the house acquired a characteristic emptiness. Plyushkin's frugality grew into stinginess.

According to the text, the reader will learn that Alexandra gave birth to a son and even visited her father several times with a small child. The girl's intentions seemed purely selfish: Alexandra hoped that her father would give something to her daughter, but these hopes, as a rule, turned out to be in vain. Over time, the girl realized that the romantic dreams of youth about life with an officer in reality appeared in a less attractive light than they were in dreams. Plyushkin, oddly enough, forgave his daughter. Meanwhile, Alexandra Stepanovna did not help out the money, but the father allowed his grandson to play with a button - a great generosity for Plyushkin.

After a while, the eldest daughter again visited her father - already with two children. Alexandra this time came with gifts: the girl brought her father a dressing gown, because Plyushkin's clothes had become like rags, as well as treats for tea. Plyushkin treated his grandchildren well - with warmth: the landowner rocked the children on his knees, played with the children. Stepan accepted the gifts, but offered nothing in return for his daughter. Alexandra again left empty-handed.

The careless heir to the economy

Plyushkin's hair turned gray. The son grew up. And now: the time has come for the heir to the estate to serve, so Plyushkin let go of the French teacher, whom he had previously hired for his son. The landowner drove Alexandra's companion and Plyushkin's youngest daughter, because the woman, as it turned out, helped the girl in escaping with the captain. The son, meanwhile, did not go to the central city of the province, but went to the regiment. Later, the young man wrote a letter to his father asking for money to buy uniforms for service in the regiment, but Plyushkin did not give money to his son.

One day, Plyushkin receives news from his son: the young man lost heavily in gambling. This angered the father and forced him to send his son not money, but sincere father's curses. After this incident, Plyushkin was not interested in the fate of his son.

Plyushkin's life after the death of his youngest daughter

Plyushkin's youngest daughter, unfortunately, followed her mother and died soon after. Plyushkin found himself alone. Around - wealth, prosperity, property that has been accumulated over all this time. But this material aspect of life suddenly turned out to be unusable and empty, because, apart from the old owner, there was no one left on the estate. Gogol writes about Plyushkin during this period of the hero's life:

A solitary life has given nourishing food to avarice, which, as you know, has a ravenous hunger and the more it devours, the more insatiable it becomes; human feelings, which were not deep in him [i.e., in Plyushkin] anyway, grew shallow every minute, and every day something was lost in this worn-out ruin ...

Habits of the hero of "Dead Souls"

Gogol does not leave the reader without a description of Plushkin's habits and appearance. First of all, the writer dwells on the greed of the character, which reached manic limits:

... he still walked every day through the streets of his village, looked under the bridges, under the crossbars and everything that came across to him: an old sole, a woman's rag, an iron nail, a clay shard - he dragged everything to himself and put it in that pile that Chichikov noticed in the corner of the room ... after him there was no need to sweep the street ...

Actually, such a kind of collecting and collecting seemed to be the main occupation of Plyushkin. However, we will dwell on this trait of the hero below. As for Plyushkin's appearance, Stepan's face did not attract any special characteristics. Plyushkin looked like a thin old man with a strong and far protruding bony chin. Attention, perhaps, was attracted by the miniature eyes of the landowner, running back and forth. Plyushkin's eyebrows rose rather high above those small eyes, so it seemed that the hero was always surprised by something.

Gogol paid more attention to the description of the hero's clothes. Plyushkin's outfit was apparently so old that it was impossible to understand what material these clothes were made of. Greasy floors, a worn dressing gown, four parts of the floor instead of two - this is how the writer describes Plushkin's clothes. On the neck of the old man "flaunted" something that looked like a bandage or an old torn stocking.

Description of Plyushkin's personality

Gogol focuses on Plyushkin's carelessness, economic negligence and incredible stinginess. Once this stinginess was frugality, but now this trait has grown so much in its pathological form that it has become reminiscent of cruelty. The barns of the landowner are bursting with food, but the peasants of the village of Plyushkin are starving.

