Characteristics of peasants in dead souls. Peasant images in the poem N

Gogol draws the images of peasants in the poem “Dead Souls” briefly and accurately. With sharp strokes, he unfolds a panorama of the life of the serf empire using the example of the Central Russian outback. If landowners exhibit vices: hypocrisy, gluttony, extravagance, stinginess, then the common people are humane and simple. It is the peasants who look like the only living people in this grotesque journey through Rus'.

The landowner Sobakevich gives a broad image of the working people, recommending his dead souls to the swindler. Sobakevich praises them, especially highlighting their professional abilities. Brickmaker Milushkin can make a stove in any home; Stepan Probka is so powerful that “if he had served in the guard, God knows what they would have given him.”

The shrewd merchant Soroplyokhin, the skillful carriage maker Mikheev, the shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, who “whatever he pierces with an awl, so will his boots” - Sobakevich’s brief notes created an image of people’s life, not frozen in serf-like timelessness, but alive and moving. The peasants even find death in the very process of life and work, to which Chichikov bitterly remarks: “Eh, Russian people! He doesn’t like to die his own death!” It’s like death in silence, in peace - not for the Russian peasant.

Otherwise, the poem shows the images of Chichikov’s servants. Servants are the other side of the people. Morally mutilated, humiliated by constant oppression, people lead meaningless lives. Laziness and lack of will, characteristic of servants, are the result of their complete dependence on the master. Out of boredom, Petrushka reads, having a “special passion” for it, but how does he read? His actions are mechanical - he reads because he likes the words and likes the way they sound.

Just as Bashmachkin did not delve into the meaning of what was written, Petrushka did not delve into the meaning of what he read - such spiritual dullness makes these two little Gogol people related. The coachman Selifan shows only the appearance of obedience, but does everything that is ordered to him in his own way. He can drive a chaise drunk, accidentally overturn it and put all the blame on the horses, to whom he is constantly trying to explain something.

Another “difference” between them is their particularly strong passion for alcohol. Servants drink more and stronger than peasants working on the land. Selifan and Petrushka are inseparable from Chichikov - they are like faithful squires, complementing the ambiguous character of the master in their own way.

The peasant images in the poem “Dead Souls” are drawn in such a way that one can show either sympathy or pity for them, or both feelings at once. It seems that the dead souls are, in fact, the only living souls in the entire poem. Sometimes, in order to feel sympathy for a person, just a few words about him or even his last name are enough.

In the juxtaposition of the images of landowners and peasants, one feels the contrast of two different classes that can never find a common language. Simplicity and virtue are the traits of the national spirit that Gogol sought to convey in his immortal comedy.

Essays on literature: Peasants in Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”

What is the real world of Dead Souls? This is a world whose typical representatives are Nozdryov, Sobakevich, police chief, prosecutor and many others. Gogol describes them with evil irony, without mercy or pity. He shows them as funny and absurd, but it is laughter through tears. This is something terrible that has always been superfluous for Russia. The real world of Dead Souls is scary, disgusting, and insane. This is a world devoid of spiritual values, a world of immorality and human shortcomings. It is clear that this world is not a place for Gogol’s ideal, therefore his ideal in the first volume of Dead Souls is only in lyrical digressions and is removed from reality by a huge abyss.

Landowners, residents of the provincial town of N, are not the only inhabitants of the real world. Peasants also live in it. But Gogol in no way distinguishes living peasants from the crowd of immoral Manilovites, Nozdryovites and prosecutors. Living peasants actually appear to the reader as drunkards and ignoramuses. Men arguing whether the wheel will reach Moscow; stupid Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai; the serf Manilov, asking to earn money, and himself going to drink - all of them do not evoke sympathy from either the readers or the author: he describes them with the same evil irony as the landowners.

But there are still exceptions. These are the main representatives of the people in the poem - Selifan and Petrushka. The evil irony is no longer visible in their description. And although Selifan does not have any high spirituality or morality, he is often stupid and lazy, but still he is different from Uncle Mitya and Uncle Minay. Gogol often laughs at Selifan, but it is a good laugh, a laugh from the heart. The author’s thoughts about the soul of the common people and an attempt to understand their psychology are associated with the image of Selifan.

In “Dead Souls” the exponent of the ideal is folk Russia, described in lyrical digressions. Gogol presents his ideal from two perspectives: as a generalized image of the people in lyrical digressions, and as a concretization of this ideal in the images of dead peasants, “dead souls.” In the final lyrical digression, Gogol notes that such a “three bird” flying across vast expanses “could only be born among a lively people.” Where Chichikov, copying the names of the dead peasants he had just bought, pictures in his imagination their earthly life, Gogol imagines how they lived, how their fate turned out, how they died.

