My impressions of Gogol's comedy The Inspector General. Essay on the topic: “Inspector

Megamind

I recently read it, glad to help. I want to reflect my impression of the comedy I read by N.V. Gogol "The Inspector General". I chose this work because it is very interesting, the author shows in a funny way all the events happening to the characters. Contrastes the worthlessness of the ruling elite of society with the slavish obedience of the Russian peasantry. I think this work is based on the self-exposure of the characters. There are no positive characters in it. All actions are motivated by the characters and psychology of its heroes. The image of the mayor Skvoznik - Dmukhanovsky is presented as a rude, cynical administrator. The image of Khlestakov is a frivolous braggart, an insignificant and vulgar person. Let me give you a few examples. A petty official who, traveling from St. Petersburg to visit his father in the village, lost all his money on the way and has been living on credit for two weeks in a hotel in a provincial town, without the means to continue his journey. In this county town they are waiting for an auditor, who must arrive incognito. The mayor, postmaster, judge, trustee of charitable institutions and other officials, all very dishonest, out of fear, or rather, out of stupidity, mistake Khlestakov for this auditor. They take him around the city, treat him and lend him money in order to lure the terrible man into their favor and make him turn a blind eye to the omissions and disorders in their service. Seeing their willingness to lend money, Khlestakov became so happy with bribes that he no longer asked those who came to him who they were, and from the first word demanded taxes from them. Two landowners, two provincial originals, living in a provincial town and inviolable from service, Pyotr Ivanovich Dobchinsky and Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky, come to him with respect at the very moment of this predatory mood, and here there is a scene of the highest comedy. The author nowhere names the province in which his district city lies: therefore the city can be located anywhere. City officials are too frivolously confident that Khlestakov is the very auditor they are expecting. As a character, I remember Khlestakov more, but not as a positive hero, but as a cunning one, who in essence is no different from deceived officials. “The Inspector General” collected all the bad things in Russia, all the injustices that are done in those places and in those cases where justice and decency are most required from a person. Administrative abuses in remote and little-visited places exist throughout the whole world, and there is no sufficient reason to attribute them to Russia alone. This book made me think about these questions.

N.V. Gogol is a famous writer who became known primarily for his works “Dead Souls” and “The Inspector General”. His work was highly appreciated, since manuscripts began to be published during his lifetime and his books were immediately successful. But the comedy “The Inspector General” made the authorities want to fight its satire. It is known that the play was allowed to go into print and was not prohibited from being published in the future. But Nicholas I, immediately after watching the performance based on Gogol’s play, hired an unknown author who was supposed to create the same comedy as “The Inspector General.” But the officials in the new play were still punished. After this, there were performances based on the text of this new and revised comedy, which was called “The Real Inspector General.” But this did not at all weaken the interest of Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General”.

History of creation

It is believed that the plot of the play “The Inspector General,” like the poem “Dead Souls,” was suggested to the writer by the poet A. Pushkin in 1835, who told about a real incident that occurred in the Novgorod province. Some believe that this incident happened to the disgraced poet himself in the same province.

While N. Gogol was working on his comedy, he constantly wrote to his friend Pushkin, reporting how difficult the work was going and how sometimes he wanted to give up this idea. But Alexander Sergeevich always persuaded Nikolai Gogol not to give up working on the manuscript, believing that it would turn out to be quite interesting. And already in the winter of 1836, Gogol read his comedy at a small evening of writers, among whom was the disgraced poet A. Pushkin, and V. Zhukovsky and others. And Turgenev later described this evening as follows:

“Gogol read excellently; he struck me with his extreme simplicity and restraint of manner.”

During the reading, only Zhukovsky and Pushkin liked the comedy, who laughed heartily. The rest did not consider this story as typical for the Russian state. But the author of the immortal comedy himself wrote the following review of his work:

“I decided to put everything bad in Russia into one pile... and laugh at everything at once.”

But if the play was published almost immediately without any obstacles, then with the production on stage everything was more complicated. There was no way to get permission for the production, and only the poet Vasily Zhukovsky was able to get it staged in a personal conversation with the emperor.

