Gogol's life and work is divided into three stages. Each of them has its own semantic features. His works combine the mystical and the real; the author uses humorous techniques. All his work had a huge influence on all Russian literature.
The first period in Gogol’s work began in 1829 and ended in 1835. At this time he writes satirical works. It was called "Petersburg". For the first time in this city, he experienced adversity and problems. He saw real life in a negative light. The writer had a dream of a happy life. At this time, his first collections “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”, “Mirgorod” and “Arabesques” were published. They depict pictures of life from his previous life in Ukraine.
In 1836, the second stage began, lasting until 1842. The works of this stage are distinguished by their realism. At this time he publishes “The Inspector General” and “Dead Souls”. In them, Gogol raised problems revealing the vices of people, corruption, vulgarity, lies. He ridiculed them in an attempt to defeat them.
In 1842, the third and final period in N.V.’s work began. Gogol. It ended in 1852. During this period, Gogol reveals his inner world, he raises philosophical and religious questions. When he lived abroad, in complete oblivion and loneliness, he turned to religion and rethought his life.
At this moment he is working on the second volume " Dead souls", in it the author wanted to find positive features from negative heroes. In the work “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends,” the writer depicted his spiritual world and crisis. Gogol falls ill, burns his work “Dead Souls”, and soon after this he dies.
N.V. Gogol wrote works of various genres, but in all of them there is a person at the center. Folk legends and epics were included in the plot of the works.
His books combine the real world with fantasy. Mystical and real heroes live in the same time. This shows the romantic orientation of the writer’s early works.
Mysticism was constantly in the writer’s life. Gogol remains not only a writer, but also a great mystic of our time.
Message 2
Speaking about the work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, we must first of all turn to the times of the writer’s school. His writing abilities were received innately from his parents, and were consolidated at the Nizhyn Lyceum, where the famous writer studied. At the Lyceum there was a particular shortage of teaching material to quench the thirst for knowledge for young people who wanted to learn more. To do this, it was additionally necessary to copy out the works of well-known writers at that time. They were Zhukovsky and Pushkin. Gogol also took the initiative to become the editor-in-chief of the local school magazine.
Development of creativity N.V. Gogol went from romanticism on the way to realism. And these two styles were mixed in every possible way throughout the writer’s life. The first attempts at literary writing were no good, since life in Russia oppressed him, and his thoughts and dreams rushed to his native Ukraine, where the writer spent his childhood.
The poem “Hanz Küchelgarten” became the first published work of N.V. Gogol, in 1829. Its character was more romantic and the poem was a Fosse imitation. But after negative criticism, the poem was immediately burned by the writer. Romanticism and realism mixed well in the collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.” It so well reflected the dream of a beautiful and uncomplicated, spontaneous and happy life. The author was able to portray a completely different Ukraine; in his works there was restlessness, conflict, the elimination of human relations, criminal acts in front of fellow countrymen, intertwined with personal detachment.
N.V. Gogol idolized Pushkin and Zhukovsky, they were his inspirations, which helped the birth of such works as “Nevsky Prospekt”, “Tras Bulba”, “Viy”.
The two subsequent collections, “Arabesques” and “Mirgorod,” took readers into the environment of officials, where there were a lot of minor worries and misfortunes that so burdened the daily life of the people described there. Romantic themes and encounters were made more realistic, which allowed for a restructuring of all levels of the poem's writing. The theme of the “little man” was well explored in the story “The Overcoat”, and became the main one in Russian literature.
The talent of a satirist and the path of an innovator in creating dramatic works were noted in the comedies “The Inspector General” and “Marriage”. This was a completely new stage in creative activity writer.
Gogol's works were always imbued with the spirit of Ukraine, with notes of humor, full of humanity and tragedy.
- Canada - message report (2nd, 7th grade geography)
The country is located in the north of North America, washed by three oceans: the Arctic, Pacific (in the west) and Atlantic (in the east).
The Amur River is the largest and most mysterious river, shrouded in legends, in the entire Far East, its length is 2824 km and its width is 5 km. The Amur is born from the confluence of the Argun and Shilka rivers.
The work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is literary heritage, which can be compared to a large and multifaceted diamond, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow.
Despite the fact that Nikolai Vasilyevich’s life path was short-lived (1809-1852), and in the last ten years he did not finish a single work, the writer introduced into Russian classic literature invaluable contribution.
Gogol was looked upon as a hoaxer, a satirist, a romantic and simply a wonderful storyteller. Such versatility was attractive as a phenomenon even during the writer’s lifetime. Incredible situations were attributed to him, and sometimes ridiculous rumors were spread. But Nikolai Vasilyevich did not refute them. He understood that over time all this would turn into legends.
The writer's literary destiny is enviable. Not every author can boast that all of his works were published during his lifetime, and each work attracted the attention of critics.
Start
The fact that real talent had come to literature became clear after the story “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.” But this is not the author's first work. The first thing the writer created was the romantic poem “Hanz Küchelgarten”.It is difficult to say what prompted young Nikolai to write such a strange work, probably a passion for German romanticism. But the poem was not a success. And as soon as the first negative reviews appeared, the young author, together with his servant Yakim, bought all the remaining copies and simply burned them.
This act became something of a ring-shaped composition in creativity. Nikolai Vasilyevich began his literary journey with the burning of his works and ended it with the burning. Yes, Gogol treated his works cruelly when he felt some kind of failure.
But then a second work came out, which was mixed with Ukrainian folklore and ancient Russian literature - “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.” The author managed to laugh at the evil spirits, at the devil himself, to unite the past and the present, reality and fiction, and paint it all in cheerful tones.
All the stories described in the two volumes were received with delight. Pushkin, who was an authority for Nikolai Vasilyevich, wrote: “What poetry!.. All this is so unusual in our current literature.” Belinsky also put his “quality mark”. It was a success.
Genius
If the first two books, which included eight stories, showed that talent had entered literature, then the new cycle, under the general title “Mirgorod,” revealed a genius.Mirgorod- these are only four stories. But each work is a true masterpiece.
A story about two old men who live in their estate. Nothing happens in their life. At the end of the story they die.
This story can be approached in different ways. What was the author trying to achieve: sympathy, pity, compassion? Maybe this is how the writer sees the idyll of the twilight part of a person’s life?
A very young Gogol (he was only 26 years old at the time of working on the story) decided to show true, genuine love. He moved away from generally accepted stereotypes: romance between young people, wild passions, betrayals, confessions.
Two old men, Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna, do not show any special love for each other, there is no talk of carnal needs, and there are no anxious worries. Their life is caring for each other, the desire to predict, not yet voiced desires, to play a joke.
But their affection for each other is so great that after the death of Pulcheria Ivanovna, Afanasy Ivanovich simply cannot live without her. Afanasy Ivanovich is weakening, dilapidating, like the old estate, and before his death he asks: “Place me near Pulcheria Ivanovna.”
This is a daily, deep feeling.
The story of Taras Bulba
Here the author touches on a historical topic. The war that Taras Bulba is waging against the Poles is a war for the purity of faith, for Orthodoxy, against “Catholic mistrust.”And although Nikolai Vasilyevich did not have reliable historical facts about Ukraine, being content with folk legends, meager chronicle data, Ukrainian folk songs, and sometimes simply turning to mythology and his own imagination, he perfectly managed to show the heroism of the Cossacks. The story was literally stretched into catchphrases that still remain relevant today: “I gave birth to you, I will kill you!”, “Be patient, Cossack, and you will be an ataman!”, “Is there still gunpowder in the flasks?!”
The mystical basis of the work, where evil spirits and evil spirits united against the main character form the basis of the plot, is perhaps the most incredible Gogol story.
The main action takes place in the temple. Here the author allowed himself to fall into doubt: can evil spirits be defeated? Is faith capable of resisting this demonic revelry, when neither the word of God nor the performance of special sacraments helps?
Even the name of the main character, Khoma Brut, was chosen with deep meaning. Homa is a religious principle (that was the name of one of Christ’s disciples, Thomas), and Brutus, as you know, is the killer of Caesar and an apostate.
Bursak Brutus had to spend three nights in the church reading prayers. But the fear of the lady who had risen from the grave forced him to turn to non-God-pleasing protection.
Gogol's character fights the lady with two methods. On the one hand, with the help of prayers, on the other hand, with the help of pagan rituals, drawing a circle and spells. His behavior is explained by philosophical views on life and doubts about the existence of God.