In general, such reasoning is not characteristic of Chichikov. One gets the impression that Gogol himself is arguing this. The images of dead peasants in the poem are ideal. Gogol endows them with such qualities as heroism and strength. Bogatyr-carpenter Stepan Cork. This is what Sobakevich said about him: “What kind of power she was! If he had served in the guard, God knows what they would have given him, three arshins and an inch in height!” And what hardworking, skillful people are these shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov and carriage maker Mikheev. It’s hard not to notice with what delight the author writes about these men! He feels sorry for them, sympathizes with their hard life. Gogol contrasts this dead people, but with a living soul, with the living people of the poem, whose soul is dead.

In “Dead Souls,” Gogol shows us not only the strange reality of Russian life, but at the same time, in merical digressions, Gogol depicts to us his ideal of the future Russia and the Russian people, which is very far from modern life. It is likely that in the second, burned volume, Gogol intended to transfer this ideal image into real life, to bring it into reality. After all, Gogol fervently believed that Russia would someday emerge from this terrible world, that it would be reborn, and this moment would definitely come. But, unfortunately, Gogol was never able to find the ideal heroes of reality. This is the tragedy of his entire life, the tragedy of Russia.

In the poem “Dead Souls” Gogol managed to depict Rus' in all its greatness, but at the same time with all its vices. In creating the work, the writer sought to understand the character of the Russian people, with whom he pinned hopes for a better future for Russia. There are many characters in the poem - various types of Russian landowners living idly in their noble estates, provincial officials, bribe-takers and thieves who have concentrated state power in their hands. Following Chichikov on his journey from one landowner's estate to another, the reader is presented with bleak pictures of the life of the serf peasantry.

The landowners treat the peasants as their slaves and dispose of them as things. Plyushkin's yard boy, thirteen-year-old Proshka, always hungry, who only hears from the master: “stupid as a log,” “fool,” “thief,” “mug,” “here I am with a birch broom for your taste.” “Perhaps I’ll give you a girl,” Korobochka says to Chichikov, “she knows the way, just watch!” Don’t bring it, the merchants have already brought one from me.” The owners of serf souls saw in the peasants only working cattle, suppressed their living soul, and deprived them of the opportunity for development. Over the course of many centuries of serfdom, such traits as drunkenness, insignificance and darkness formed in the Russian people. This is evidenced by the images of the stupid Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, who cannot separate the horses that are entangled in the lines, the image of the yard girl Pelageya, who does not know where the right is and where the left is, the conversation of two men discussing whether the wheel will reach the Moscow or to Kazan. This is also evidenced by the image of the coachman Selifan, who drunkenly makes lengthy speeches addressed to the horses. But the author does not blame the peasants, but gently ironizes and laughs good-naturedly at them.

Gogol does not idealize the peasants, but makes the reader think about the strength of the people and their darkness. Such characters evoke both laughter and sadness at the same time. These are Chichikov’s servants, the girl Korobochka, the men encountered along the way, as well as the “dead souls” bought by Chichikov that come to life in his imagination. The author’s laughter evokes the “noble impulse for enlightenment” of Chichikov’s servant Petrushka, who is attracted not by the content of the books, but by the reading process itself. According to Gogol, he didn’t care what to read: the adventures of a hero in love, an ABC book, a prayer book, or chemistry.

When Chichikov reflects on the list of peasants he bought, a picture of the life and backbreaking labor of the people, their patience and courage is revealed to us. Copying the acquired “dead souls,” Chichikov imagines their earthly life in his imagination: “My fathers, how many of you are crammed here! What have you, my dear ones, done in your lifetime?” These peasants who died or were oppressed by serfdom are hardworking and talented. The glory of the wonderful carriage maker Mikheev is alive in people's memory even after his death. Even Sobakevich says with involuntary respect that that glorious master “should only work for the sovereign.” Brickmaker Milushkin “could install a stove in any house,” Maxim Telyatnikov sewed beautiful boots. Ingenuity and resourcefulness are emphasized in the image of Eremey Sorokoplekhin, who “traded in Moscow, bringing in one rent for five hundred rubles.”

