Characteristics of Ivan Ivanovich from Gogol's story. Gogol the satirist (“The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”)
Analysis of the story by N.V. Gogol “How Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich quarreled”
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is a writer whose name is associated with the origin of the genre of satire in literature. Of course, it existed before him, but in his work it acquired a special resonance. Combining with realistic depictions of reality, Gogol's satire exposes vulgarity, stupidity and ignorance.
The story opens with enthusiastic descriptions of I.I.’s costume, house and garden. The author also notes the “piety” of I.I., who goes to church only to talk with the poor, find out their needs, but does not give anything.
His neighbor I.N. is the same “good person”. He is not so much tall as “extends in thickness.” He is a couch potato and a grumbler, and does not watch his speech. Nevertheless, the description of the main characters ends with the conclusion that they are both wonderful people. And the more the author admires these people, the more clearly their worthlessness becomes visible.
Following wonderful descriptions a pitiful picture of the city emerges provincial town Mirgorod, in which all events develop. The main attraction of the city is a huge puddle. It immediately becomes clear that the city is in chaos and no one is watching the city. The carefree life of the landowners turned them into slackers, busy only with thinking about how to dispel and amuse their lives.
With unsurpassed skill and humor, Gogol shows how lightning fast from friends I.I. with I.N. turn into sworn enemies. As a result of their quarrels, they sue each other.
With the outbreak of a quarrel, the heroes of the story perked up, they had a goal in life - to win the lawsuit in court. But their cases are unlikely to be resolved in the foreseeable future. After all, the judge, without even reading the case, immediately signs it, officials take bribes from I.I. and with I.N..
The story ends with the words: “It’s boring in this world, gentlemen,” because in fact there were many such people throughout Russia and their existence left much to be desired.
EXTERNAL FEATURES
Ivan Ivanovich: thin, tall, with a head like a radish turned tail down
Ivan Nikiforovich: slightly shorter than Ivan Nikiforovich and wider, with a head like a radish turned tail up
PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
Both heroes live in high material wealth, so they do not have the habit of denying themselves anything. But such a life has made them selfish: thoughts and reasoning mainly arise about how to entertain themselves, what they lack, how to diversify their life.
ACTIONS, RELATIONS WITH PEOPLE, POSITION IN SOCIETY
Ivan Ivanovich: he treats the neighbor’s children quite kindly, but in all other people he looks for material or psychological benefits (for example, satisfaction from communication, from spending time).
He goes to church every Sunday (however, he talks to the poor about their needs and never helps), loves when people give him gifts. Quite hot-tempered, he especially disliked the word “gander”. Because of him, he quarreled with his once close friend for more than 12 years. Due to his property status, he is considered a decent, high-ranking person.
Ivan Nikiforovich: I was never married and had no intention of getting married. He lies down all day, rests, and sleeps for a long time. Lazy and idle. Despite great amount disagreements, communicates well with his neighbor Ivan Ivanovich, due to his high financial status, occupies a high position in society, is very curious, although he is unlikely to truly worry about the people around him.
Ivan Ivanovich: The owner of cultured, restrained speech, speaks extremely pleasantly (“like a dream after a swim”)
Ivan Nikiforovich: is mostly silent, but if he slaps his word somewhere, it will be sharp and “shave better than any razor”
CHARACTERISTICS BY OTHER CHARACTERS
Ivan Ivanovich: Both the commissar and various "know him" big people"When they travel nearby, they always stop by to visit him. Archpriest Father Peter speaks of him as a person who fulfills his Christian duty with unusual precision, and what like that honest man he's never met
Ivan Nikiforovich: There were often rumors that he got married, which was a complete lie. Anton Prokopievich Pupopuz spoke of him as a person who trailed Ivan Ivanovich everywhere, asserted that it was as if “the devil himself tied them with a string”
Ivan Ivanovich: What a house he has in Mirgorod! Around it on all sides there is a canopy on oak pillars, under which there are benches everywhere. Always, when it got hot, Ivan Ivanovich rested there. In addition, he had a wonderful garden, and there was so much in it! different trees- plums, cherries, cherries, a lot of vegetables and fruits, sunflowers, melons, pods, even a threshing floor and a forge.