Characters of the play

In the comedy “The Inspector General” the writer has many different characters, the characteristics of which are given by the writer himself clearly and clearly. But all the names of Gogol’s characters are “speaking”, pointing out their vices and ridiculing them. So, the following main characters act in Gogol’s comedy:

★ Mayor Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky.
★ The wife and daughter of the mayor.
★ Superintendent of schools L.L. Khlopov.
★ Judge A.F. Lyapkin-Tyapkin.
★ Trustee of charitable institutions A.F. Strawberry.
★ Postmaster I.K. Shpekin.
★ City landowners: P.I. Dobchinsky and P.I. Bobchinsky.
★ St. Petersburg official Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov.
★ District doctor Kh.I. Gibner.
★ Private bailiff S.I. Earwigs.
★ Policemen: Svistunov, Pugovitsyn, Derzhimorda.

Plot of the play

Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" consists of five acts and is intended for stage production. Let us dwell in more detail on the content of each action of the play. In the first act of Gogol's comedy, a petty official of the lowest rank that exists in Rus' rides on pawn horses from the city of Saratov to beautiful St. Petersburg. Khlestakov travels with his sloppy and lazy servant Osip. While passing through, Ivan Alexandrovich ends up in a certain provincial town, where he stops for a while. Very quickly the college registrar loses all the money and is left without any means of subsistence.

Khlestakov was forced to move from a good room to an attic space, dark and dirty. There was no money even for lunch. And if for some time in the kitchen they gave lunch on credit, now they demanded that they first give payment for the food already eaten, and also pay for the room. Therefore, Khlestakov expected eviction, most likely with a scandal. And at this time, the arrival of an auditor is expected in the city, about which a good friend informs the mayor in a letter. A friend tells Anton Antonovich that the inspector is traveling incognito. Therefore, all officials are waiting for the arrival of this auditor and are very afraid.

The mayor, realizing that he and all his officials are simply mired in bribes, gives valuable instructions on what and how to do. Immediately after this, the famous gossiping landowners Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky go to the tavern to have lunch and there they encounter Khlestakov. They take him for an auditor and rush to inform the mayor about this. A commotion begins in Anton Antonovich's house, as all the officials are trying to hide their sins in their work. The mayor lost his mind for a while, but then, having gathered his strength, he decides to go to the auditor himself for a visit.

Meanwhile, Khlestakov, half-starved, and having quarreled with the innkeeper, is thinking about where he can get money so that he can finally pay and go further on the road. Then suddenly, right on the threshold of his dirty room, the mayor appears, whose visit frightened the hero. At first, Ivan Alexandrovich thinks that it was the owner of the inn who complained, but, seeing how timid Anton Antonovich was, he began to listen to his speeches, and it soon became clear that the mayor was offering him a monetary bribe, which the guest borrowed. Anton Antonovich invites the “auditor” to visit his charitable institutions, Ivan Alexandrovich can only agree.

The third act already takes place in the mayor’s house, where the drunken Khlestakov begins to pursue Anton Antonovich’s wife and daughter. He tells all sorts of lies about himself, showing what an important position he occupies in the St. Petersburg capital. He lied so much that he himself began to believe in his own stories. What kind of stories did he come up with! For example, he says that he writes operas under a pseudonym and that he receives much more for his literary work than other authors. He also talks about what expensive and luxurious balls he organizes. In one of the stories, he even lies about how a huge number of couriers came to his home to persuade him to become the director of the department. But completely drunk, unable to even walk to the room allotted to him, he is sent to bed.

In the fourth act of the play, Khlestakov starts taking money, supposedly as a loan, right in the morning, but all the officials think it’s a bribe. He himself begs everyone for money, saying that an unexpected situation happened to him on the road. But then petitioners begin to come to him - small merchants who also pay bribes, but with natural products: lard, wine. After this, Ivan Alexandrovich manages to ask for the hand of the mayor’s daughter and receives the consent of the parents. But Osip, his servant, insists on quickly leaving the city before their deception is revealed. When leaving, a minor official at the post office sends a letter to a friend, where he tells about the story that happened to him on the road.

