Features of the genre and composition of Gogol's poem “Dead Souls. Features of the genre and composition of Nikolai Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”

N.V. Gogol considered the work on the work “Dead Souls” as the most important work of his entire life. The tasks that the writer set for himself required enormous work and a serious approach.

The tasks were global: to truthfully and accurately show all aspects of life in Russia, to reveal shortcomings, to find their causes, to indicate ways to solve problems; consider the positive beginnings of Russian life, express firm confidence in the better future of the country. In accordance with the tasks set, the work itself had to be significant - both in volume, and in composition, and in plot. The events on which Dead Souls were based were based on the traditional population census, which the state conducted once every ten to fifteen years. The main character decides to go to the provincial town in order to acquire “dead souls,” “which, however, would be listed as living in the audit.” There has never been anything like this in Russian literature. Therefore, Gogol’s work obviously had to differ both in genre and composition from everything that had existed before. “The thing I’m sitting and working on now,” the writer said, “is not like a story or a novel.”

The author himself, in the process of creating his work, called “Dead Souls” either a novel, or a story, or a poem. The work had to be large in volume: the writer planned to write three volumes. There are a huge number of characters in it. But the main character is still a collective, generalized image of Russia. This is what gave Gogol the right to finally define the genre of “Dead Souls” as an epic poem. Since ancient times, this has been the name of folk works that depict the life and struggle of the entire people. Such a literary genre gave the author the opportunity to “look around at the whole enormous rushing life”, the homeland “in all its enormity.” In the work of N.V. Gogol, indeed, as in any poem, there is a lyrical mood, an epic breadth of narration, and a significant role of the author’s “party”. But “Dead Souls” also contains many of the most important features of a socio-psychological novel, such as, for example, a “strictly and cleverly conceived plot,” the ability to reveal the fates of various characters, the gradual development of the main idea, and the drama of the storyline. In many ways, Gogol’s creation even resembles an epic, in which, according to V. G. Belinsky, “the hero... may be a private and invisible person, but nevertheless significant in many respects for the observer of the human soul.” This work, like an epic novel, covers “not some features, but the entire era of time,” shows the entire people, all its layers and varieties. And yet the genre of this work is completely unique. As a result of a combination of various genre characteristics and artistic traditions, it connects the fates of individual heroes with the fate of the nation, country, people, it displays a bright and colorful “picture of morals”, incorporating the philosophical reflections of the author. Here the narrative is constantly replaced by lyrical digressions, the merciless prose of life is intertwined with poetic pictures, and the “living flow” of life is intertwined with a clear author’s position. The idea, composition, and style of “Dead Souls” are characterized by two-dimensionality, a constant opposition of ideal and real life, dreams and reality, good and evil, comic and tragic.

Every moment, every episode, every lyrical digression was carefully thought out by the author. In the same way, the relationship between the parts of the work is thought out and subordinated to the creative concept.

The first chapter of “Dead Souls” is a kind of introduction in which the reader gets acquainted with the main characters. Here are brief descriptions of the society of provincial officials. The next five chapters provide a detailed picture of the life, way of life and morals of the landowners, who personify the “noble” class of Russia, in a sense, the “masters of life.” From chapters seven to ten, the author describes provincial society in more detail, starting with city authorities, minor officials and ending with ladies “simply pleasant” and “pleasant in all respects.” Next, we get acquainted with the story of the main character - the petty-bourgeois businessman Chichikov, the acquirer of dead souls. N.V. Gogol ends his work with lyrical lines dedicated to his beloved Russia. Chichikov’s chaise, a Russian troika, “equipped” by a “Yaroslavl efficient man”, turns into a symbolic image of the rapid, “wonderful” movement of Russia into an unknown distance.