As a result, Home Brutus did not have enough faith. He rejected the inner voice telling him: “Don’t look at Viy.” But in magic he turned out to be weak compared to the surrounding entities, and lost this battle. He was a few minutes short of the last rooster crow. Salvation was so close, but the student did not take advantage of it. But the church remained desolate, desecrated by evil spirits.
The story of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich
A story about the enmity of former friends who quarreled over a trifle and devoted the rest of their lives to sorting things out.A sinful passion for hatred and strife - this is the vice the author points out. Gogol laughs at the petty tricks and intrigues that the main characters plot against each other. This enmity makes their whole life petty and vulgar.
The story is full of satire, grotesque, irony. And when the author says with admiration that both Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich are both wonderful people, the reader understands all the baseness and vulgarity of the main characters. Out of boredom, landowners look for reasons to litigate and this becomes their meaning of life. And it’s sad because these gentlemen have no other goal.
Petersburg stories
The search for a way to overcome evil was continued by Gogol in those works that the writer did not combine into a specific cycle. It’s just that the writers decided to call them St. Petersburg, after the place of action. Here again the author ridicules human vices. The play “Marriage”, the stories “Notes of a Madman”, “Portrait”, “Nevsky Prospekt”, the comedies “Litigation”, “Excerpt”, “Players” deserved particular popularity.Some works should be described in more detail.
The most significant of these St. Petersburg works is considered to be the story “The Overcoat”. No wonder Dostoevsky once said: “We all came out of Gogol’s Overcoat.” Yes, this is a key work for Russian writers.
“The Overcoat” shows the classic image of a little man. The reader is presented with a downtrodden titular adviser, insignificant in the service, whom anyone can offend.
Here Gogol made another discovery - small man interesting to everyone. After all, problems of the state level, heroic deeds, violent or sentimental feelings, vivid passions, and strong characters were considered worthy depictions in the literature of the early 19th century.
And so, against the backdrop of prominent characters, Nikolai Vasilyevich “releases into the public” a petty official who should be completely uninteresting. There are no state secrets here, no struggle for the glory of the Fatherland. There is no place for sentimentality and sighs into the starry sky. And the most courageous thoughts in Akaki Akakievich’s head: “Shouldn’t we put a marten on the collar of our overcoat?”
The writer showed an insignificant person whose meaning in life is his overcoat. His goals are very small. Bashmachkin first dreams of an overcoat, then saves money for it, and when it is stolen, he simply dies. And readers sympathize with the unfortunate adviser, considering the issue of social injustice.
Gogol definitely wanted to show the stupidity, inconsistency and mediocrity of Akaki Akakievich, who can only deal with copying papers. But it is precisely compassion for this insignificant person that gives birth to warm feeling from the reader.
It is impossible to ignore this masterpiece. The play has always been a success, including because the author gives the actors a good basis for creativity. The play's first release was a triumph. It is known that the example of “The Inspector General” was Emperor Nicholas I himself, who perceived the production favorably and assessed it as a criticism of bureaucracy. This is exactly how everyone else saw the comedy.
But Gogol did not rejoice. His work was not understood! We can say that Nikolai Vasilyevich took up self-flagellation. It is with “The Inspector General” that the writer begins to evaluate his work more harshly, raising the literary bar higher and higher after any of his publications.
As for “The Inspector General,” the author had long hoped that he would be understood. But this did not happen even ten years later. Then the writer created the work “Decoupling to The Inspector General,” in which he explains to the reader and viewer how to correctly understand this comedy.
First of all, the author states that he is not criticizing anything. And a city where all the officials are freaks cannot exist in Russia: “Even if there are two or three, there will be decent ones.” And the city shown in the play is a spiritual city that sits inside everyone.
It turns out that Gogol showed the soul of a person in his comedy, and called on people to understand their apostasy and repent. The author put all his efforts into the epigraph: “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked.” And after he was not understood, he turned this phrase against himself.
But the poem was also perceived as a criticism of landowner Russia. They also saw a call to fight serfdom, although, in fact, Gogol was not an opponent of serfdom.
In the second volume of Dead Souls, the writer wanted to show positive examples. For example, he painted the image of the landowner Kostanzhoglo as so decent, hardworking and fair that the men of the neighboring landowner come to him and ask him to buy them.
All the author’s ideas were brilliant, but he himself believed that everything was going wrong. Not everyone knows that Gogol burned the second volume of Dead Souls for the first time back in 1845. This is not an aesthetic failure. Extant rough work show that Gogol's talent has not dried up at all, as some critics try to claim. The burning of the second volume reveals the author's demands, not his insanity.
But rumors about Nikolai Vasilyevich’s mild insanity quickly spread. Even the writer’s inner circle, people who were far from stupid, could not understand what the writer wanted from life. All this gave rise to additional fictions.
But there was also an idea for the third volume, where the heroes from the first two volumes were supposed to meet. One can only guess what the author deprived us of by destroying his manuscripts.
Nikolai Vasilyevich admitted that at the beginning of his life, while still in adolescence, he was not easily worried about the question of good and evil. The boy wanted to find a way to fight evil. The search for an answer to this question redefined his calling.
The method was found - satire and humor. Anything that seems unattractive, unsightly or ugly should be made funny. Gogol said: “Even those who are not afraid of anything are afraid of laughter.”
The writer has so developed the ability to turn a situation around with a funny side that his humor has acquired a special, subtle basis. The laughter visible to the world hid in itself tears, disappointment, and grief, something that cannot cheer, but, on the contrary, leads to sad thoughts.
For example, in a very funny story, “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich,” after a funny story about irreconcilable neighbors, the author concludes: “It’s boring in this world, gentlemen!” The goal has been achieved. The reader is sad because the situation played out is not funny at all. The same effect occurs after reading the story “Notes of a Madman,” where a whole tragedy is played out, although it is presented from a comedic perspective.
And if early work is distinguished by true cheerfulness, for example, “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka,” then with age the author wants deeper investigations, and calls on the reader and viewer to this.
Nikolai Vasilyevich understood that laughter could be dangerous and resorted to various tricks to circumvent censorship. For example, the stage fate of The Inspector General might not have worked out at all if Zhukovsky had not convinced the emperor himself that there was nothing unreliable in mocking untrustworthy officials.
Like many, Gogol’s road to Orthodoxy was not easy. He painfully, making mistakes and doubting, searched for his path to the truth. But it was not enough for him to find this road himself. He wanted to point it out to others. He wanted to cleanse himself of everything bad and suggested that everyone do this.
From a young age, the boy studied both Orthodoxy and Catholicism, comparing religions, noting similarities and differences. And this search for truth was reflected in many of his works. Gogol not only read the Gospel, he made extracts.
Having become famous as a great mystifier, he was not understood in his last unfinished work, “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends.” And the church reacted negatively to “Selected Places,” believing that it was unacceptable for the author of “Dead Souls” to read sermons.
The Christian book itself was truly instructive. The author explains what happens at the liturgy. What symbolic meaning does this or that action have? But this work was not completed. In general, the last years of a writer’s life are a turn from external to internal.
Nikolai Vasilyevich travels a lot to monasteries, especially often visiting the Vvedenskaya Optina Hermitage, where he has a spiritual mentor, Elder Macarius. In 1949, Gogol met a priest, Father Matvey Konstantinovsky.
Disputes often occur between the writer and Archpriest Matvey. Moreover, Nikolai’s humility and piety are not enough for the priest; he demands: “Renounce Pushkin.”
And although Gogol did not commit any renunciation, the opinion of his spiritual mentor hovered over him as an undeniable authority. The writer persuades the archpriest to read the second volume of “Dead Souls” in its final version. And although the priest initially refused, he later decided to give his assessment of the work.
Archpriest Matthew is the only lifetime reader of the Gogol manuscript of the 2nd part. Returning the clean original to the author, the priest did not easily give a negative assessment of the prose poem; he advised it to be destroyed. In fact, this is who influenced the fate of the work of the great classic.
The conviction of Konstantinovsky, and a number of other circumstances, prompted the writer to abandon his work. Gogol begins to analyze his works. He almost refused food. Dark thoughts overcome him more and more.
Since everything was happening in the house of Count Tolstoy, Gogol asked him to hand over the manuscripts to Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow. With the best of intentions, the count refused to fulfill such a request. Then, late at night, Nikolai Vasilyevich woke up Semyon’s servant so that he would open the stove valves and burn all his manuscripts.
It seems that it was this event that predetermined the imminent death of the writer. He continued to fast and rejected any help from friends and doctors. It was as if he was purifying himself, preparing for death.
It must be said that Nikolai Vasilyevich was not abandoned. The literary community sent the best doctors to the patient's bedside. A whole council of professors was assembled. But, apparently, the decision to begin compulsory treatment was belated. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol died.