In the fifth act, the whole deception is revealed only after Khlestakov has left, and the postmaster, according to his usual habit, opened and read his letter. But this was a big blow for the mayor, and in the meantime a real auditor entered the city.

Artistic features of the poem

Before N. Gogol, works with a plot where there were no positive characters did not yet exist in Russian literature. The author gives a satirical portrayal of both the officials and the mayor himself. Everyone understands that an official is always associated with deception and bribes, which is why it sounds so natural in Gogol’s comedy. All the characters, regardless of their position, do not know any other way out of the plot except to offer a monetary bribe to the visiting auditor.

The writer does not specifically name his district town, showing that what the reader is looking at is typical for all of Russia. But the author was especially successful in the image of Ivan Khlestakov, who, despite his youth and stupidity, still manages to deceive the mayor, who has extensive experience in his position. Some writers even saw a mystical motive in the play, believing that the inspector came to this provincial town to take the soul of the mayor. This opinion arose due to the fact that Khlestakov managed to easily mislead everyone about his origin.

The influence of the comedy “The Inspector General” on Russian culture

In 2009, when the famous and mystical writer N.V. Gogol was celebrated two hundred years old, a postage stamp was issued in his honor. But already in those times when the author of the immortal work lived, its publication had a huge impact. The Gogol style of its writing and incredible imagery were especially noted. According to the recollections of contemporaries, all the young people who saw this comedy on stage were delighted. Some scenes and conversations were even memorized. Disputes constantly flared up in society about comedy and Gogol’s innovative style of depicting reality. The country's adoration for Gogol grew more and more.
Critics first started talking about the comedy “The Inspector General” only in 1840. The first to give a detailed critical analysis of this work was Belinsky. He noted that Gogol’s work originates in the works of D. Fonvizin and J.B. Moliere, the critic characterized the characters, pointing out that the mayor and the visiting official are not examples of vices, but this is the real moral corruption of the society that reigned at that time. According to Belinsky, it is impossible to single out anything in the play, since the entire work as a whole is beautiful and all its parts are compositionally placed in such a way that they represent a single whole. The deep inner content of this comedy was also noted by critic V. Belinsky.

Currently, the significance of this comedy is just as great, since the problems and vices that the author touches on and ridicules are, unfortunately, relevant even today. Many phrases from Gogol's comedy became catchphrases, and the names of Gogol's characters became household names.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is among those who are commonly called classics of Russian literature. His works are read in schools, plays are staged and films are made based on his books. “Dead Souls”, “Taras Bulba”, “The Overcoat” and much more - everyone knows these books. This article will talk about the comedy, which even the Tsar himself, Nicholas the First, watched. I watched and applauded the author. We are talking about the comedy "The Inspector General".

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol: the formation of a writer

In 1828, young Gogol came to St. Petersburg, the capital, where the main person in literature was Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Nikolai serves as a minor official, tries to earn extra money in the theater and begins to write.

The first work that was published was “Basavryuk”. Later, after the writer became stronger, this work was rewritten and published under the title “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala.” At the same time, the following were released: “The Night Before Christmas”, “May Night” and other novels and short stories, united under the general title “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”. From that moment on, the young writer was noticed - this happened in the early thirties of the nineteenth century.

The stories made a great impression on two living classics of Russian literature: Pushkin and Zhukovsky. Writers meet. Also in the mid-thirties, the first drafts of one of the most famous comedies in Russian literature, “The Inspector General,” appeared.

The idea of ​​the play

It is traditionally believed that the basis for the plot was suggested to Gogol by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. He very persistently asked to continue working on the comedy, even when Gogol “gave up” and had thoughts of abandoning the idea he had begun.

The incident told by Pushkin took place in the Novgorod province, where some passing gentleman pretended to be a very important official and robbed all the rich residents of the town of Ustyuzhna. It is interesting that some time before the publication of The Inspector General, a similar thing was already circulating in Russian literary circles, but was not particularly successful. We are talking about Veltman's novel "Furious Roland". And at the end of the twenties the comedy “A Visitor from the Capital, or Turmoil in a County Town” was written.