The village of Plyushkin has about a thousand souls (although Sobakevich gave a different figure - 800 people), who pull the economy of the miser. Despite wealth and wealth, Plyushkin looked like a beggar. When Chichikov first saw the landowner, he thought that if the old man had met him near the church, then Chichikov would have confused Plyushkin with a poor man. The old man was over sixty. Chichikov's first impression of the landowner is confused: age and avarice have changed the hero beyond recognition. So much so that Plyushkin began to look more like a woman than a man. Upon closer inspection, the face of the landowner is unkempt and unshaven, his eyes are small and dull, and his skin resembles sandpaper. Plyushkin's teeth had fallen out a long time ago.

Plyushkin's personality is vividly characterized by a landowner neighbor named Sobakevich:

... he has eight hundred souls, but lives and dine worse than my shepherd ...

Sobakevich also calls Plyushkin a swindler for whom the prison is crying, a miser who makes the peasants starve. Chichikov, on the other hand, believed that Plyushkin replaced virtues with the concept of economy and order.

Description of Plushkin's house

When Chichikov first arrives at Plyushkin's estate, the eyes of the protagonist of "Dead Souls" come across a depressing picture of a devastated village. Plyushkin's estate, once, apparently, prosperous, now has become like a dilapidated hut, moreover, dilapidated:

... he (Chichikov) noticed some special dilapidation on all wooden buildings: the log on the huts was dark and old; many roofs blew through like a sieve: on others there was only a ridge at the top and poles on the sides in the form of ribs ... The windows in the huts were without glass, others were plugged with a rag or zipun<…>Partially, the manor house began to show itself ... This strange castle looked like some kind of decrepit invalid, long, unreasonably long ...

The plaster on the walls of the house was crumbling, and the walls themselves bore signs of frequent rains and bad weather. Most of the buildings were already covered with the eternal companion of dilapidation - mold, the greenness of which merged with the bushes and neglected vegetation of the old garden, which gradually merged with the field - just as dead and abandoned.

The interior of the estate of the Gogol hero

Above you could get acquainted with the exterior of Plyushkin's house. As for the interior decoration of the estate, here things were no less sad. The kitchen looked bad, and the fire chimney and stove were out of order. Disorder reigned in Plyushkin's room. It turned out to Chichikov that the inside of the house had not been cleaned for a long time, and even more so, the floors had not been washed. In the middle of the room, Plyushkin piled various things on a heap, objects that he picked up in the course of his daily rounds of the streets of the village:

It would never have been possible to say that a living creature lived in this room, if the old, worn cap that lay on the table did not herald its presence ...

The cap, like the dressing gown, has become a mandatory attribute of Plyushkin, without which, perhaps, not a single illustration for "Dead Souls" can do. The fact that Plyushkin constantly walked around in one, and at home, clothes, hinted at a certain soreness of the hero's nature.

Plyushkin's estate and farm

Gogol describes Plyushkin as a man who, in his youth, had all his affairs taken over. Liveliness and measuredness are the hallmarks of the landowner's economy - the one that was once observed by the hero's neighbors. The author mentions the vastness of the landowner's household: there is a mill, a felting mill, cloth production and a spinning mill. For everything that was listed in the economy, Plyushkin followed carefully and tirelessly. Gogol calls the hero a hardworking spider, who was distinguished by a slight vanity, but at the same time - quickness, business acumen, experience, wisdom and intelligence.

Plyushkin's household in the period after the death of his wife and the departure of children
When the wife of the Gogol hero died, the entire burden of housekeeping fell on Plyushkin's shoulders. Widowhood made the owner more stingy and suspicious, which, however, following the logic of Gogol, characterized all widowers. Keys and petty household chores, which passed to Plyushkin after the death of his wife, led to the fact that the hero became more fussy and restless. Gogol describes the changes that took place in Plyushkin's way of life:

Every year the windows in his house pretended to be, finally, only two remained.<…>every year more and more of the main parts of the household went out of sight, and his petty glance turned to the pieces of paper and feathers that he collected in his room; he became unyielding to the buyers who came to take away his household works ...