The author speaks with love and admiration about the hardworking Russian people, about talented craftsmen, about the “efficient Yaroslavl peasant” who brought together the Russian troika, about the “lively people”, “the lively Russian mind”, and with pain in his heart he talks about their destinies. Shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov, who wanted to get his own house and little shop, becomes an alcoholic. The death of Grigory You Can't Get There, who out of melancholy turned into a tavern, and then straight into an ice hole, is absurd and senseless. Unforgettable is the image of Abakum Fyrov, who fell in love with a free life, attached to barge haulers. The fate of Plyushkin's fugitive serfs, who are doomed to spend the rest of their lives on the run, is bitter and humiliating. “Oh, Russian people! He doesn’t like to die his own death!” - Chichikov argues. But the “dead souls” he bought appear before the reader more alive than the landowners and officials who live in conditions that deaden the human soul, in a world of vulgarity and injustice. Against the backdrop of the dead-heartedness of landowners and officials, the lively and lively Russian mind, the people's prowess, and the broad scope of the soul stand out especially clearly. It is these qualities, according to Gogol, that are the basis of the national Russian character.

Gogol sees the mighty power of the people, suppressed, but not killed by serfdom. It is manifested in his ability not to lose heart under any circumstances, in festivities with songs and round dances, in which the national prowess and the scope of the Russian soul are manifested in full. It is also manifested in the talent of Mikheev, Stepan Probka, Milushkin, in the hard work and energy of the Russian person. “Russian people are capable of anything and get used to any climate. Send him to Kamchatka, just give him warm mittens, he claps his hands, an ax in his hands, and goes to cut himself a new hut,” say officials, discussing the resettlement of Chichikov’s peasants to the Kherson province.

By depicting pictures of people's life, Gogol makes readers feel that the suppressed and humiliated Russian people are suppressed, but not broken. The protest of the peasantry against the oppressors is expressed both in the revolt of the peasants of the village of Vshivaya-arrogance and the village of Borovka, who wiped out the zemstvo police in the person of assessor Drobyazhkin, and in an apt Russian word. When Chichikov asked the man he met about Plyushkin, he rewarded this master with the surprisingly accurate word “patched.” “The Russian people are expressing themselves strongly!” - exclaims Gogol, saying that there is no word in other languages, “which would be so sweeping, lively, so bursting out from under the very heart, so seething and vibrant, like a well-spoken Russian word.”

Seeing the difficult life of the peasants, full of poverty and deprivation, Gogol could not help but notice the growing indignation of the people and understood that his patience was not limitless. The writer fervently believed that the life of the people should change; he believed that hardworking and talented people deserve a better life. He hoped that the future of Russia did not belong to the landowners and “knights of a penny,” but to the great Russian people, who harbored unprecedented opportunities, and that is why he ridiculed the contemporary Russia of “dead souls.” It is no coincidence that the poem ends with the symbolic image of a three-bird. It contains the result of many years of Gogol’s thoughts about the fate of Russia, the present and future of its people. After all, it is the people who oppose the world of officials, landowners, and businessmen, like a living soul against a dead one.

All topics in the book “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol. Summary. Features of the poem. Essays":

Summary of the poem “Dead Souls”: Volume one. Chapter first

Features of the poem “Dead Souls”