It is not surprising that a writer who wrote so much about evil spirits, deepened in faith. Everyone on earth has their own path.
Gogol was born on March 20 (April 1), 1809 in the town of Velikie Sorochintsy, Mirgorod povet (district) of the Poltava province, in the very heart of Little Russia, as Ukraine was then called. The Gogoli-Yanovskys were a typical landowner family, owning 1000 acres of land and 400 serfs. The future writer spent his childhood years on his parents' estate Vasilyevka. It was located in Mirgorod district next to the legendary Dikanka, whose name the writer immortalized in his first book.
In 1818, Gogol, together with his brother Ivan, studied at the Mirgorod povet school for a little over a year. After the death of his brother, his father took him out of school and prepared him to enter the local gymnasium. However, it was decided to send Gogol to the Gymnasium of Higher Sciences in the city of Nezhin in the neighboring Chernigov province, where he studied for seven years - from 1821 to 1828. Here Gogol first met modern literature, became interested in theater. His first literary experiences also date back to his time at the gymnasium.
The breakthrough of an immature pen was the “idyll in pictures” “Hanz Küchelgarten”, an imitative romantic work. But it was on him that the aspiring writer placed special hopes. Having arrived in St. Petersburg at the end of 1828 to “look for places” as an official, Gogol was inspired by a secret thought: to establish himself on the St. Petersburg literary Olympus, to stand next to the first writers of that time - A.S. Pushkin, V.A. Zhukovsky, A.A. Delvig.
Just two months after his arrival in St. Petersburg, Gogol published (without indicating his name) the romantic poem “Italy” (“Son of the Fatherland and the Northern Archive,” vol. 2, no. 12). And in June 1829, the young provincial, extremely ambitious and arrogant, published the poem “Hanz Küchelgarten” taken from his suitcase, spending most of his parents’ money on it. The book was published under the “talking” pseudonym V. Alov, which hinted at the author’s great hopes. They, however, were not realized: reviews of the publication of the poem were negative. Shocked, Gogol left for Germany, but first took all copies of the book from bookstores and burned them. The literary debut turned out to be unsuccessful, and the nervous, suspicious, painfully proud debutant for the first time showed that attitude towards failure, which would then be repeated throughout his life: burning manuscripts and fleeing abroad after another “failure.”
Returning from abroad at the end of 1829, Gogol entered the public service and became an ordinary St. Petersburg official. The pinnacle of Gogol's bureaucratic career was as an assistant to the head of the Department of Appanages. In 1831, he left the hated office and, thanks to the patronage of new friends - V.A. Zhukovsky and P.A. Pletnev - entered the teaching field: he became a history teacher at the Patriotic Institute, and in 1834-1835. held the position of associate professor in the department of general history at St. Petersburg University. However, Gogol’s focus is on literary creativity; his biography, even during his years of bureaucratic and teaching service, is the biography of a writer.
Three periods can be distinguished in Gogol’s creative development:
1) 1829-1835 - St. Petersburg period. The failure (the publication of Hanz Küchelgarten) was followed by the resounding success of the collection of romantic stories “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” (1831-1832). In January-February 1835, the collections “Mirgorod” and “Arabesques” were published;
2) 1835-1842 - time of work on two important works: the comedy “The Inspector General” and the poem “Dead Souls”. The beginning of this period was the creation of the first edition of “The Inspector General” (December 1835, delivered in April 1836), the end was the publication of the first volume of “Dead Souls” (May 1842) and the preparation of “Works” in 4 volumes ( went out of print in January 1843). During these years, the writer lived abroad (from June 1836), visiting Russia twice to organize literary affairs;
3) 1842-1852 - the last period of creativity. Its main content was the work on the second volume of Dead Souls, which took place under the sign of intense religious and philosophical quests. Major events This period included the publication in January 1847 of the journalistic book “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends” and Gogol’s burning of personal papers in February 1852, including, apparently, the manuscript of the second volume of the poem.
The first period of Gogol's work (1829-1835) began with the search for his own theme, his own path in literature. On long lonely evenings, Gogol worked diligently on stories from Little Russian life. Petersburg impressions, bureaucratic life - all this was left in reserve. His imagination took him to Little Russia, from where so recently he tried to leave so as not to “perish in insignificance.” Gogol’s literary ambition was fueled by his acquaintance with famous poets: V.A. Zhukovsky, A.A. Delvig, Pushkin’s friend P.A. Pletnev. In May 1831, the long-awaited acquaintance with Pushkin took place.
Revenge for the experienced bitterness of an unsuccessful debut was the publication in September 1831 of the first part of “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.” Pushkin announced to the public about a new, “unusual for our literature” phenomenon, guessing the nature of Gogol’s talent. He saw in the young romantic writer two qualities that seemed far from each other: the first was “real gaiety, sincere, without affectation, without stiffness,” the second was “sensitivity,” poetry of feelings.
After the release of the first part of “Evenings...”, Gogol, inspired by success, experienced an extraordinary creative surge. In 1832, he published the second part of the collection, worked on the everyday story “The Scary Boar” and the historical novel “Hetman” (excerpts from these unfinished works were published in the “Literary Gazette” and the almanac “Northern Flowers”) and at the same time wrote articles on literary and pedagogical topics. Note that Pushkin highly valued this side of Gogol's genius, considering him the most promising literary critic of the 1830s. However, it was “Evenings...” that remained the only monument to the initial period of Gogol’s work. This book, in the words of the writer himself, captures “the first sweet moments of young inspiration.”
The collection includes eight stories, differing in themes, genre and style features. Gogol used a term that was widespread in the literature of the 1830s. the principle of cyclization of works. The stories are united by the unity of the setting (Dikanka and its environs), the figures of the storytellers (all of them are well-known people in Dikanka who know each other well) and the “publisher” (beekeeper Rudy Panko). Gogol hid under the literary “mask” of a commoner publisher, embarrassed by his entry into the “big world” of literature.
The material of the stories is truly inexhaustible: these are oral stories, legends, stories on both modern and historical topics. “If only they listened and read,” says the pasichnik in the preface to the first part, “but I, perhaps, because I’m too damn lazy to rummage, can get enough for ten such books.” Gogol freely juxtaposes events and “confuses” centuries. The goal of a romantic writer is to understand the spirit of the people, the origins of the national character. Time of action in the stories " Sorochinskaya fair" and "Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his Aunt" - modernity, in most works ("May Night, or the Drowned Woman", "The Missing Letter", "The Night Before Christmas" and "Enchanted Place") - the 18th century, finally, in "Evening on the eve of Ivan Kupala" and "Terrible Revenge" - 17th century. In this kaleidoscope of eras, Gogol finds the main romantic antithesis of his book - the past and the present.
The past in “Evenings...” appears in an aura of fabulousness and wonder. In him the writer saw a spontaneous play of good and evil forces, morally healthy people, not affected by the spirit of profit, practicality and mental laziness. Gogol depicts Little Russian folk festival and fair life. The holiday, with its atmosphere of freedom and fun, the beliefs and adventures associated with it, takes people out of the framework of their usual existence, making the impossible possible. Previously impossible marriages are concluded (“Sorochinskaya Fair”, “May Night”, “The Night Before Christmas”), all kinds of evil spirits become active: devils and witches tempt people, trying to prevent them. The holiday in Gogol's stories is all kinds of transformations, disguises, hoaxes, beatings and the revelation of secrets. Gogol's laughter in "Evenings..." is humorous. Its basis is rich folk humor, which is able to express in words comic contradictions and incongruities, of which there are many in the holiday atmosphere and in ordinary, everyday life.
The originality of the artistic world of stories is associated, first of all, with the widespread use of folklore traditions: it was in folk tales, semi-pagan legends and traditions that Gogol found themes and plots for his works. He used the belief about a fern blooming on the night before the holiday of Ivan Kupala, legends about mysterious treasures, about selling the soul to the devil, about flights and transformations of witches... Many stories feature mythological characters: sorcerers and witches, werewolves and mermaids and, of course, the devil, to whose tricks popular superstition is ready to attribute every evil deed.
“Evenings...” is a book of fantastic incidents. For Gogol, the fantastic is one of the most important aspects of the people's worldview. Reality and fantasy are intricately intertwined in people's ideas about the past and present, about good and evil. The writer considered the penchant for legendary-fantastic thinking to be an indicator of people’s spiritual health.