Plyushkin absolutely did not sell the products produced on the estate. Items accumulated and disappeared, gradually falling into disrepair. At the same time, the owner did not change the usual way of life of the village he owned. For example, the peasants were subject to the same taxes and quitrents, the weavers wove the same amount of fabrics as during the life of the mistress. But the things produced were piled up and not sold. The estate fell into disrepair - not from the inept conduct of business, but from the non-use of things:

... everything became rotten and a hole, and he (Plyushkin) himself finally turned into some kind of hole in humanity ...

Plyushkin's studies from the point of view of psychoanalysis?

In the previous quote, Gogol revealed (albeit partially) the activities of the protagonist. After Plyushkin was left alone, the landowner probably began to fill the hole that arose in his soul with things. In fact, it didn't matter to Stepan what exactly those things were. The main idea is to accumulate things. I remember that Erich Fromm, in a curious psychoanalytic analysis, revealed the essence of the accumulation of objects and collecting. Let's take a look at the research findings. According to Fromm, collecting objects is a kind of "necrophilia", that is, love or passion for an inanimate object. However, Fromm's point of view was also found to be the opposite: collecting things and exchanging objects, rather, hints at life, because the metabolism in the body, the accumulation and circulation of energy are the main signs of a living being. Collectors, collectors pay attention to “unnecessary” things: Gogol also describes that Plyushkin collected, accumulated, at first glance, strange, non-functional things:

... this is a demon, not a man; hay and bread rotted, stacks and haystacks turned into pure manure, even plant cabbage on them, flour in the cellars turned into stone, and it was necessary to chop it, it was terrible to touch the cloth, canvas, household materials: they turned into dust. He himself had already forgotten how much he had, and he only remembered where in his closet there was a decanter with the remainder of some kind of tincture, on which he himself made a mark so that no one thieves would drink it, and where the feather lay. or a curmudgeon...

Plyushkin's main occupation is collecting. Within the framework of psychoanalysis, this hobby or practice has taken on special significance. Some psychoanalysts, like Karl Abraham, have reduced the passion for hoarding or collecting objects to an unfulfilled sexual desire. Thus, the desire to collect things was presented as a symbolic surrogate for physiological passion.

However, in the case of Plyushkin, it seems to us that Martin Buber's hypothesis is more adequate. The thinker believed that a person sometimes treats inanimate objects in the same way as people endowed with a soul. It is the construction of a relationship that Buber calls "I-Thou." Plyushkin felt acute loneliness and loss after the death of his wife and younger girl, the departure of his eldest daughter, a kind of betrayal of his son (apparently, this is how the hero of "Dead Souls" regarded the young man's act). Thus, with the help of the accumulation of things, Plyushkin tried to compensate for the losses that he had experienced.

Of course, Gogol's character cannot be called a collector in the full sense of the word. The collector establishes special, almost related, intimate ties with things. Close people are replaced by things. But those who are dismissive of the collector's collection are sometimes perceived as objects, and not living, animated beings. There is a kind of confusion going on. The second consequence of this kind of relationship is the development of avarice in the collector, which happened to Plyushkin.

One of the most striking characters of Gogol, a literary hero, whose name has long become a household name, a character that is remembered by everyone who read "Dead Souls" - the landowner Stepan Plyushkin. His memorable figure closes the gallery of images of the landlords presented by Gogol in the poem. Plyushkin, who gave his name even to an official disease (Plyushkin's syndrome, or pathological hoarding), is in fact a very rich man who has led a vast economy to complete decline, and a huge number of serfs to poverty and a miserable existence.

This fifth and last companion of Chichikov is a vivid example of how dead the human soul can be. Therefore, the title of the poem is very symbolic: it not only directly indicates that we are talking about "dead souls" - as the dead serfs were called, but also about the miserable, devoid of human qualities, devastated souls of landowners and officials.