Ivan Nikiforovich: His yard was not far from Ivan Ivanovich’s yard, from one to the other you could climb over the fence, he has a barn, a gobby, the best pigeons lived in his yard, but the cleanliness left much to be desired: in places there were watermelon rinds and broken wheels , hoop made from a barrel.
SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT
Both characters were surrounded by high-ranking people and often visited them. They both communicated well with the commissioner, the priest, and the judge.
Updated: 2016-12-23
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“The story of how Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich quarreled” was included in the collection “Mirgorod” along with the historical and heroic story “Taras Bulba”. This comparison allowed Gogol to show how petty and base their thoughts and actions were when compared with the exploits of the Zaporozhye Cossacks. Gogol wrote this work in order to expose the absurdity and comedy of everyday life. He called it the area of the boring. And this is a very large area: in Gogol - the whole city, which is expanding to cover the entire country. Gogol finds humor both in the Tovstogubov estate and in the funny quarrel and litigation of two Mirgorod friends Pererepenko and Dovgochkhun.
This story is very funny. When you read it, you don’t understand how you can live like this? A quarrel between two good friends arose on empty space. The work begins with a pointedly enthusiastic description of Ivan Ivanovich’s costume, house and garden: “Wonderful man Ivan Ivanovich! What a nice bekesha he has! When it gets hot, Ivan Ivanovich takes off his bekesha, rests in just his shirt and looks at what is happening in the yard and on the street. Melons are his favorite food. Ivan Ivanovich eats the melon, and collects the seeds in a special piece of paper and writes on it: “This melon was eaten on such and such a date.” And what a house Ivan Ivanovich has! With extensions and awnings, so that the roofs of the entire structure look like sponges growing on a tree. And the garden! What's not there! There are all kinds of trees and all kinds of vegetable gardens in this garden!”
This admiration for the hero actually satirically points out his shortcomings and vices. This is especially clear when the author writes that Ivan Ivanovich is “a very pious person.” He goes to church, but only to talk to the beggars. However, he does not give them alms. This is how he reasons: “What are you worth? After all, I don’t hit you...” This hero loves when he is given gifts or treated to something. He doesn't like to work, but just likes to talk. He's rich so everyone thinks he's decent person. But if such a person is recognized as decent, then what kind of people are dishonest?
His neighbor, Ivan Nikiforovich, is also a decent and respected person. He is also lazy, so he is very fat. Ivan Nikiforovich is a simple man, he does not pursue the fame of an esthete, like his neighbor, and uses words that make Ivan Ivanovich feel uneasy. Then he exclaims indignantly: “Enough, enough, Ivan Nikiforovich; It’s better to go out into the sun rather than say such ungodly words.” But nevertheless, both neighbors are “wonderful people.”
Between these " wonderful people“A quarrel occurs: “So, two respectable men, the honor and adornment of Mirgorod, quarreled among themselves! And for what? For nonsense, for the fact that one called the other a gander.” What is surprising is that two of these good friends very quickly became sworn enemies. They even start a war with each other - they ruin the economy. For example, Ivan Ivanovich, with real “knightly fearlessness,” ruined his neighbor’s goose barn, etc.
This quarrel affected not only the neighbors, but the entire Mirgorod. Now the goal of their life was to win the trial. Former friends go to the city, file complaints in court, spend money on bribes to officials, but the matter does not move forward. Since both neighbors are people of the same social status, it is unknown when their litigation will end. Gogol shows how they are sucked into the quagmire of slander and complaints, how they begin to exist in an imaginary world, and finally how they lose their former good and well-fed life.
In this work, Gogol brilliantly demonstrated his talent as a satirist. He showed the absurdity, comicality and irregularity in existence ordinary people. This work ends with the words: “It’s boring in this world, gentlemen!”