During the course of the story, the author expresses his thoughts about the most important, most pressing social issues: about the meaning of human life, about the purpose of man, about the fate of the homeland and the people. All these thoughts are contrasted with gloomy pictures of the real life of Russian people. This combination of opposing motives, the inclusion of lyrical digressions and sketches of Russian nature into pictures of people's suffering makes a person's heart tremble. “When you read Dead Souls,” said Herzen, “you are overcome with horror; With every step you get stuck, you sink deeper. The lyrical place suddenly revives, illuminates and is now replaced again by a picture that reminds even more clearly what a ditch of hell we are in...” However, this approach to the composition of the work helped the author to best illuminate all aspects of Russian life, to depict life, customs, destinies, aspirations, principles of various social strata of the population - from downtrodden peasants to high-ranking dignitaries. A masterful combination of various artistic techniques allowed the writer to present to our eyes Rus' in all its manifestations, with all its good and evil, with all its truth and lies, virtues and vices.

“Dead Souls” became the real pinnacle of the writer’s creativity. This is a deeply realistic work, despite the strange, unusual plot. Gogol's skill as a realist was manifested, in particular, in the variety of described pictures of Russian reality, in the ability to reveal all aspects of Russian life, to present life itself in constant movement, in deep attention to social problems and relationships between people. Researcher and critic Yu. V. Mann noted that the concept of “Dead Souls” is “providential, with the consequent tendency towards absoluteness in everything - in the understanding of truth, in artistic decisions, in the creative powers of the writer.” That is why Gogol’s work filled “an entire era with the noise of its appearance” and left a deep mark on Russian fiction and social thought.

Essay on the topic: FEATURES OF THE GENRE AND COMPOSITION OF THE POEM “DEAD SOULS”

Searched on this page:

• features of the dead souls genre
• features of the genre dead souls
• the role of Chichikov’s image in the development of the plot and revealing the main idea of ​​the work
• poem dead souls features of genre and composition essay

Why did Gogol call his work “Dead Souls,” written in 1842, a poem? The definition of the genre became clear to the writer only at the last moment, since, while still working on the poem, Gogol called it either a poem or a novel.

The work - called "The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls" at the first publication for censorship reasons - was certainly not a light adventure novel, as one might assume from the title.

To understand the features of the genre of the poem "Dead Souls", you can compare this work with the "Divine Comedy" by Dante, a poet of the Renaissance. Its influence is felt in Gogol's poem.

The Divine Comedy consists of three parts. In the first part, the shadow of the ancient Roman poet Virgil appears to the poet, which accompanies the lyrical hero to hell, they go through all the circles, and a whole gallery of sinners appears before their eyes. The fantastic nature of the plot does not prevent Dante from revealing the theme of his homeland - Italy, and its fate.

In fact, Gogol planned to show the same circles of hell, but hell in Russia. It is not for nothing that the title of the poem “Dead Souls” ideologically echoes the title of the first part of Dante’s poem “The Divine Comedy,” which is called “Hell.”

Gogol, along with satirical negation, introduces a glorifying, creative element - the image of Russia. Associated with this image is the “high lyrical movement”, which in the poem at times replaces the comic narrative.

A significant place in the poem “Dead Souls” is occupied by lyrical digressions and inserted episodes, which is characteristic of the poem as a literary genre. In them, Gogol touches on the most pressing Russian social issues. The author's thoughts about the high purpose of man, about the fate of the Motherland and the people are here contrasted with gloomy pictures of Russian life.

The theme of exposing officialdom runs through all of Gogol’s work: it stands out both in the collection “Mirgorod” and in the comedy “The Inspector General”. In the poem "Dead Souls" it is intertwined with the theme of serfdom.

“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” occupies a special place in the poem. It is plot-related to the poem, but is of great importance for revealing the ideological content of the work. The form of the tale gives the story a vital character: it denounces the government.

The world of “dead souls” in the poem is contrasted with the lyrical image of folk Russia, which Gogol writes about with love and admiration.

Behind the terrible world of landowner and bureaucratic Russia, Gogol felt the soul of the Russian people, which he expressed in the image of a quickly rushing forward troika, embodying the forces of Russia: “Aren’t you, Rus', like a brisk, unstoppable troika rushing?”

What did Gogol depict in his work? He portrayed the social disease of society, but we must also pay attention to how he did it.

Firstly, Gogol used social typification techniques. In his depiction of the landowners' gallery, he skillfully combined the general and the individual. Almost all of his characters are static, they do not develop (except for Plyushkin and Chichikov), and are captured by the author as a result.