Characteristics of the hero

("Plyushkin", artist Alexander Agin, 1846-47)

The reader's acquaintance with the landowner Plyushkin Gogol begins with a description of the surroundings of the estate. Everything testifies to desolation, insufficient funding and the absence of a firm hand from the owner: dilapidated houses with leaky roofs and windows without glass. The sad landscape is enlivened by the master's garden, although neglected, but described in much more positive colors: clean, tidy, filled with air, with a "correct marble sparkling column." However, Plyushkin's dwelling again inspires melancholy, around desolation, despondency and mountains of useless, but extremely necessary rubbish for the old man.

Being the richest landowner in the province (the number of serfs reached 1000), Plyushkin lived in extreme poverty, eating leftovers and dried breadcrumbs, which did not cause him the slightest discomfort. He was extremely suspicious, everyone around seemed to him insidious and unreliable, even his own children. Only the passion for hoarding was important for Plyushkin, he collected everything on the street that came to hand and dragged it into the house.

("Chichikov at Plushkin", artist Alexander Agin, 1846-47)

Unlike other characters, Plyushkin's life story is given in full. The author introduces the reader to a young landowner, talking about a good family, a beloved wife and three children. Neighbors even came to the zealous owner in order to learn from him. But the wife died, the eldest daughter ran away with the military, the son joined the army, which his father did not approve of, and the youngest daughter also died. And gradually the respected landowner turned into a man whose whole life is subject to hoarding for the sake of the very process of accumulation. All other human feelings, which had not previously been distinguished by brightness, died out in him completely.

Interestingly, some professors of psychiatry have mentioned that Gogol very clearly and at the same time artistically described a typical case of senile dementia. Others, for example, psychiatrist Ya.F. Kaplan, deny this possibility, saying that Plyushkin's psychopathological features do not show through to a sufficient degree, and Gogol simply illuminated the state of old age that he met everywhere.

The image of the hero in the work

Stepan Plyushkin himself is described as a creature dressed in unkempt rags, resembling a woman from afar, but the stubble on his face nevertheless made it clear that the main character is a representative of the stronger sex. With the general amorphousness of this figure, the writer focuses on individual facial features: a protruding chin, a hooked nose, no teeth, eyes expressing suspicion.

Gogol - the great master of the word - shows us with bright strokes a gradual, but irreversible change in the human personality. The man, in whose eyes the mind shone in previous years, gradually turns into a miserable miser who has lost all the best feelings and emotions. The main goal of the writer is to show how terrible the coming old age can be, how small human weaknesses can turn into pathological features under certain life circumstances.

If the writer wanted to simply portray a pathological miser, he would not go into the details of his youth, a description of the circumstances that led to the current state. The author himself tells us that Stepan Plyushkin is the future of a fiery youth in old age, that unsightly portrait, seeing which, a young man would jump back in horror.

("Peasants near Plushkin", artist Alexander Agin, 1846-47)

However, Gogol leaves a small chance for this hero: when the writer conceived the third volume of the work, he planned to leave Plyushkin - the only one of all the landowners he met Chichikov - in an updated, morally revived form. Describing the appearance of the landowner, Nikolai Vasilievich singles out the old man's eyes separately: "the little eyes have not yet gone out and ran from under high-growing eyebrows like mice ...". And the eyes, as you know, are the mirror of the human soul. In addition, Plyushkin, who seems to have lost all human feelings, suddenly decides to give Chichikov a gold watch. True, this impulse immediately goes out, and the old man decides to enter the clock in the donation, so that after death at least someone will remember him with a kind word.

Thus, if Stepan Plyushkin had not lost his wife, his life could have turned out quite well, and the onset of old age would not have turned into such a deplorable existence. The image of Plyushkin completes the gallery of portraits of degraded landowners and very accurately describes the lowest level that a person can slide into in his lonely old age.