In “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich,” the life of a provincial province is completely devoid of that softening light that in “Old World Landowners” was the result of Gogol’s personal sympathies and memories.
In the story about the quarrel between Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich, Gogol does not draw “ Noble Nest", and in all its nakedness represents the bleak life of provincial "existents" county town. An analysis of this life shows that it is not illuminated by any higher interests. There is not a trace of that captivating simplicity and warmth with which Gogol illuminates the life of old-world landowners; this work depicts a broken existence, constrained by decency, enslaved to gossip and malice... This is a quiet swamp that should not be stirred up, otherwise dirt will rise from the bottom! The heroes of “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” cannot live their lives as peacefully as the old-world landowners lived, although the life they lead in this provincial town, in essence, is not much different from the life of Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna.
“The story of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich.” Feature Film 1941
IN literary analysis For Gogol, this life appears just as idle. All the interests of its inhabitants boil down to food, sleep, and idle chatter. In this meaningless life, every little thing is of great importance, hence the love for gossip, petty slander, hence the development among the inhabitants of the city of such petty feelings as envy, suspicion, resentment... In such an area there is no place for deep and lasting feelings, a trifle is enough for that so that friendship turns into enmity.
A person, even one who has settled down in this world, still sometimes becomes bored, and then he clings to every gossip, every word that escapes, every hint, in order to inflate “new” feelings in himself, with them to fill his idle life. This is psychological idea this funny and sad story Gogol. In “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich,” one word “gander” was enough for two friends, “the honor and adornment of Mirgorod,” to quarrel for life and each find the goal and meaning of life in a stubborn litigation, ruinous and irreconcilable...
The story in this story is told by Gogol on behalf of some ordinary person in the city of Mirgorod; His personality emerges from his narration: he is a stupid, naive, talkative person, living the life of Mirgorod, and looking at everything that happens here from a philistine point of view.
The analysis of the characters' characters, the description of their lives, the description of other residents of the city of Mirgorod, their activities, entertainments, is something remarkable precisely because it describes not only Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich, but also the narrator himself. Gogol’s characterization exposes him as a person who lives in the gossip of Mirgorod life, who cannot distinguish the small from the large, the significant from the insignificant. As a result, a comparison of two characters, in his mouth, represents a heap without a system or plan of all possible mental and physical qualities of both heroes; spiritual traits are mixed with physical signs, habits, even with the features of the costume. For example: “Ivan Ivanovich is somewhat timid. Ivan Nikiforovich, on the contrary, has trousers with such wide folds that if they were inflated, the entire yard with barns and buildings could be placed in them.” He considers the following circumstances to be good qualities of the soul: that one of them has amazing apples, that he loves melons, that the commissar respects him.
All these details, taken separately, are curious and clarify not only the two heroes, their lives, habits, the wretched content of their souls, but also the other Mirgorod inhabitants, who, out of boredom and idleness, studied each other to the smallest detail. They know what each of their acquaintances will say when handing each other a snuff-box, they know what is customary to say to a Jew selling an elixir against fleas... This is life, stupefying with its monotony, its poverty. In this environment, impossible rumors are born (for example, that Ivan Nikiforovich was born with a tail) which are so popular that they have to be seriously disputed. This environment depicted by Gogol is completely helpless in assessing moral qualities a person, she can consider a callous person kind and “pious”, she can consider a wealthy person “beautiful”; this environment still believes in the authority of the commissar and time considers such historical events, like some Agafia Fedoseevna’s trip to Kyiv. According to Gogol, Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich are “the honor and adornment of Mirgorod.” From here we can conclude about the author’s desire, in the person of these two typical “beings,” to portray the “best” people of Mirgorod; in them, as in an analytical focus, everything characteristic, everything original is collected, which the local man in the street has looked closely at, with which he has become akin, but which amazes a fresh person...