The fiction in “Evenings...” is ethnographically reliable. Heroes and Storytellers incredible stories They believe that the entire region of the unknown is inhabited by evil spirits, and the “demonological” characters themselves are shown by Gogol in a reduced, everyday guise. They are also “Little Russians”, they just live on their own “territory”, fooling around from time to time ordinary people, interfering in their life, celebrating and playing with them. For example, the witches in “The Missing Letter” play fools, inviting the narrator’s grandfather to play with them and, if lucky, return his hat. The devil in the story “The Night Before Christmas” looks like “a real provincial attorney in uniform.” He grabs the month and gets burned, blowing on his hand, like a man who accidentally grabbed a hot frying pan. Declaring his love to the “incomparable Solokha,” the devil “kissed her hand with such antics as an assessor for a priest.” Solokha herself is not only a witch, but also a villager, greedy and loving for fans.
Folk fiction intertwines with reality, clarifying relationships between people, separating good and evil. As a rule, the heroes in Gogol's first collection defeat evil. The triumph of man over evil is a folklore motif. The writer filled it with new content: he affirmed the power and strength of the human spirit, capable of curbing the dark, evil forces that dominate nature and interfere in people's lives.
The “positive” heroes of the stories were ordinary Little Russians. They are depicted as strong and cheerful, talented and harmonious. Jokes and pranks, the desire to play pranks are combined in them with a willingness to fight evil spirits and evil for their happiness. In the story “Terrible Revenge,” a heroic-epic image of the Cossack Danila Burulbash, the predecessor of Taras Bulba, is created. His main features are love for his homeland and love of freedom. Trying to curb the sorcerer, punished by God for a crime, Danila dies like a hero. Gogol uses folk poetic principles of depicting a person. His characters are bright, memorable personalities; there are no contradictions or painful reflections in them. The writer is not interested in the details, the particulars of their lives, he strives to express the main thing - the spirit of freedom, the breadth of nature, the pride living in the “free Cossacks”. In his depiction, this is, according to Pushkin, “a singing and dancing tribe.”
With the exception of the story “Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and His Aunt,” all the works in Gogol’s first collection are romantic. The author's romantic ideal manifested itself in the dream of good and fair relations between people, in the idea of national unity. Gogol created his poetic utopia based on Little Russian material: it expresses his ideas about what the life of the people should be, what a person should be. The colorful legendary fantasy world of “Evenings...” differs sharply from the boring, petty life of Russian ordinary people, shown in “The Inspector General” and especially in “Dead Souls”. But the festive atmosphere of the collection is disrupted by the invasion of sad “beings” - Shponka and his aunt Vasilisa Kashporovna. Sometimes the text of the stories also contains sad, elegiac notes: it is the voice of the author himself that breaks through the voices of the narrators. He looks at the sparkling life of the people through the eyes of a St. Petersburger, escaping from the cold breath of the ghostly capital, but he anticipates the collapse of his utopia and therefore is sad about joy, “a beautiful and fickle guest”...
“Evenings...” made Gogol famous, but, oddly enough, the first success brought not only joy, but also doubts. The year of crisis was 1833. Gogol complains about the uncertainty of his position in life and literature, complains about fate, and does not believe that he is capable of becoming a real writer. He assessed his condition as a “destructive revolution,” accompanied by abandoned plans and the burning of barely begun manuscripts. Trying to move away from the Little Russian theme, he conceived, in particular, a comedy based on St. Petersburg material, “Vladimir of the Third Degree,” but the plan was not realized. The reason for acute dissatisfaction with oneself is the nature of laughter, the nature and meaning of the comic in Little Russian stories. He came to the conclusion that he laughed in them “to amuse himself,” in order to brighten up the gray “prose” of St. Petersburg life. A real writer, according to Gogol, must do “good”: “laughing for nothing” without a clear moral goal is reprehensible.
He was intensely looking for a way out of the creative impasse. The first symptom of the important changes taking place in the writer was a story based on Little Russian material, but completely different from the previous ones - “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich.” 1834 was fruitful: “Taras Bulba”, “Old World Landowners” and “Viy” were written (all included in the collection “Mirgorod”, 1835).
“Mirgorod” is an important milestone in Gogol’s creative development. The scope of artistic “geography” has expanded: the legendary Dikanka has given way to a prosaic county town, the main attraction of which is a huge puddle, and the fantastic character is Ivan Ivanovich’s brown pig, who brazenly stole Ivan Nikiforovich’s petition from the local court. The very name of the city contains an ironic meaning: Mirgorod is both an ordinary provincial town and a special, closed world. This is a “through the looking glass” in which everything is the other way around: normal relationships between people are replaced by strange friendship and absurd enmity, things displace people, and pigs and ganders become almost the main characters... In an allegorical sense, “Mirgorod” is the world art, overcoming the county “topography” and “local” time: the book shows not only the life of the “sky smokers”, but also the romantic heroics of the past, and the terrible world of natural evil, embodied in “Viya”.
In comparison with “Evenings...” the composition of Gogol’s second collection of prose is more transparent: it is divided into two parts, each of which includes two stories, united by contrast. The antithesis of the everyday story “Old World Landowners” is the heroic epic “Taras Bulba”. The morally descriptive, permeated with the author's irony, "The Tale..." about the two Ivans is contrasted with the "folk legend" - the story "Viy", close in style to the works of the first collection. Gogol abandoned the literary mask of a “publisher.” The author's point of view is expressed in the composition of the collection, in the complex interaction of romantic and realistic principles of depicting heroes, and in the use of various speech masks.
All stories are permeated with the author’s thoughts about the polar possibilities of the human spirit. Gogol is convinced that a person can live according to the high laws of duty, uniting people into “comradery,” but can lead a meaningless, empty existence. It takes him into the cramped world of an estate or city house, to petty worries and slavish dependence on things. In people's lives, the writer discovered opposite principles: spiritual and physical, social and natural.
Gogol showed the triumph of spirituality in the heroes of the story “Taras Bulba”, primarily in Taras himself. The victory of the physical, the material - in the inhabitants of the “old world” estate and Mirgorod. Natural evil, against which prayers and spells are powerless, triumphs in “Viy”. Social evil that arises among people as a result of their own efforts - in morally descriptive stories. But Gogol is convinced that social evil, in contrast to “earthly”, natural evil, is surmountable: in the subtext of his works one can discern the idea of the author’s new intentions - to show people the absurdity and randomness of this evil, to teach people how it can be overcome.
The hero of the story “Viy” Khoma Brut looked into the eyes of Viy, natural evil, and died from fear of him. The world that confronts man is terrible and hostile - the more acute the task of uniting in the face of world evil faces people. Self-isolation and alienation lead a person to death, because only a dead thing can exist independently of other things - this is the main thought of Gogol, who was approaching his great works: “The Inspector General” and “Dead Souls”.
The second period of Gogol’s work (1835-1842) opens with a kind of “prologue” - the “St. Petersburg” stories “Nevsky Prospekt”, “Notes of a Madman” and “Portrait”, included in the collection “Arabesques” (1835; the author explained its title as follows: “confusion , mixture, porridge" - in addition to stories, the book includes articles on various topics). These works connected two periods of the writer’s creative development: in 1836 the story “The Nose” was published, and the cycle was completed by the story “The Overcoat” (1839-1841, published in 1842).
Gogol finally submitted to the St. Petersburg theme. The stories, different in plot, theme, and characters, are united by the location of action - St. Petersburg. But for a writer this is not just a geographical space. He created a vivid image-symbol of the city, both real and illusory, fantastic. In the destinies of the heroes, in the ordinary and incredible incidents of their lives, in the rumors, rumors and legends with which the very air of the city is saturated, Gogol finds a mirror reflection of the St. Petersburg “phantasmagoria”. In St. Petersburg, reality and fantasy easily change places. The daily life and destinies of the city's inhabitants are on the verge of the believable and the miraculous. The incredible suddenly becomes so real that a person cannot stand it and goes crazy.
Gogol gave his interpretation of the St. Petersburg theme. His Petersburg, unlike Pushkin’s (“The Bronze Horseman”), lives outside of history, outside of Russia. Gogol's Petersburg is a city of incredible incidents, ghostly and absurd life, fantastic events and ideals. Any metamorphosis is possible in it. The living turns into a thing, a puppet (such are the inhabitants of the aristocratic Nevsky Prospect). A thing, object or part of the body becomes a “face”, an important person in the rank of state councilor (the nose that disappeared from the collegiate assessor Kovalev, who calls himself a “major”). The city depersonalizes people, distorts their good qualities, highlights their bad ones, and changes their appearance beyond recognition.