This technique emphasized once again that all these Manilovs, Korobochki, Sobakevichs, Plyushkins are dead souls.

To characterize his characters, Gogol also used his favorite technique - characterizing a character through detail. Gogol can be called a “genius of detail”, so precisely the details reflect the character and inner world of the character. What is it worth, for example, the description of Manilov’s estate and house! When Chichikov drove into Manilov's estate, he drew attention to the overgrown English pond, to the rickety gazebo, to the dirt and desolation, to the wallpaper in Manilov's room - either gray or blue, to two chairs covered with matting, which were never reached. the owner's hands. All these and many other details brought us to the main characteristic made by the author himself: “Neither this nor that, but the devil knows what it is!”

Let us remember Plyushkin, this “hole in humanity,” who even lost his gender. He comes out to Chichikov in a greasy robe, some kind of incredible scarf on his head, desolation, dirt, disrepair everywhere. Plyushkin is an extreme degree of degradation. And all this is conveyed through detail, through those little things in life that Pushkin admired so much: “Not a single writer has yet had this gift to expose the vulgarity of life so clearly, to be able to outline in such force the vulgarity of a vulgar person, so that all the little things that escape from eye, would have flashed large in everyone's eyes."

The main theme of the poem is the fate of Russia: its past, present and future. In the first volume, Gogol revealed the theme of the past of the Motherland. The second and third volumes he conceived were supposed to tell about the present and future of Russia. This idea can be compared with the second and third parts of Dante's Divine Comedy: “Purgatory” and “Paradise”. However, these plans were not destined to come true. the second volume was unsuccessful in concept, and the third was never written.

“Rus', where are you going? Give me an answer! He doesn’t give an answer.” Gogol’s tragedy was that he did not know, did not see and did not know where and how Russia would go in the future. That is why “Does not give an answer”!

But the dream of a work “in which all of Rus' would appear” came true. The poem was a grandiose description of the life and customs of Russia in the first third of the 19th century.

N.V. Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" has certain compositional features that are very different from many other works.

The poem contains only eleven chapters. The poem begins at the same place where it ends. Hence we can say that it has a circular composition.

Each chapter is a complete fragment of text.

The author describes all of Chichikov’s meetings with different landowners very similarly. First he describes the place where they live, then he moves on to revealing the character of the landowner and then the conclusion of the transaction itself for the purchase of dead souls.

There are also a lot of lyrical digressions in the text. In them, Gogol reveals his personal attitude towards the characters and what is happening. And the story about Captain Kopeikin is also extremely important. Although it is not directly related to the poem, it further reveals the theme of the death of the human soul, transferring all this to Russia itself.

Through the unusualness of the composition, Gogol manages to very clearly describe the situation in Rus' at that time. And you can once again be convinced of the magnificence of N.V.’s talent.

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

Thank you for your attention.

Useful material on the topic

FEATURES OF THE GENRE AND COMPOSITION OF THE POEM “DEAD SOULS”

Defining the genre of his own work, N.V. Gogol called “Dead Souls” a poem. This genre definition was maintained at all stages of work, right up to the publication of the book. This is due, first of all, to the fact that in “Dead Souls,” which were originally thought of under the sign of “gaiety” and comedy, there is also another, non-comic element - in the form of lyrical digressions of a serious and pathetic nature. It is a mistake to believe that Gogol called his work a poem “for fun,” although the first critics of “Dead Souls” expressed the following opinion: “This is simply a story put on paper by an intricate, supposedly simple-minded Little Russian in a circle of good friends,” who “do not require a plan.” “No unity, no syllable, just something to laugh about.”

Even at the initial stage of work on the poem, Gogol saw it as something huge and great. Thus, in a letter to Zhukovsky, the writer reported: “If I complete this creation the way it needs to be accomplished, then... what a huge, what an original plot!.. All of Rus' will appear in it!” Later he develops this idea, believing that the hero of the poem can be a “private, invisible” person, but at the same time significant for the observer of the human soul.