The naivety of the story is masterfully maintained by Gogol: it allows the author to hide his condemnation of this life, allows him to refrain from caricature, from that subjectivism that only at the end of the story breaks through in the author’s exclamation: “It’s boring to live in this world, gentlemen!”
Image of Ivan Ivanovich
Gogol turned to the analysis of the image of Ivan Ivanovich Special attention. He gives him a lot of independent characterization and says a lot about him, comparing him with Ivan Nikiforovich. First of all, according to the residents of Mirgorod, he is a “wonderful person.” But the narrator strains all his efforts in vain to prove this idea: he says that Ivan Ivanovich has an amazing family, and that his house and garden are very nice, and that he loves melons and knows how to decorate the very pleasure of eating them with ceremony : records the day and date when the melon is eaten. Apparently, this is a useless activity, which only shows that Ivan Ivanovich has too much idle time, in the eyes of the narrator, signified the hero’s great inclination towards order and thrift. Then excellent qualities Gogol’s narrator tries to prove the soul of the hero through his piety and kindness. But from what follows it turns out that “piety” boiled down to the fact that on holidays he played bass in the choir of singers, and “kindness” was expressed in the fact that he asked beggars on the porch about their misfortunes, although he never gave anyone a penny. From the analysis of Gogol’s further narrative, we learn why Ivan Ivanovich charmed the residents of Mirgorod; he was the “soul” of local society: he knew how to speak floridly, loved to show off and knew how to behave; he maintained his dignity like no one else in the city; he knew how to get along with everyone and say pleasant things to everyone... True, “decency” is a relative thing, in different strata of society “decency” is understood differently, and Gogol gave several examples of a funny and ugly interpretation of this concept in Mirgorod: the height of decency here was considered , for example, refuse up to three times the offered tea, and Ivan Ivanovich knew how to break down in front of the cup he placed with such dignity that the naive narrator burst out with an enthusiastic exclamation: “Lord God! What an abyss of subtlety a person can have! I can’t tell you what a pleasant impression such actions make!.. Ugh, you’re an abyss! How can, how can a person maintain his dignity!”
This ability to “maintain one’s dignity” was based in Ivan Ivanovich on the respect that he had for himself, for his small rank and title. Moreover, he considered himself quite seriously wonderful person”, pleasing to God and deserving of respect from people. This “pharisaism” of Ivan Ivanovich is his characteristic feature. Even a cursory analysis of his image shows: Ivan Ivanovich was not a conscious “Tartuffe”; he lived as a naive hypocrite and died satisfied with himself, with complete faith in himself, not clouded by doubts, not bothered by the internal struggle that is born in the soul of a person who consciously looks at life.
And, meanwhile, this “pious” and “kind” man in Gogol’s story gave half his life to a lawsuit with a neighbor friend over the word “gander”; he resorted to lies, slander, and bribery; he discovered an abyss of rubbish in his “righteous” soul. So, good qualities Gogol did not show the soul of Ivan Ivanovich. Before us is an insignificant person and therefore petty-proud, idle, curious, stingy, callous and empty, with great conceit. And the reader of Gogol’s story parts with him, having finally lost faith that he is a “wonderful man.”
Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich. Illustration for Gogol's story
Image of Ivan Nikiforovich
Gogol devotes less space in the story to the analysis of the image of Ivan Nikiforovich. This “everyman” was not distinguished by Ivan Ivanovich’s secular virtues, but, from the point of view of his fellow citizens, he was also a “good” person, if only because he was overweight and motionless, lying in a half-asleep state most your life, not interested in anything, not touching anyone. In a small town, it is already a great advantage when a person does not harm other people; After all, here, in this petty sphere, “great events” can play out from a trifle! But Gogol’s further narration about the life of Ivan Nikiforovich about his clashes with ex-friend they expose a lot of small, evil qualities in his soul. This creature, almost half-animal, turns out to be stingy, stubborn, and a great litigant. The surge of anger even gives him strength and energy to pursue a legal case. And we are convinced that it was not love that united the friends, but “habit”, only thanks to chance their “friendship” was so long and thanks to chance (the arrival of Agafia Fedoseevna to Ivan Nikiforovich, who finally quarreled the friends) the enmity became persistent... It’s no wonder that Gogol, refreshed by the interests of higher cultural life, could not look at his heroes through the eyes of the “narrator” of the story, through the eyes of Mirgorod, he felt sad for those millions of humanity who everywhere, not only here in Russia, lead the life of Mirgorod, and he burst out with a bitter exclamation: “it’s boring in this world , gentlemen!