Like Pushkin, Gogol explains the enslavement of man by St. Petersburg from a social perspective: in the ghostly life of the city, he discovers a special mechanism that is set in motion by the “electricity” of the city. Rank, that is, a person’s place determined by the Table of Ranks, replaces human individuality. There are no people - there are positions. Without a rank, without a position, a St. Petersburger is not a person, but neither this nor that, “the devil knows what.”
The universal artistic technique that the writer uses when depicting St. Petersburg is synecdoche. Replacing the whole with its part is an ugly law by which both the city and its inhabitants live. A person, losing his individuality, merges with a faceless multitude of people just like him. It is enough to say about the uniform, tailcoat, overcoat, mustache, sideburns to give a comprehensive idea of the motley St. Petersburg crowd. Nevsky Prospekt, the front part of the city, represents the whole of St. Petersburg. The city exists as if by itself, it is a state within a state - and here the part crowds out the whole.
Gogol is by no means an impassive chronicler of the city: he laughs and is indignant, ironic and sad. The meaning of Gogol’s image of St. Petersburg is to point out to a person from a faceless crowd the need for moral insight and spiritual rebirth. He believes that in a creature born in the artificial atmosphere of the city, the human will still triumph over the bureaucratic.
In “Nevsky Prospekt” the writer gave a certain introduction to the entire cycle of “Petersburg stories”. This is both a “physiological essay” (a detailed study of the main “artery” of the city and the city “exhibition”), and a romantic short story about the fate of the artist Piskarev and Lieutenant Pirogov. They were brought together by Nevsky Prospekt, the “face”, “physiognomy” of St. Petersburg, changing depending on the time of day. It becomes sometimes businesslike, sometimes “pedagogical,” sometimes “the main exhibition of the best works of man.” Nevsky Prospekt is a model of an official city, a “moving capital”. Gogol creates images of puppet dolls, bearers of sideburns and mustaches of various colors and shades. Their mechanical assembly marches along Nevsky Prospekt. The fates of the two heroes are details of St. Petersburg life that made it possible to tear off the city’s brilliant mask and show its essence: Petersburg kills the artist and is favorable to the official; both tragedy and an ordinary farce are possible in it. Nevsky Prospekt is “deceitful at all times,” just like the city itself.
In each story, St. Petersburg opens up from a new, unexpected side. In “Portrait” it is a seductive city that ruined the artist Chartkov with money and light, illusory fame. In “Notes of a Madman,” the capital is seen through the eyes of the titular councilor Poprishchin, who has gone mad. The story “The Nose” shows the incredible, but at the same time very “real” St. Petersburg “odyssey” of Major Kovalev’s nose. “The Overcoat” is the “life” of a typical Petersburger - a petty official Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin. Gogol emphasizes the illogicality of the ordinary, everyday and familiar. The exceptional is only an appearance, a “deception” that confirms the rule. Chartkov’s madness in “Portrait” is part of the general madness that arises as a result of people’s desire for profit. The madness of Poprishchin, who imagined himself as the Spanish King Ferdinand VIII, is a hyperbole that emphasizes the manic passion of any official for ranks and awards. In the loss of Major Kovalev’s nose, Gogol showed a special case of the loss of “face” by the bureaucratic masses.
Gogol's irony reaches deadly force: only the exceptional, the fantastic can bring a person out of moral stupor. In fact, only the insane Poprishchin remembers the “good of humanity.” If the nose had not disappeared from the face of Major Kovalev, he would still have been walking along Nevsky Prospect in a crowd of people like him: with noses, in uniforms or in tails. The disappearance of the nose makes it individual: after all, you cannot appear in public with a “flat spot” on your face. If Bashmachkin had not died after being scolded by a “significant person,” it is unlikely that this “significant person” imagined this petty official as a ghost tearing off the greatcoats of passers-by. St. Petersburg as depicted by Gogol is a world of familiar absurdity and everyday fantasy.
Madness is one of the manifestations of St. Petersburg absurdity. In every story there are madmen heroes: these are not only the crazy artists Piskarev (“Nevsky Prospekt”) and Chartkov (“Portrait”), but also officials Poprishchin (“Notes of a Madman”) and Kovalev, who I almost went crazy when I saw my own nose walking around St. Petersburg. Even the “little man” Bashmachkin, who has lost hope of finding his overcoat—the “bright guest” of his dull life—is seized by madness. The images of madmen in Gogol's stories are not only an indicator of the illogicality of social life. The pathology of the human spirit allows us to see the true essence of what is happening. The Petersburger is a “zero” among many “zeros” like him. Only madness can distinguish it. The madness of the heroes is their “finest hour”, because only by losing their minds do they become individuals, losing the automatism characteristic of a person from the bureaucratic mass. Madness is one of the forms of people’s rebellion against the omnipotence of the social environment.
The stories “The Nose” and “The Overcoat” depict two poles of St. Petersburg life: absurd phantasmagoria and everyday reality. These poles, however, are not as far from each other as they might seem at first glance. The plot of “The Nose” is based on the most fantastic of all city “stories”. Gogol's fantasy in this work is fundamentally different from the folk poetic fantasy in the collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.” There is no source of the fantastic here: the nose is part of St. Petersburg mythology, which arose without the intervention of otherworldly forces. This mythology is special - bureaucratic, generated by the omnipotent invisible - the “electricity” of the rank.
The nose behaves as befits a “significant person” who has the rank of state councilor: he prays in the Kazan Cathedral, walks along Nevsky Prospect, visits the department, makes visits, and plans to leave for Riga using someone else’s passport. Where it came from is of no interest to anyone, including the author. One can even assume that he “fell from the moon,” because, according to Poprishchin, the madman from “Notes of a Madman,” “the moon is usually made in Hamburg,” and is inhabited by noses. Any, even the most delusional, assumption is not excluded. The main thing is different - the “two-facedness” of the nose. According to some signs, this is definitely the real nose of Major Kovalev (his mark is a pimple on the left side), that is, a part that has separated from the body. But the second “face” of the nose is social.
The image of the nose is the result of an artistic generalization that reveals social phenomenon St. Petersburg. The point of the story is not that the nose became a man, but that he became a fifth-class official. To those around him, the nose is not a nose at all, but a “civilian general.” They see the rank - the person is not there, so the substitution is completely invisible. People for whom the essence of a person is limited to his rank and position do not recognize the mummer. Fantasy in “The Nose” is a mystery that is nowhere and is everywhere; it is the terrible irrationality of St. Petersburg life itself, in which any delusional vision is indistinguishable from reality.
The plot of “The Overcoat” is based on an insignificant St. Petersburg incident, the hero of which was the “little man,” the “eternal titular adviser” Bashmachkin. The purchase of a new overcoat turns into a shock for him, commensurate with the disappearance of the nose from the face of Major Kovalev. Gogol did not limit himself to a sentimental biography of an official who tried to achieve justice and died from “official scolding” by a “significant person.” At the end of the story, Bashmachkin becomes part of St. Petersburg mythology, a fantastic avenger, a “noble robber.”
Bashmachkin’s mythological “double” is a kind of antithesis to the nose. The official nose is a reality of St. Petersburg that does not confuse or terrify anyone. “A dead man in the form of an official”, “tearing off all sorts of overcoats from everyone’s shoulders, without distinguishing rank and title,” terrifies the living noses, “significant persons.” He eventually gets to his offender, “one significant person,” and only after that he forever leaves the bureaucratic Petersburg that offended him during his lifetime and was indifferent to his death.
In 1835, plans arose for Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" and the poem "Dead Souls", which determined the entire subsequent fate of Gogol the artist.
Gogol revealed the place of “The Inspector General” in his work and the level of artistic generalization to which he strove when working on a comedy in “The Author's Confession” (1847). The “thought” of the comedy, he emphasized, belongs to Pushkin. Following Pushkin’s advice, the writer “decided to collect everything bad in Russia in one pile... and laugh at everything at once.” Gogol defined a new quality of laughter: in “The Inspector General” it is “high” laughter, due to the height of the spiritual and practical task facing the author. The comedy became a test of strength before working on a grandiose epic about modern Russia. After creating “The Inspector General,” the writer felt “the need for a complete essay, where there would be more than one thing to laugh at.” Thus, work on “The Inspector General” is a turning point in Gogol’s creative development.
The first edition of the comedy was created in a few months, by December 1835. Its premiere, which was attended by Nicholas I, took place on April 19, 1836 on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg (the first edition was also published in 1836). The performance made a depressing impression on Gogol: he was dissatisfied with the acting, the indifference of the audience, and most of all, with the fact that his plan remained unclear. “I wanted to run away from everything,” the writer recalled.