The author leads his hero through a chain of adventures and changes with the goal of “presenting at the same time a true picture of everything significant in the traits and morals of the time he took, that earthly, almost statistically captured picture of the shortcomings, abuses, vices and everything that he noticed in the era he took.” and time." As we can see, Gogol put an educational meaning into the definition of “prose poem”: a satirical picture of the morals, shortcomings and vices of society should be “a living lesson for the present.”

The life of the main character of the work - the petty swindler and rogue Chichikov - is inextricably linked with the life of the lyrical hero of the poem, who sits invisible in Chichikov's chaise, accompanies him to the ball, is present at fraudulent trade transactions, explaining, analyzing and evaluating the behavior of Pavel Ivanovich. The author, in the guise of a lyrical hero, is indignant and “mocks the world, which directly contradicts his abstract idea of ​​virtue and truth.” In the last chapter, from the moment when the chaise leaves the city and endless fields stretch along the road, the lyrical hero of the poem becomes the driving force of the plot. He deepens his discussion about the purpose of the writer-revealer (his fate is not enviable), and decided to present to the reader’s eyes “all the terrible, amazing power of the little things that entangle our lives, all the depth of the cold, fragmented, everyday characters with which our earth is teeming.” Wonderful power granted the lyrical hero-author the opportunity to walk hand in hand with “strange heroes, to survey the whole enormously rushing life, to survey it through laughter visible to the world and invisible tears unknown to him!”

We can confidently say that in his work Gogol showed that satire can be poetic, since his lyrical hero “recreates before our eyes the image of a corrupted reality in such a way that this corruption is destroyed in itself due to its own absurdity.”

The composition of Gogol's poem “Dead Souls” is somewhat dependent on the plot. The underlying anecdote is based on the conditional assumption that the officials of the city of N do not understand the meaning of Chichikov’s actions. A clever swindler bought several hundred peasant “souls” on the cheap, physically non-existent, dead, but legally alive. I bought them to pawn them at a pawn shop and get a substantial amount. The officials became worried when they learned about Chichikov’s purchases: “dead souls,” “which, however, the devil knows what they mean, but they also contain something very bad and bad.” Due to his own carelessness, the swindler gave away his secret and was forced to hastily flee the city. Such a plot gave the author the opportunity, on the one hand, to bring out a wide variety of heroes, and on the other hand, to present a wide panorama of the life of Russian society. Lyrical digressions and author's reflections establish the author's personal connection with the world he depicts. This world is addressed to him, he expects a certain word from him, at least the author clearly sees this appeal. A typical example is the reflections on Rus' at the beginning of Chapter XI: “Why is your melancholy song heard and heard incessantly in your ears, rushing along your entire length and width, from sea to sea? What's in it, in this song? What calls and cries and grabs your heart? What sounds painfully kiss and strive into the soul and curl around my heart? Rus! What do you want from me? What incomprehensible connection lies between us?

Words about the merits of the Russian word also appear here. At the beginning, the author emphasizes that the Russian people are a great hunter of giving everything their own names and nicknames, many of which are not used in social conversation, but are very apt and correct. Through a series of expressive details and descriptions, through comparative characteristics of various languages, he comes to enthusiastic praise of the Russian word: “The word of a Briton will respond with knowledge of the heart and wise knowledge of life, the short-lived word of a Frenchman will flash with light dandy and scatter..., but there is no word that would be so sweeping, It would burst out so smartly, so smartly, and at the same time it would seethe and vibrate so vividly, like an aptly spoken Russian word.”

Despite the fact that the main place in the poem is given to the depiction of negative, vicious phenomena, in its text the positive principle appears more and more clearly.

In this regard, the key one is “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin,” which was banned from publication by the censor. The main character of the story is the one-legged and one-armed captain Kopeikin. After returning from the battlefield, Kopeikin found himself deceived and rejected by society, for the sake of which he, in general, lost his health. The father abandons his son because he barely has enough bread himself. Kopeikin decides to go to St. Petersburg “to ask the sovereign if there will be any royal mercy,” and there he waits for a long time for an audience or at least a solution to his question. It was difficult for a frail disabled person in a city where “you walk down the street, and your nose can hear that it smells of thousands.”