Other heroes of “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”
In addition to two friends, Gogol brought several more into the story. typical heroes. A judge who, during a trial, talks about blackbirds and, without hearing the case, signs it and takes bribes with both hands; the mayor, who had risen in the ranks of the soldiers, a good-natured robber, who every day asks the policemen if a button from his uniform has been found, which he has lost for two years; officials and inhabitants of the city, from the most dignified to the smallest, all this is depicted masterfully. All these images, scenes from the life of the city (povet court, assembly in the mayor’s house) are a background of bleak vulgarity and pettiness, against which two friends “the honor and adornment of Mirgorod” stand out so clearly. If in “Old World Landowners” the reader was captivated by the dovelike purity of the characters and their lack of pretensions, then in “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” the vulgarity of life is not covered up by anything. The simplicity of unconsciousness was replaced here by a ridiculous distortion of the former patriarchal life with new concepts about honor, about the dignity of a nobleman and an official - vague, unfounded, ugly concepts that artistic analysis Gogol presents even more clearly, even more obviously and more bleakly the abyss of vulgarity that lies behind these claims.
Thus, if we compare this story with the story “Old World Landowners,” we will be convinced that not a shadow of sympathy for this life is noticeable in the author’s attitude towards it. In “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich,” Gogol consistently and consciously condemned the “vulgarity of a vulgar man.” Here, for the first time, his ability to “call out everything that is every minute in front of our eyes and what indifferent eyes do not see, all the terrible, amazing mud of little things that entangle our lives, all the depth of cold, fragmented, everyday characters.” Thus, in “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” we must note the presence characteristic feature Gogol's laughter, "Laughter through tears". There is no poetic idealization of life here that we encounter in “Evenings on a Farm”; Gogol depicts his Ukraine in these essays not from a festive, but from an everyday, vulgar side. This is no longer the carefree humor that illuminates many of the stories of “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, this is the bitter laughter of a man yearning for the spiritual poverty of man. For Gogol, as a person, the writing of such a story is very typical: if as a young man he was eager to leave this sphere of vulgar townsfolk for some other better world"true people", then now, illuminated by the ideals of these the best people, Gogol, with his analysis, descended into the world of “beings” in order to understand their souls, to look at them “not with indifferent eyes,” but with the gaze of a humanely minded person. That is why in the depiction of the heroes of Mirgorod there is no satire, no denunciation, no judgment, there is only pity for them, pity for humanity in general...
Literary history “The story of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”
Literary history this story is quite clear. The living impressions of provincial Little Russian life, collected by Gogol in 1832, when he visited his homeland, gave him colors for depicting those images, the insignificance of which he felt as a young man. Already before him, the writer Narezhny, in the story “Two Ivans, or a Passion for Litigation,” took as his plot the litigiousness that is characteristic of a person living by petty interests. The fact that Gogol depicts two Ivans in the person of the heroes and depicts the same phenomenon, obviously typical in the Little Russian outback - a passion for litigation - allows us to assert that “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”, in literary respect, depended on Narezhny’s work. But comparative analysis Both works convince us that for Gogol Narezhny’s story was only a theme, a canvas on which he embroidered independent drawings; his hint turned into a vivid artistic picture.