However, it was not the flaws in the stage interpretation of “The Inspector General” that were the main reason for the author’s acute dissatisfaction. Gogol was inspired by an unrealistic hope: he expected to see not only a stage performance, but also a real effect produced by his art - a moral shock to the spectators-officials who recognized themselves in the “mirror” of the work. The disappointment experienced by the writer prompted him to “explain” to the public, comment on the meaning of the play, especially its ending, and take a critical look at his own work. Two commentaries were conceived: “An excerpt from a letter written by the author after the first performance of “The Inspector General” to a writer” and the play “Theatrical tour after the presentation of a new comedy.” Gogol completed these “explanations” with the public in 1841-1842. Dissatisfaction with the play led to its thorough revision: the second, revised edition was published in 1841, and the final edition of “The Inspector General,” in which, in particular, the famous epigraph “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked,” was published in 1842 . in the 4th volume of “Works”.
On June 6, 1836, after all the stormy emotions caused by the premiere of The Government Inspector, Gogol went abroad with the intention of “deeply thinking about his duties as an author, his future creations.” Gogol’s main work during his stay abroad, mainly in Italy, which lasted for 12 years (he finally returned to Russia only in 1848), was “Dead Souls.” The idea for the work arose in the fall of 1835, at which time the first sketches were made. However, work on the “true novel” (its plot, according to Gogol, belonged to Pushkin, like the “thought” of “The Inspector General”) was crowded out by other plans. Initially, he wanted to write a satirical adventure novel, showing in it “albeit from one side all of Rus'” (letter to A.S. Pushkin dated October 7, 1835).
Only after leaving Russia, the writer was able to seriously begin working on “ Dead souls" A new stage in the implementation of the plan began in the summer of 1836. Gogol thought over the plan of the work, redoing everything written in St. Petersburg. “Dead Souls” was now conceived as a three-volume work. Having strengthened the satirical principle, he sought to balance it with a new, non-comic element - lyricism and the high pathos of the author's digressions. In letters to friends, defining the scale of his work, Gogol assured that “all of Rus' will appear in it.” Thus, the previous thesis - about the depiction of Russia “albeit from one side” - was canceled. The understanding of the genre of “Dead Souls” gradually changed: the writer moved further and further away from the traditions of various genre varieties of the novel - adventure-picaresque, morally descriptive, travel novel. From the end of 1836, Gogol called his work a poem, abandoning the previously used designation of the genre - a novel.
Gogol’s understanding of the meaning and significance of his work changed. He came to the conclusion that his pen was guided by a higher predetermination, which was determined by the significance of “Dead Souls” for Russia. A firm conviction arose that his work was a feat in the writing field, which he accomplished despite the misunderstanding and hostility of his contemporaries: only his descendants could appreciate it. After Pushkin’s death, the shocked Gogol perceived “Dead Souls” as a “sacred testament” of his teacher and friend - he became more and more convinced of his chosenness. However, work on the poem progressed slowly. Gogol decided to organize a series of readings of the unfinished work abroad, and at the end of 1839-beginning of 1840 in Russia, where he came for several months.
In 1840, immediately after leaving Russia, Gogol became seriously ill. After his recovery, which the writer regarded as a “miraculous healing,” he began to consider “Dead Souls” as a “holy work.” According to Gogol, God sent him illness, put him through painful trials and brought him to the light so that he could fulfill his highest plans. Inspired by the idea of moral achievement and messianism, during 1840 and 1841. Gogol completed work on the first volume and brought the manuscript to Russia. The second and third volumes were being considered at the same time. Having passed through censorship, the first volume was published in May 1842 under the title “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls.”
The last period of Gogol’s work (1842-1852) began with a sharp controversy around the first volume of “Dead Souls,” which reached its climax in the summer of 1842. Judgments about the poem were expressed not only in the press (the most striking episode was the dispute between V.G. Belinsky and K. S. Aksakov about the genre, and in fact about the meaning and meaning of “Dead Souls”), but also in private correspondence, diaries, in high society salons and student circles. Gogol closely followed this “terrible noise” raised by his work. Having gone abroad again after the publication of the first volume, he wrote the second volume, which, in his opinion, should have explained to the public the general concept of his work and removed all objections. Gogol compared the first volume with the threshold of the future “great poem,” which is still under construction and will have to solve the riddle of his soul.
Work on the second volume, which lasted ten years, was difficult, with interruptions and long stops. The first edition was completed in 1845, but did not satisfy Gogol: the manuscript was burned. After this, the book “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends” was prepared (published on the eve of 1847). From 1846 to 1851, the second edition of the second volume was created, which Gogol intended to publish.
However, the book was never published: its manuscript was either not completely completed, or was burned in February 1852 along with other personal papers a few days before the writer’s death, which occurred on February 21 (March 4), 1852.
“Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends” is Gogol’s vivid religious, moral, social and aesthetic manifesto. This book, like other religious and moral works of the 1840s, summed up his spiritual development and revealed the drama of his human and literary fate. Gogol's word became messianic, prophetic: he created extremely sincere and merciless confessions and at the same time passionate sermons. The writer was inspired by the idea of spiritual self-knowledge, which was supposed to help him learn “the nature of man in general and the soul of man in general.” Gogol’s coming to Christ is natural: in him he saw “the key to the human soul,” “the height of spiritual knowledge.” In the “Author's Confession,” the writer noted that he “spent several years inside himself,” “educating himself like a student.” In the last decade of his life, he sought to implement a new creative principle: first create yourself, then a book that will tell others how to create themselves.
However, the last years of the writer’s life were not only steps of climbing the ladder of high spirituality, which was revealed to him in civil and religious feats. This is the time of a tragic duel with himself: having written almost all of his works of art by 1842, Gogol passionately desired, but was never able to transform the spiritual truths that had been revealed to him into artistic values.
Gogol's artistic world took shape by the early 1840s. After the publication of the first volume of “Dead Souls” and “The Overcoat” in 1842, there was essentially a process of transforming Gogol the artist into Gogol the preacher, striving to become the spiritual mentor of Russian society. This can be treated differently, but the very fact of Gogol’s turn and movement towards new goals that go far beyond artistic creativity, no doubt.
Gogol has always, with the possible exception of his early works, been far from “pure” art. Even in his youth, he dreamed of a civil career and, as soon as he entered literature, he realized his writing as a kind of civil service. A writer, in his opinion, should be not only an artist, but also a teacher, moralist, and preacher. Let us note that this feature of Gogol distinguishes him from his contemporaries: neither Pushkin nor Lermontov considered the “teacher” function to be the main task of art. Pushkin generally rejected any attempts by the “rabble” to force the writer into any kind of “service.” Lermontov, an unusually sensitive “diagnostician” of the spiritual vices of his contemporaries, did not consider the writer’s task to “cure” society. On the contrary, all of Gogol's mature work (from the mid-1830s) was inspired by the idea of preaching.
However, his sermon had a special character: Gogol is a comic writer, his element is laughter: humor, irony, satire. “Laughing” Gogol expressed in his works the idea of what a person should not be and what his vices are. The world of the writer’s most important works—“The Inspector General” and “Dead Souls” (excluding the second, unfinished volume)—is a world of “anti-heroes,” people who have lost those qualities without which a person turns into a useless “sky-smoker” or even a “hole in humanity.”
In the works written after the first collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka,” Gogol proceeded from the idea of a moral norm, a model, which is quite natural for a moralist writer. In the last years of his life, Gogol formulated the ideals that inspired him already at the beginning of his writing career. We find a remarkable imperative addressed both to “man in general” and to “Russian man”, and at the same time the writer’s credo of Gogol himself, for example, in the outlines of an unsent letter to V.G. Belinsky (summer 1847): “Man must remember that he not at all a material brute, but a high citizen of high heavenly citizenship. Until he lives at least to some extent the life of a heavenly citizen, until then earthly citizenship will not come into order.”
Gogol the artist is not a dispassionate “protocolist.” He loves his heroes even “little black ones,” that is, with all their shortcomings, vices, absurdities, he is indignant at them, sad with them, leaving them hope for “recovery.” His works have a pronounced personal character. The personality of the writer, his judgments, open or veiled forms of expression of ideals are manifested not only in direct appeals to the reader (“The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich,” “Petersburg” stories, “Dead Souls”), but also in how Gogol sees his heroes, the world of things that surround them, their everyday affairs, everyday troubles and “vulgar” conversations. “Objectivity”, love for things, accumulation of details - all “physical”, material world his works are shrouded in an atmosphere of secret teaching.