At first, Kopeikin succumbed to the minister’s deceitful promises and store and restaurant lures, but he did not become their victim, but turned into a rebel - an avenger for the people killed by the capital. Expelled from St. Petersburg to his homeland, Kopeikin disappeared to God knows where, but not even two months had passed before a gang of robbers appeared in the Ryazan forests at the head... At this point the story ends and Gogol gives the reader the opportunity to guess for himself that it was Kopeikin who led the gang. Thus, he demanded that the world of “dead souls” pay for his death. Thus, in a satire poem about the world of “dead souls,” a living soul suddenly appears, rebelling against the soullessness of the social system.

As we see, in N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” there are two principles - descriptive and lyrical, which determine the features of the genre and composition of the work. F. M. Dostoevsky in “A Writer’s Diary” for 1876 emphasized that Gogol’s moral and philosophical content does not fit within the framework of specific political issues: the images in the poem “almost crush the mind with the deepest unbearable questions, evoke the most restless thoughts in the Russian mind, with which, one feels, cannot be dealt with now; Moreover, will you ever cope again?”

(No Ratings Yet)

1. From the very beginning of his writing career, Gogol dreamed of writing a work “in which all of Rus' would appear.” This was supposed to be a grandiose description of the life and customs of Russia in the first third of the 19th century. So...
2. Although the concept of genre is constantly changing and becoming more complex, it can still be understood as a historically established type of literary work, which has certain features. Just based on these features, in many ways it becomes...
3. The history of creation and the concept of the poem “Dead Souls” In 1841, Gogol completed work on the first volume of “Dead Souls” and brought it to Moscow. The book shocked the entire reading world of Russia, caused a mass...
4. CLASSICS N.V. GOGOL THE MEANING OF THE TITLE OF THE POEM “DEAD SOULS” N.V. Gogol, like M.Yu. Lermontov before him, for example, was always concerned about problems of spirituality and morality - and society as a whole,...
5. HISTORY OF THE CREATION OF THE POEM “DEAD SOULS” The countdown in the history of the creation of N. Gogol’s immortal creation “Dead Souls” can begin on October 7, 1835. This date dates Gogol’s letter to Pushkin: “I began...
6. “Laughter through tears” in N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” I. “Dead Souls” is “a medical history written by a masterful hand” (A.I. Herzen). II. “Dead Souls” is a brilliant satire on...
7. A real discovery for me was N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”: it prompted me to think, caused laughter, and raised many questions for me to which I am looking for answers. With Nikolai Gogol...
8. CHICHIKOV'S CONVERSATION WITH MANILOV (analysis of episode 2 of chapter 1 of the first volume of N.V. Gogol's poem “Dead Souls”) So, one of the first successful transactions of Mr. collegiate adviser Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov was concluded...
9. Chichikov’s meeting with Nozdryov in a tavern (analysis of an episode from the fourth chapter of the first volume of N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”) Plan I. Description of Nozdryov. II. Conversation between Nozdryov and Chichikov. III. Which...
10. N.V. Gogol began work on the poem “Dead Souls” in 1835. The plot was suggested by Pushkin. Gogol’s initial desire “...to show at least one side of all of Rus'” gradually develops into...
11. The image of the author in N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” Plan I. The image of the author in literary works. II. Features of the author’s image in the poem “Dead Souls”. III. The author's attitude to the content of the poem....
12. How does Chichikov's backstory help us understand his character? (based on N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”) Plan I. Image of Chichikov. II. Chichikov is the hero of the “new formation”. III. The key to understanding Chichikov's character...
13. Rus! where are you going? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer. N.V. Gogol Interest in Gogol’s work does not wane even today. Probably the reason is that Gogol managed...
14. N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” (1835-1841) belongs to those timeless works of art that lead to large-scale artistic generalizations and to the fundamental problems of human life. In the deadening of the souls of Gogol's characters...
15. Russian literature of the 1st half of the 19th century Lyrical digressions in N. V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” Lyrical digressions are the author’s expression of his feelings and thoughts in connection with what is depicted in the work....
16. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol began writing the poem “Dead Souls” in 1835 on the persistent advice of Pushkin. After long wanderings around Europe, Gogol settled in Rome, where he devoted himself entirely to working on...
17. Russian literature of the 1st half of the 19th century The image of the road in N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” The topic of Russia and its future has always worried writers and poets. Many of them tried to predict...
18. The idea of ​​“Dead Souls” arose and took shape in Gogol’s creative consciousness under the direct influence of Pushkin. Pushkin, having read the manuscript, said in a voice full of melancholy: “God, how sad our Russia is!” In 1842, the poem...
19. Gogol's poem “Dead Souls” was written during the era of serfdom, which was the main reason for the economic backwardness of Russia. Gradually, under the influence of the West, capitalist relations begin to emerge in Russia. In these conditions...
20. Gogol created his works in the historical conditions that developed in Russia after the failure of the first revolutionary action - the Decembrist uprising of 1825. The new socio-political situation confronted the leaders of Russian public...
21. The poem “Dead Souls” is Gogol’s brilliant creation. The plot for this work was suggested by Pushkin. Gogol spoke about it this way in “The Author’s Confession”: “Pushkin gave me his own plot, from which...
22. N.V. Gogol is a great writer of the first half of the 19th century. In his works he addressed issues that were relevant at that time. The originality of his work lies in the fact that he is one of... The image of Plyushkin in N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” (first version) Plan I. The poem “Dead Souls” as a satire on Russian society. II. Description of Plyushkin. III. Who is Plyushkin? Poem “Dead...
23. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, loving Russia with all his heart, could not stand aside, seeing that it was mired in the swamp of corrupt officials, and therefore creates two works that reflect the actual state of the country. One...
24. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol loved Russia with all his heart and could not stand aside, watching as it became mired in the swamp of corrupt bureaucracy. He creates two very significant works that reflect the unseemly reality...
25. N.V. Gogol Poem “Dead Souls” History of creation Gogol always considered the poem “Dead Souls” to be the main work of his life, work on it lasted about 17 years (the first volume was completed in...
26. N.V. Gogol created the work “Dead Souls” for a certain time and copied the characters from real people. This literary masterpiece visually demonstrates the model of society of that time. Unfortunately, in modern life...
27. Features of the composition in N.V. Gogol's comedy “The Inspector General” N.V. Gogol based his comedy “The Inspector General” on the plot of an everyday joke, where, by impostor or accidental misunderstanding, one person is accepted...