Gogol’s “borrowing” from Narezhny was especially evident in the following episode: in Narezhny, one of the Ivans sets fire to the enemy’s mill; in Gogol, Ivan Ivanovich saws down Ivan Nikiforovich’s goose barn. The psychology of both heroes, who carry out their “hellish plans” at night, is developed in approximately the same way by both writers. In addition, Gogol probably borrowed something from others writers XVIII and the 19th century, so the image of a hanger-on, who is clicked on the nose for fun, is reminiscent of both the hero of the old novel “The Ill-fated Nikanor” and one of the introductory characters in A. Izmailov’s novel “Evgeniy”.
Not only the main characters of the story themselves, but also their relationships with each other were a model for others. “Every day, it used to be, Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich would send to each other to inquire about their health and often talk to each other from their balconies and say such pleasant things to each other that their hearts loved listening to them. By Sundays It used to be that Ivan Ivanovich in a uniform bekesh and Pian 11nkpforovich in a yellow-brown Nankan Cossack were walking almost hand in hand with each other to the church. II if Ivan Ivanovich, who had extremely keen eyes, was the first to notice a puddle or some kind of uncleanness in the middle of the street, which sometimes happens in Mirgorod, then he always said to Ivan Nikiforovich: “Be careful, don’t set foot here, because it’s not good here.”
The heroes of the story about the quarrel are among those who are revered in their midst as models of good behavior, wisdom and kindness. Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich are firmly convinced that they are bearers of high and noble principles of life behavior. The thought of “chosenness” and aristocracy does not leave them for a minute. The consciousness of belonging to the “noble” class fills the heroes of the story with a feeling of extraordinary pride. With vain satisfaction they talk about their noble rank and position. Title and rank are the most important thing for them, that which sanctifies a person, endows him with any positive qualities. Linking all their “virtues” with rank and position, the heroes of the story perceive with great scrupulousness the slightest violation their "honor".
Next to the “subtle” appeal in the guise of Ivan Ivanovich, cold callousness appears. His self-satisfaction is closely intertwined with stinginess. He greatly values everything that belongs to him, and under no circumstances does he want to give up even an insignificant detail. His conversation with beggars usually ends with the words: “Well, go with God... Why are you standing? because I don’t hit you!”
Gogol tries on the significance of the heroes’ dignity, all their many “virtues,” to the small, to the insignificant. As in “Old World Landowners,” where a minor incident was the beginning of the collapse of the “idyll,” in the story of a quarrel, an insignificant reason scattered all dignity and virtues to dust characters. A microscopic, absurd trifle has become the true measure of the “sublime”.
Pretentious pomp is especially characteristic of Ivan Ivanovich Pererepenko. In his circle, he is known as a man of great education and fine upbringing. HE himself is unshakably confident that he perfectly masters the art of good behavior in society. “Ivan Ivanovich is an extremely subtle person and in a decent conversation he will never say an indecent word and will immediately be offended if he hears it.” A feeling of “significance” and self-satisfaction permeates Ivan Ivanovich’s entire behavior. He is very pleased with his position, his well-being. “Lord, my God, what a master I am! What don't I have? Birds, buildings, barns, every whim, distilled vodka; there are pears and plums in the garden; there are poppy seeds, cabbage, peas in the garden... What else don’t I have?.. I would like to know what I don’t have?”
That open “simplicity” that distinguishes Ivan Nikiforovich does not prevent him from feeling like a person endowed with special qualities, a chosen person. And if Ivan Nikiforovich does not dress up in a toga of pomp, then neither he himself nor those around him deny him either nobility of soul or exemplary morality. Ivan Nikiforovich is also inclined to consider his rough “simplicity” an undoubted virtue that adorns his noble person.
While “Old World Landowners” are almost devoid of external sharp conflicts, in “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” tense clashes and continuous struggle appear. If in the life of the heroes in the first story there are no emotional impulses, then in the second there is a violent boiling of “passions”. In “Old World Landowners” Gogol debunked the local “idyll”; in the story about a quarrel, depicting people of the provincial noble circle, the writer revealed the acute contradiction between their external significance and real insignificance.