Publication and criticism of contemporaries

Nikolai Vasilyevich publicly read the comedy for the first time while visiting Vasily Zhukovsky. In addition to the owner, a large group of writers of that era listened to him: there was Pushkin, and Turgenev, who was gaining popularity, and Vyazemsky, and many others.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev left the following memories of that evening: “He (Gogol) read excellently. The manner was simple and restrained, important and naive - at the same time. It seemed to me that Gogol was only thinking about how to delve into a subject that was new to him ", and how to convey it more accurately. The effect was extraordinary."

Both Zhukovsky and Pushkin were delighted with the comedy. As one of those present, Baron Rosen, recalled: “Pushkin was almost rolling with laughter while the comedy was being read.” True, many, as critics would later say, either could not or did not want to see in the text not so much one provincial town as an allusion to the whole of Russia.

N.V. Gogol himself gave the following review of the work “The Inspector General”: “I decided to collect everything bad that is in Russia in one pile: injustices - large and small, all the stupidity and meanness, and at once laugh at everything.”

The comedy was published in magazines published by Pushkin. Later - Nekrasov and Belinsky.

"The Inspector General" by Gogol. Reviews of the first production in the theater. Story

The comedy "The Inspector General" had a difficult road to the stage. Initially, due to the very social plot, the censor did not want to allow the work to be published either in print or on stage. But in a personal conversation with Tsar Nicholas the First, the Russian poet Zhukovsky managed to convince him that there was nothing unreliable in the comedy - it was just a mockery of officials who did their job very poorly.

The play was first staged on the stage of the St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky Theater. This happened on the nineteenth of April 1836. Nicholas the First himself was at the premiere, along with members of the royal family. Critics believe that it was the positive review of the work “The Inspector General” (Gogol), heard after the premiere from the Tsar, that influenced the fate of the play. Nicholas the First, appreciating both the writer’s skill and his sharp mind, finally said: “What a play! Everyone enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it more than anyone else.” After these words, the comedy began to be staged in all theaters of the country, albeit with caution, but still as a work that received the approval of the sovereign himself.

But Nikolai Vasilyevich himself was very disappointed with what was shown on the stage of the St. Petersburg Theater. He believed that the plays were not understood as he would like to be understood. Therefore, the author refused to even help prepare the performance in Moscow. Gogol also did not come to the Moscow premiere. In Moscow, "The Inspector General" was first staged a month later - on May twenty-fifth, 1836, on the stage of the Maly Theater. The performance, according to newspaper criticism, was a great success.

Further productions

The comedy "The Inspector General" is one of those plays that are staged in almost all theaters in Russia. And in the twentieth century, during the era of the Soviet Union, comedy enjoyed great success. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, both in Russia and in the CIS countries, Gogol is regularly staged.

Probably, such relevance of comedy is connected, first of all, with a society that has practically not changed in two centuries. Political courses changed, wars went on, the country changed its border, capital and anthem. But the problems that sit deeply, deeply in the Russian people of the nineteenth century still do not allow people of the twenty-first century to live normally. Bribery, veneration, indifference and much more - alas, but all this remains. That’s why “The Inspector General” always looks relevant and like a “play of today.”

Film adaptations in Russia

The very first attempt to film the comedy was made in 1933, in the Soviet Union. The plot of the play “The Inspector General” by Gogol was taken as a basis. Reviews about the film have not been preserved, only information about the film adaptation undertaken.

The next film adaptation appeared in 1953. The film strictly follows the text of the original and ends with the famous "silent scene". The director did not “invent the wheel”, but transferred the written play from paper to the TV screen. The reviews for this film based on the comedy “The Inspector General” by Gogol were meager and unmemorable. The film adaptation did not receive any awards. Although the director was Vladimir Petrov, who became a Stalin Prize laureate four times.

In 1977, with the title “Incognito from St. Petersburg,” the comedy was filmed by Leonid Gaidai himself, whose films about Shurik were known and loved by the entire Soviet Union.

In 2014, Alexander Baranov directed the film "April Fool's Day." The plot of the Russian writer was transferred to the present day and filmed. The film based on the comedy “The Inspector General” by Gogol received unimportant reviews (for example, on the KinoPoisk website, the rating was less than five out of ten) and therefore is almost not broadcast on TV.