Essays on literature: Features of the genre and composition of Gogol's poem Dead Souls

Features of the genre and composition of Gogol's poem "Dead Souls". Artistic features of the poem Gogol has long dreamed of writing a work “in which all of Rus' would appear.” This was supposed to be a grandiose description of the life and customs of Russia in the first third of the 19th century. Such a work was the poem “Dead Souls,” written in 1842. The first edition of the work was called “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls.” This name reduced the true meaning of this work and transferred it into the realm of an adventure novel. Gogol did this for censorship reasons, in order for the poem to be published.

Why did Gogol call his work a poem? The definition of the genre became clear to the writer only at the last moment, since, while still working on the poem, Gogol called it either a poem or a novel. To understand the features of the genre of the poem "Dead Souls", you can compare this work with the "Divine Comedy" by Dante, a poet of the Renaissance. Its influence is felt in Gogol's poem. The Divine Comedy consists of three parts. In the first part, the shadow of the ancient Roman poet Virgil appears to the poet, which accompanies the lyrical hero to hell, they go through all the circles, a whole gallery of sinners passes before their eyes. The fantastic nature of the plot does not prevent Dante from revealing the theme of his homeland - Italy, and its fate. In fact, Gogol planned to show the same circles of hell, but hell in Russia. It is not for nothing that the title of the poem “Dead Souls” ideologically echoes the title of the first part of Dante’s poem “The Divine Comedy,” which is called “Hell.”

Gogol, along with satirical negation, introduces a glorifying, creative element - the image of Russia. Associated with this image is the “high lyrical movement”, which in the poem at times replaces the comic narrative.