1. The unnamed hero of the poem “Dead Souls.”
2. Chichikov and the “dead souls” he bought.
3. Ode to Rus'.

There is no main character in the poem who belongs to the serf peasants. However, these people are invisibly present throughout the entire work. So, for example, in the famous lyrical digression about the “three bird,” the author does not forget to mention the master who created the three: “Not a cunning, it seems, a road projectile, not grabbed by an iron screw, but hastily, alive, with The efficient man from Yaroslavl equipped you with just an ax and a chisel.” Thus, we can say, in contrast to swindlers, lazy people and tyrants, there are still efficient people on Russian soil - serfs. It is to them that Russia owes its prosperity.
Inspired by the success, Chichikov immediately decides to re-register his purchased peasants on his own, so as not to pay the clerks. In two hours everything is ready. It is here that the author entrusts him with a lyrical digression. Gogol emphasizes that even with the “dead of the dead” Chichikov, something unusual can happen. The main character suddenly begins to imagine his purchased peasants: what they were like during their lifetime, what they did. Reading the characteristics, Chichikov imagined the peasants as living: “Traffic Stepan, a carpenter, of exemplary sobriety. A! Here he is, Stepan Probka, here is the hero who would be fit for the guard! Tea, all over the province, went with an ax in his belt and boots on his shoulders, he ate a penny of bread and two dried fish, and in his purse, tea, he brought home a hundred rubles each time.” One after another, Fedotov, Pyotr Savelyev Nuvazhay-Koryto, and Maxim Telyatnikov stand before our eyes. For each purchased peasant, a characteristic was attached. It was in it that “the details gave a special kind of freshness: it seemed as if the men were alive just yesterday.” I think the author wants to show that they are actually alive. That the same Fedotovs, Savelyevs and Telyatnikovs live and work in Rus'. That they, the dead ones, swapped places with the living Chichikovs, Manilovs, Nozdrevs and others.
This mass resurrection is supported by the fact that in Chichikov’s lists, along with dead souls, living fugitive peasants are recorded. Having read the names and nicknames of the runaways, Chichikov surpasses himself in poetic glee: “Eremey Karyakin, Nikita Volokita, his son Anton Volokita - these, and by their nickname it is clear that they are good runners...” Moreover, the main character begins to imagine, what could have happened to these people, in which direction should I put it: “you, brother, what? Where, in what places do you hang around? Did you drift to the Volga and fall in love with the free life? Gogol seems to share his enthusiasm with his main character, believing that the revival of “dead souls” is possible, that all is not lost. However, Chichikov immediately corrects himself: “What a fool I really am!”
Praise for Russian workers also often comes from the lips of officials. So, for example, the chairman, having learned that Sobakevich sold the carriage maker Mikheev, exclaims: “a glorious master... he remade the yeast for me.” He is very surprised that the landowner sold such skilled craftsmen to Chichikov. Sobakevich and Korobochka also unanimously praise their former peasants. In other words, no matter how much the upper class despises the serfs, it even recognizes the merits of the people's workers and craftsmen. We again come to the conclusion that the absence of a specific image does not at all prevent the reader from understanding who actually is one of the main characters of the work. Of course, this is a peasant, a simple Russian people.
Any lyrical digression in the poem in one way or another describes the Russian character, ingenuity, way of life, morals: “and how accurate is everything that came out of the depths of Rus'... the nugget itself, the lively and lively Russian mind that does not reach into his pocket for words.” I think the poem is a kind of ode dedicated to Russia, and not to that petty bureaucratic and landowner Russia, but to the real peasant artisan Rus'. The author tries to lead the reader to the idea that it is on the simple working people that everything rests. Despite the fraud and machinations in the highest circles, people's Rus' will always remain unshakable, with its folk craftsmen, everyday ingenuity, sharp words and lively mind.

“Dead Souls” is the pinnacle of Gogol’s creativity, and at the same time his last word as an artist. Gogol worked on his poem for seventeen years (from 1835 to 1852). Originally conceived, according to contemporaries, as a predominantly comic work, the poem, gradually deepening, turned into a broad accusatory picture of serfdom. RF.

Moving with Chichikov from landowner to landowner, the reader seems to sink deeper and deeper into the “stunning mud” of vulgarity, pettiness, and depravity. The negative traits gradually thicken, and the gallery of landowners, starting with the comic Manilov, is concluded by Plyushkin, who is not so much funny as disgusting.

The main subject of the image for Gogol was the noblewoman RF, but in the depths of the picture - in Chichikov’s reflections on the list of fugitives and in the author’s digressions - the people’s Rus' appeared, full of daring and courage, with “sweeping” words and “sweeping” will.

The theme of the people is one of the central themes of the poem. In addressing this topic, Gogol departs from the traditional approach and identifies two aspects in its understanding. On the one hand, this is an ironic and sometimes satirical depiction of the life of a people, and a real people at that. Gogol emphasizes the stupidity, ignorance, laziness, and drunkenness characteristic of the Russian peasant. On the other hand, this is an image of the deep foundations of the Russian character. Gogol notes the inexhaustible diligence of the Russian peasant, intelligence and ingenuity, and heroic strength. The Russian man is a jack of all trades. And it is no coincidence that Gogol draws attention to the rebellious qualities of serfs - this proves that an uncontrollable desire for freedom lives in Russian people. It is also noteworthy that the dead peasants appear before us as living people, because after death their deeds remained.

Images of serfs occupy a significant place in “Dead Souls”. Some of them run through the entire work, while others are mentioned by the author only in connection with individual events and scenes. The footman Petrushka and the coachman Selifan, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, Proshka and the girl Pelageya, who “doesn’t know where the right is and where the left” are depicted in a humorous way. The spiritual world of these downtrodden people is narrow. Their actions cause bitter laughter. Drunk Selifan makes lengthy speeches addressed to the horses. Petrushka, reading books, watches how some words are formed from individual letters, not at all interested in the content of what he read: “If they turned him up to chemistry, he wouldn’t refuse it either.” The clueless Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai cannot separate horses that are entangled in the lines.