Film adaptations of comedies abroad

The first foreign film was released in the late forties of the twentieth century, in the USA. It was a musical comedy by Henry Coster. The film, based on the play “The Inspector General” (N.V. Gogol), was reviewed by all the leading literary publications of that time, not only in the USA, where the film adaptation was released, but also in Europe. Only in the Soviet Union, due to the Cold War, the film was passed over in silence. The peculiarity of this film is that only the plot was left from Gogol. The action of the film was moved geographically, and the characters' names and social statuses were changed.

Afterwards, in the eighties and nineties of the twentieth century, this work of Gogol was filmed several more times. But the films were of “local” significance and were not very successful.

The influence of Gogol's work on further culture

Even after the first readings and publications, Nikolai Vasilyevich’s work was appreciated by such Russian writers as Pushkin, Turgenev, Belinsky, Annenkov, Herzen and others.

A review of the story “The Inspector General” (Gogol) was written by Stasov (a great Russian critic of the nineteenth century), where he recalled: “they adored the play, often repeating entire passages by heart. They argued with their elders, who assured that Gogol was nothing and would fade away very soon And the more we argued, the more we fell in love with Gogol."

The first big review of the book “The Inspector General” (Gogol) was published by Belinsky in 1840. The critic noted the writer’s connection with the works of another Russian classic, Fonvizin, as well as the influence of the writer Moliere on Gogol. The critic also emphasized that the heroes of the play are not bearers of specific negative qualities, but figures showing the moral decay of the entire Russian society.

Gradually, many phrases from comedy came into use and began to be used as catchphrases. The comedies of Fonvizin and Griboyedov had a similar fate.

The comedy "The Inspector General" is studied in schools of modern Russia, along with the poem "Dead Souls" and the stories "The Overcoat", "Taras Bulba", "The Nose" and others. After reading “The Inspector General” by Gogol, schoolchildren write reviews, essays with characteristics of the characters, discussions about relevance, or expressing their views on the work.

• When the play was translated into Persian, the mayor's wife was replaced with a second daughter, because courting married women in Iran is punishable by death.
• Often there were bread balls on the writer's desk. He rolled them while he worked and assured his friends that they were real helpers in solving impossible problems.
• Despite the fact that Gogol always assured that “Viy” was his retelling of the legend, none of the historians, writers and linguists have yet found any primary source. Because of this, the conclusion is drawn that “Viy” is entirely the writer’s invention.
• The exact cause of Gogol's death has not yet been established and is unlikely to ever be clear.
• A few days before his death, Gogol saw his lifeless body from the side and heard some otherworldly voices.
• On the night from the eleventh to the twelfth of February, the second volume of Dead Souls was destroyed. The next morning Gogol repented and blamed the evil one for his deed.
• Seventy-nine years later, Gogol’s body was quietly removed from the grave and reburied in the old cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent. When they opened the heavy oak lid of the coffin, they saw: the skeleton’s skull was turned to one side. This gave rise to a whole bunch of gossip that the writer was buried alive, in a state of lethargic sleep.

Conclusion

It’s probably best to end with the words of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. When Dostoevsky wrote a short review of Gogol’s “The Inspector General,” he recalled: “The youth of the forties did not love any of the writers so much. When we got together, someone always said: friends, shouldn’t we read Gogol? And they read and heatedly discussed read."