Like a wise mentor, Gogol did not tell readers what is “good”, but pointed out what is “bad” - in Russia, in Russian society, in Russian people. The firmness of his own convictions should have led to the negative example remaining in the reader’s mind, disturbing him, teaching him without lecturing. Gogol wanted the person he depicted to “remain like a nail in the head, and his image seemed so alive that it was difficult to get rid of him,” so that “insensitively” (emphasis added) “the good Russian characters and properties of people” would become attractive, and the “bad” ones are so unattractive that “the reader will not even love them in himself if he finds them.” “This is where I believe my writing lies,” Gogol emphasized.
Note that Gogol treated his reader differently than Pushkin (remember the images of the reader? - “friend”, “enemy”, “buddy” of the Author - in “Eugene Onegin”) or Lermontov (the image of an indifferent or hostile contemporary reader, whom “spangles and deceptions entertain”, created in the poem “Poet”). For Gogol, a moralist writer, the reader of his books is a “student” reader, whose duty is to listen carefully to the “lesson” taught by a wise and demanding mentor in an entertaining way.
Gogol loves to joke and laugh, knowing how and with what to attract the attention of his “students.” But his main goal is that, after leaving the “class”, leaving Gogol’s “laughing room”, that is, closing the book written by him, a comic writer, the reader would think bitterly about the imperfections of the country in which he lives, people who are little different from himself, and, of course, about his own vices.
Please note: the moral ideal of a writer, according to Gogol, should be manifested “insensitively,” not in what he says, but in how he depicts. It is by depicting, capturing and enlarging in his heroes even the “infinitesimal”, “vulgar” (that is, everyday, familiar) traits of their characters that Gogol teaches, instructs, and preaches. His moral position is expressed in artistic words, which have a dual function: it contains both sermon and confession. As Gogol never tired of emphasizing, when addressing a person, and even more so when instructing him, one must begin with oneself, with self-knowledge and spiritual self-improvement.
Gogol is often called the “Russian Rabelais”, the “Russian Swift”. Indeed, in the first half of the 19th century. he was the largest comic writer in Russia. Gogol's laughter, like the laughter of his great predecessors, is a formidable, destructive weapon that spared neither the authorities, nor the class arrogance of the nobility, nor the bureaucratic machine of the autocracy. But Gogol’s laughter is special - it is the laughter of a creator, a moralist-preacher. Perhaps none of the Russian satirists laughed at the social vices and shortcomings of people, inspired by such clear moral goals as Gogol. Behind his laughter are ideas about what should be - about what people should be, the relationships between them, society and the state.
From their school days, many applicants know for sure that Gogol “convicted”, “exposed” “officials, serfdom and serf-owners,” but often do not think about what inspired the writer, what “wonderful power” forced him to “look around the whole enormously rushing life, to look at it through laughter visible to the world and invisible, unknown to him tears” (“Dead Souls”, volume one, chapter 7). Many modern readers of Gogol do not have a clear answer to the questions: what were the civil and moral ideals of the writer, in the name of which he criticized serfdom and serf owners, what is the meaning of Gogol’s laughter?
Gogol was a convinced conservative, a monarchist, who never raised the question of changing the social system, did not dream of social upheavals, or of public freedom. The very word “freedom” is alien to Gogol’s dictionary. For the writer, the Russian monarch is * “God’s anointed,” the embodiment of the power of the state and the highest moral authority. He is able to punish any social evil, find and “cure” any distortion in human souls.
In Gogol's works, Russia appears as a country of bureaucratic officials. The image of the Russian bureaucracy created by the writer is an image of a clumsy, absurd government alienated from the people. The point of his criticism of the bureaucracy is not to “destroy” it with laughter - the writer criticizes “bad” officials who do not fulfill the duties assigned to them by the tsar, who do not understand their duty to the Fatherland. He had no doubt that any official who has “full knowledge of his position” and does not act “beyond the limits and boundaries specified by law” is necessary to govern a huge country. Bureaucracy, according to Gogol, is good for Russia if it understands the significance of what it occupies." important place", is not affected by self-interest and abuse.
Vivid images of landowners - “sky smokers”, “lying stones” - were created in many of Gogol’s works: from the story “Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and His Aunt” to “Dead Souls”. The meaning of the satirical depiction of the feudal landowners is to point out to the nobles who own land and people the “height of their rank” and their moral duty. Gogol called the nobility a “vessel” containing “moral nobility, which should spread throughout the entire Russian land in order to give an idea to all other classes why the highest class is called the flower of the people.” The Russian nobility, according to Gogol, “is beautiful in its truly Russian core, despite the temporary growth of foreign husks, it is “the flower of our own people.”
A real landowner, in Gogoli’s understanding, is a good owner and shepherd of the peasants. In order to live up to his God-ordained destiny, he must spiritually influence his serfs. “Explain to them the whole truth,” Gogol advised the “Russian landowner” in “Selected Bridges from Correspondence with Friends,” “that the soul of a person is more valuable than anything else in the world and that first of all you will see to it that one of them does not destroy his soul and did not betray it to eternal torment." The peasantry, thus, was considered by the writer as an object of touching care of a strict, highly moral landowner." Gogol's heroes - alas! - are far from this bright ideal.
For whom did Gogol, who “always stood for public enlightenment,” write, and to whom did he preach? Not to the peasantry, “farmers”, but to the Russian nobility, who had deviated from their direct destiny, who had left the right path - serving the people, the Tsar and Russia. In the “Author's Confession,” the writer emphasized that “before enlightening the people themselves, it is more useful to educate those who have a close encounter with the people, from whom the people often suffer.”
Literature, in moments of social disorder and unrest, should, according to Gogol, inspire the entire nation with its example. Setting an example and being useful are the main responsibilities of a true writer. This is the most important point of Gogol’s ideological and aesthetic program, the leading idea of his mature period of creativity.
The unusual thing about Gogol the artist is that in not a single completed and published work of art does he express his ideals directly or openly instruct his readers. Laughter is the prism through which his views are refracted. However, Belinsky also rejected the very possibility of a straightforward interpretation of Gogol’s laughter. “Gogol depicts not strangers, but a person in general... the critic emphasized. “He is as much a tragedian as he is a comedian... he is rarely one or the other separately... but more often than not he is both.” In his opinion, “comicism is a narrow word to express Gogol’s talent. His comedy is higher than what we are used to calling comedy.” Having called Gogol’s heroes “monsters,” Belinsky astutely noted that they are “not cannibals,” “in fact, they have neither vices nor virtues.” Despite the whimsicality and comic incongruities, enhanced by laughter, are people quite ordinary, not only “ negative heroes"of their era, but also people "in general", recreated with extraordinary "largeness".
The heroes of Gogol’s satirical works are “failed” people, worthy of both ridicule and regret. Creating their most detailed social and everyday portraits, the writer pointed out what, in his opinion, “sits” in every person, regardless of his rank, title, class affiliation and specific life circumstances. Specific historical and eternal, universal traits in Gogol’s heroes form a unique fusion. Each of them is not only a “human document” of the Nicholas era, but also an image-symbol of universal human significance. After all, as Belinsky noted, even “the best of us are not alien to the shortcomings of these monsters.”
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was born in 1809 in the village of Bolshiye Sorochintsy, into a family of poor landowners - Vasily Afanasyevich and Maria Ivanovna Gogol-Yanovsky. The writer's father was the author of several comedies in Ukrainian. From 1821 to 1828, Nikolai Vasilyevich studied at the Nezhin Gymnasium of Higher Sciences. Interest in literature and painting, as well as acting talent, appeared already during the years of study. The great hobby of many students at the gymnasium was amateur theater, one of the creators of which was Gogol. He was a talented performer of many roles, as well as a director and artist, the author of funny comedies and scenes from folk life.
In the gymnasium, the future writer began to compile the “Little Russian Lexicon” (Ukrainian-Russian dictionary) and record folk songs. The writer collected remarkable monuments of oral poetic creativity throughout his life. Gogol's first literary experiments date back to 1823-24. Two years after entering the gymnasium, he became one of the active participants in the literary circle, whose members published several handwritten magazines and almanacs: “Meteor of Literature”, “Star”, “Northern Dawn”, etc. The first stories, critical articles, plays and poems by an aspiring writer.
After graduating from high school, Gogol left for St. Petersburg and a year later entered the civil service, and then began teaching history in one of the educational institutions. During this period, Nikolai Vasilyevich met V.A. Zhukovsky, P.A. Pletnev and A.S. Pushkin, who had a huge influence on his work. Gogol considered himself a student and follower of the great poet. Along with Pushkin, the formation of the literary tastes of the future writer was greatly influenced by romantic poetry and prose of the Decembrists.