A significant place in the poem “Dead Souls” is occupied by lyrical digressions and inserted episodes, which is characteristic of the poem as a literary genre. In them, Gogol touches on the most pressing Russian social issues. The author's thoughts about the high purpose of man, about the fate of the Motherland and the people are here contrasted with gloomy pictures of Russian life.

So, let's go for the hero of the poem "Dead Souls" Chichikov to N.

From the very first pages of the work, we feel the fascination of the plot, since the reader cannot assume that after Chichikov’s meeting with Manilov there will be meetings with Sobakevich and Nozdrev. The reader cannot guess the end of the poem, because all its characters are derived according to the principle of gradation: one is worse than the other. For example, Manilov, if considered as a separate image, cannot be perceived as a positive hero (on his table there is a book open on the same page, and his politeness is feigned: “Let us not allow you to do this >>), but in comparison with Plyushkin he even wins in many ways. However, Gogol put the image of Korobochka in the center of attention, since she is a kind of unified beginning of all characters. According to Gogol, this is a symbol of the “box man”, which contains the idea of ​​​​an irrepressible thirst for hoarding.

The theme of exposing officialdom runs through all of Gogol’s work: it stands out both in the collection “Mirgorod” and in the comedy “The Inspector General”. In the poem "Dead Souls" it is intertwined with the theme of serfdom.

“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” occupies a special place in the poem. It is plot-related to the poem, but is of great importance for revealing the ideological content of the work. The form of the tale gives the story a vital character: it denounces the government.

The world of “dead souls” in the poem is contrasted with the lyrical image of folk Russia, which Gogol writes about with love and admiration.

Behind the terrible world of landowner and bureaucratic Russia, Gogol felt the soul of the Russian people, which he expressed in the image of a quickly rushing forward troika, embodying the forces of Russia: “Aren’t you, Rus', like a brisk, unstoppable troika rushing?” So, we settled on what Gogol depicts in his work. He depicts the social disease of society, but we should also dwell on how Gogol manages to do this.

Firstly, Gogol uses social typification techniques. In depicting the gallery of landowners, he skillfully combines the general and the individual. Almost all of his characters are static, they do not develop (except for Plyushkin and Chichikov), and are captured by the author as a result. This technique emphasizes once again that all these Manilovs, Korobochki, Sobakevichs, Plyushkins are dead souls. To characterize his characters, Gogol also uses his favorite technique - characterizing the character through detail. Gogol can be called a “genius of detail,” as sometimes details accurately reflect the character and inner world of a character. What is it worth, for example, the description of Manilov’s estate and house! When Chichikov drove into Manilov's estate, he drew attention to the overgrown English pond, to the rickety gazebo, to the dirt and desolation, to the wallpaper in Manilov's room - either gray or blue, to two chairs covered with matting, which were never reached. the owner's hands. All these and many other details lead us to the main characteristic made by the author himself: “Neither this nor that, but the devil knows what it is!” Let us remember Plyushkin, this “hole in humanity,” who even lost his gender.

He comes out to Chichikov in a greasy robe, some kind of incredible scarf on his head, desolation, dirt, disrepair everywhere. Plyushkin is an extreme degree of degradation. And all this is conveyed through detail, through those little things in life that A. S. Pushkin admired so much: “Not a single writer has yet had this gift to expose the vulgarity of life so clearly, to be able to outline in such force the vulgarity of a vulgar person, so that all that trifle , which escapes the eye, would flash large in the eyes of everyone."

The main theme of the poem is the fate of Russia: its past, present and future. In the first volume, Gogol revealed the theme of the past of his homeland. The second and third volumes he conceived were supposed to tell about the present and future of Russia. This idea can be compared with the second and third parts of Dante's Divine Comedy: “Purgatory” and “Paradise”. However, these plans were not destined to come true: the second volume turned out to be unsuccessful in concept, and the third was never written. Therefore, Chichikov’s trip remained a trip into the unknown. Gogol was at a loss, thinking about the future of Russia: “Rus, where are you going? Give me an answer! He doesn’t give an answer.”