so that there is no harassment for travelers and all noble people... Khlestakov (at first he stutters a little, but towards the end of his speech he speaks loudly). But what can I do?.. It’s not my fault... I’ll really pay... They’ll send it to me from the village. Bobchinsky looks out of the door. He is more to blame: he serves me beef as hard as a log; and the soup - God knows what he splashed in there, I had to throw it out the window. He starved me for days on end... The tea is so strange: it stinks of fish, not tea. Why am I... Here's the news! Mayor (timid). Sorry, it's really not my fault. The beef at my market is always good. They are brought by Kholmogory merchants, people who are sober and of good behavior. I don't know where he gets this from. And if something goes wrong, then... Let me invite you to move with me to another apartment. Khlestakov. No I do not want to! I know what it means to another apartment: that is, to prison. What right do you have? How dare you?.. Yes, here I am... I serve in St. Petersburg. (Being cheerful.) I, I, I... Mayor (to the side). Oh my God, so angry! I found out everything, the damned merchants told me everything! Khlestakov (bravely). Even if you’re here with your whole team, I won’t go! I'm going straight to the minister! (He hits the table with his fist.) What are you doing? What do you? Mayor (stretched out and trembling with his whole body). Have mercy, don't destroy! Wife, small children... don’t make a person unhappy. Khlestakov. No I do not want! Here's another! What do I care? Because you have a wife and children, I have to go to prison, that’s great! Bobchinsky looks out the door and hides in fear. No, thank you humbly, I don’t want to. Mayor (trembling). Due to inexperience, by golly due to inexperience. Insufficient wealth... Judge for yourself: the government salary is not enough even for tea and sugar. If there were any bribes, it was very small: something for the table and a couple of dresses. As for the non-commissioned officer's widow, a merchant, whom I allegedly flogged, this is slander, by God, slander. My villains invented this: they are such a people that they are ready to encroach on my life. Khlestakov. What? I don't care about them. (In thought.) I don’t know, however, why are you talking about villains and about some non-commissioned officer’s widow... A non-commissioned officer’s wife is completely different, but you don’t dare flog me, you’re far from that... Here's another! Look at you!.. I will pay, I will pay money, but now I don’t have it. The reason I'm sitting here is because I don't have a penny. Mayor (to the side). Oh, subtle thing! Where did he throw it? what a fog he brought in! Find out who wants it! You don’t know which side to take. Well, just try it at random. (Aloud.) If you definitely need money or something else, then I’m ready to serve this minute. My duty is to help those passing by. Khlestakov. Give me, lend me! I'll pay the innkeeper right now. I would only like two hundred rubles or even less. Mayor (bringing up pieces of paper). Exactly two hundred rubles, although don’t bother counting. N.V. Gogol "The Inspector General"

I recently read it, I’m glad to help. I want to reflect my impression of the comedy “The Inspector General” by N.V. Gogol that I read. I chose this work because it is very interesting, the author shows in a funny way all the events happening to the characters. Contrastes the worthlessness of the ruling elite of society with the slavish obedience of the Russian peasantry. I think this work is based on the self-exposure of the characters. There are no positive characters in it.

All actions are motivated by the characters and psychology of its heroes. The image of the mayor Skvoznik - Dmukhanovsky is presented as a rude, cynical administrator. The image of Khlestakov is a frivolous braggart, an insignificant and vulgar person.

Let me give you a few examples. A petty official who, traveling from St. Petersburg to visit his father in the village, lost all his money on the way and has been living on credit for two weeks in a hotel in a provincial town, without the means to continue his journey. In this county town they are waiting for an auditor, who must arrive incognito. The mayor, postmaster, judge, trustee of charitable institutions and other officials, all very dishonest, out of fear, or rather, out of stupidity, mistake Khlestakov for this auditor. They take him around the city, treat him and lend him money in order to lure the terrible man into their favor and make him turn a blind eye to the omissions and disorders in their service.

Seeing their willingness to lend money, Khlestakov became so happy with bribes that he no longer asked those who came to him who they were, and from the first word demanded taxes from them. Two landowners, two provincial originals, living in a provincial town and inviolable from service, Pyotr Ivanovich Dobchinsky and Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky, come to him with respect at the very moment of this predatory mood, and here there is a scene of the highest comedy.

The author nowhere names the province in which his district city lies: therefore the city can be located anywhere. City officials are too frivolously confident that Khlestakov is the very auditor they are expecting. As a character, I remember Khlestakov more, but not as a positive hero, but as a cunning one, who in essence is no different from deceived officials. “The Inspector General” collected all the bad things in Russia, all the injustices that are done in those places and in those cases where justice and decency are most required from a person. Administrative abuses in remote and little-visited places exist throughout the whole world, and there is no sufficient reason to attribute them to Russia alone.