In 1831-32, Gogol’s book “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” was published, based on Ukrainian folk art- songs, fairy tales, folk beliefs and customs, as well as the personal impressions of the author himself. This book brought Gogol great success. The appearance of “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka,” according to Pushkin, was an extraordinary phenomenon in Russian literature. Gogol revealed to the Russian reader amazing world folk life, imbued with the romance of folk legends and traditions, cheerful lyricism and playful humor.
The years 1832-33 were a turning point in the writer’s life. It was a time of persistent search for new themes and images suggested by life. In 1835, two collections were published: “Mirgorod” and “Arabesques”, which brought Gogol even greater recognition. The collection “Mirgorod” includes the stories “Old World Landowners”, “Taras Bulba”, “Viy” and “The Story of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”. At the same time, work continued on “Petersburg Tales” - a cycle of works devoted to St. Petersburg themes. The first sketches of the cycle date back to 1831. The most significant story in the St. Petersburg cycle, “The Overcoat,” was completed in 1841.
In 1836, at the Alexandrinsky Theater, the first performance of the comedy “The Inspector General” took place, in which the author mercilessly ridiculed officials and the local nobility. The characters in the comedy were typical for all of Russia at that time, and many viewers who saw the comedy for the first time believed that the author was making fun of their city, its officials, landowners and police officers. But not everyone received the comedy favorably. Representatives of the bureaucracy saw comedy as a threat. Articles began to appear on the pages of the magazine accusing the author of the comedy of distorting reality. Those who recognized themselves in the heroes of the comedy argued that its content boiled down to an old empty joke.
Critical reviews deeply traumatized Gogol. In subsequent years, he continued to work hard on the composition of the play and the images of the characters. In 1841, the comedy, in a significantly revised form, was published a second time as a separate book. But this edition also seemed imperfect to the writer. Gogol included only the sixth version of The Inspector General in the fourth volume of his Works in 1842. But in this form, the comedy, due to censorship obstacles, was staged only 28 years later.
Almost simultaneously with the first edition of The Inspector General, the first issue of Pushkin’s journal Sovremennik was published, in the preparation of which Gogol took an active part. In one of his articles, he criticized editorial publications, after which attacks from the ruling classes noticeably intensified.
In the summer of 1836, Gogol decided to temporarily go abroad, where he spent a total of more than 12 years. The writer lived in Germany, Switzerland, France, Austria, the Czech Republic, but most of all in Italy. In subsequent years, he returned to his homeland twice - in 1839-40. and in 1841-42. Death of A.S. Pushkin deeply shocked the writer. The beginning of his work on the poem “Dead Souls” dates back to this time. Shortly before the duel, Pushkin gave Gogol his own plot, and the writer considered his work the “sacred testament” of the great poet.
At the beginning of October 1841, Gogol arrived in St. Petersburg, and a few days later he left for Moscow, where he continued to work on “Dead Souls.” In May 1842, the first volume of Dead Souls was published, and at the end of May Gogol went abroad again. Russian readers, who became acquainted with Gogol's new creation, were immediately divided into his supporters and opponents. Heated debates erupted around the book. Gogol at this time was resting and receiving treatment in the small German town of Gastein. The unrest associated with the publication of Dead Souls, material need, and attacks from critics became the cause of a spiritual crisis and nervous illness.
In subsequent years, the writer often moved from one place to another, hoping that a change of environment would help him restore his health. By the mid-40s, the spiritual crisis deepened. Under the influence of A.P. Tolstoy, Gogol became imbued with religious ideas and abandoned his previous beliefs and works. In 1847, a series of articles by the writer in the form of letters was published entitled “Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends.” The main idea of this book is the need for internal Christian education and re-education of everyone, without which no social improvements are possible. The book was published in a heavily censored form and was considered an artistically weak work. At the same time, Gogol also worked on works of a theological nature, the most significant of which is “Reflections on the Divine Liturgy” (published posthumously in 1857).
The last years of his life N.V. Gogol lived alone. In 1848, the writer intended to fulfill his main dream - to travel around Russia. But there was no longer any money or physical strength for this. He visited his native places and lived in Odessa for six months. In St. Petersburg he met Nekrasov, Goncharov and Grigorovich, in April 1848 he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to the Holy Sepulcher, but spent most of his time in Moscow. Despite his illness, the writer continued to work, as he saw the meaning of his life in literature.
In recent years, all of Gogol's thoughts were absorbed in the second volume of Dead Souls. At the beginning of 1852, the writer showed signs of a new mental crisis; he refused food and medical care. His health condition worsened every day. One night, during another attack, he burned almost all of his manuscripts, including the completed edition of the second volume of “Dead Souls” (only 7 chapters survived in incomplete form). Soon after this, the writer died and was buried in the St. Daniel Monastery. In 1931, the writer's remains were reburied at Novodevichy Cemetery. Shortly before his death, Gogol said: “I know that after me my name will be happier than me...”. And he was right. About two hundred years have passed since the death of the great Russian writer, but his works still occupy an honorable place among the masterpieces of world classics.
Nikolai Gogol appears. His books are familiar to everyone. Films and performances are based on his works. The work of this writer is very diverse. It contains both romantic stories and works of realistic prose.
Biography
Nikolai Gogol was born in Ukraine into the family of a regimental clerk. His talent as a satirist showed up early. Gogol showed a tireless thirst for knowledge already in childhood. Books played a big role in his life. At the Nizhyn school, where he received his education, he was not given sufficient knowledge. That’s why he subscribed to additional literary magazines and almanacs.
Even during his school years, he began to compose witty epigrams. The subject of ridicule of the future writer were teachers. But the lyceum student did not attach much importance to such creative research. After completing the course, he dreamed of leaving for St. Petersburg, believing that there he could get a job in the civil service.
Service in the office
The dream came true, and the lyceum graduate left his native land. However, in St. Petersburg he was able to get only a modest position in the chancellery. In parallel with this work, he created small ones. But they were bad, and he bought almost all copies of the first poem, which was called “Hans Küchelgarten,” in a bookstore and burned it with his own hands.
Longing for my small homeland
Soon, failures in creativity and financial difficulties plunged Gogol into despondency. The northern capital began to evoke melancholy in his soul. And more and more often the employee of the small office remembered the Ukrainian landscapes dear to his heart. Not everyone knows which book brought Gogol fame. But there is not a schoolchild in our country who would not be familiar with the work “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.” The creation of this book was inspired by longing for my small homeland. And it was this literary work that brought fame to Gogol and allowed him to gain recognition from his fellow writers. Gogol was awarded a laudatory review by Pushkin himself. The books of the great poet and writer had a decisive influence on him in his youth. Therefore, the opinion of the luminary of literature was especially valuable for the young author.
"Petersburg Tales" and other works
Since then, Gogol has been well known in literary circles. He communicated closely with Pushkin and Zhukovsky, which could not but influence his work. From now on, writing became the meaning of life for him. He began to take this matter very seriously. And the result was not long in coming.
During this period, Gogol's most famous books were created. The list of them suggests that the writer worked in an extremely intensive mode and did not give particular preference to one genre or another. His works caused a stir in the world of literature. Belinsky wrote about the talent of the young prose writer, who was distinguished by his amazing ability to recognize unique abilities at an early stage. The realistic direction laid down by Pushkin developed at a decent level, as evidenced by Gogol’s books. Their list includes the following works:
- "Portrait".
- "Diary of a Madman".
- "Nose".
- "Nevsky Avenue".
- "Taras Bulba".
Each of them is unique in its own way. In a sense, Nikolai Gogol became an innovator. His books were distinguished by the fact that for the first time in the history of Russian literature the topic was touched upon. This was done superficially, but before that the fate of thousands of ordinary people was depicted in fiction only in passing.
But no matter how strong and unique the talent of the creator of “The Overcoat” was, he still made a special contribution to literature thanks to the writing of “The Inspector General” and “Dead Souls.”
Satire
Gogol's early works brought success. However, the writer was not satisfied with this. Gogol did not want to remain just a contemplator of life. The realization that the writer’s mission was extremely great grew stronger and stronger in his soul. The artist is able to convey to his readers his vision of modern reality, thereby influencing the consciousness of the masses. From now on, Gogol worked for the good of Russia and its people. His books testify to this good aspiration. The poem "Dead Souls" became the greatest work in literature. However, after the release of the first volume, the writer was subjected to severe attacks from adherents of conservative views.
The difficult situation that arose in the life and work of the writer led to the fact that he was never able to complete the poem. The second volume, which was written shortly before his death, was burned by the writer.
