Essay on the topic: life and customs of provincial Russia (based on a comedy in

The period of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s creativity coincided with the dark era of Nicholas I. After the suppression of the Decembrist uprising, all dissidents were brutally persecuted by the authorities. Describing reality, N.V. Gogol creates brilliant literary works full of life realities. The theme of his work is all layers of Russian society - using the example of the morals and everyday life of a small county town. Gogol wrote that in The Inspector General he finally decided to gather together all that was bad in Russian society, which he saw and laughed at everything at once. Gogol made the officials of an ordinary district town the heroes of the comedy. Thanks to a seemingly simple plot device (a minor official passing by is mistaken for an auditor), the author vividly and colorfully describes the types and characters, their habits - in general, a description of Russia in miniature - a city from which you can ride for three years, but so You can’t get to any state. “There is a tavern on the streets, uncleanliness!” Near the ancient fence, which is located near the shoemaker, “all kinds of rubbish were piled on forty carts.” Even the church, which is located at a charitable institution, for the construction of which money was allocated five years ago, began to be built, but then burned down, and it still stands. How is life for the “merchants” and “citizens”? Here some are robbed, some are flogged by an official, some are beaten due to Derzhimorda’s hard work. In prisons, prisoners are not fed, hospitals are dirty, and the sick “all get better like flies.” Having learned that the arrival of the auditor is coming, officials immediately try to restore at least some order in the city.

Their actions come down to window dressing, to observing only external decency (removing the hunting arapnik that was hanging in the presence, cleaning and clearing only the street along which the arriving inspector will travel). “As for the internal order... I can’t say anything... There is no person who does not have some sins behind him. This is how God himself arranged it,” says the mayor. Gogol shows the reader that life in a particular city directly depends on the attitude of officials towards their service. Those who, by virtue of their duty, are called upon to resist violations of the law and take care of the welfare of the townspeople, are mired in bribery, drunkenness, gambling and gossip. The mayor proudly declares: “I have been living in the service for thirty years! He deceived three governors! “The judge is not far behind him: “I tell you frankly that I take bribes... With greyhound puppies. This... is a different matter.” Even the postmaster was ridiculed by Gogol.

When he is given instructions to lightly open all the letters, he naively admits: “I do this not so much out of precaution, but more out of curiosity: I love to know what’s new in the world.” All the images created by Gogol in the comedy “The Inspector General” embody typical features, characteristic of officials from Nikolaev Russia. Vulgar, two-faced, poorly educated - the most “educated” of the comedy characters is Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin. He has read as many as five or six books in his entire life, so he is considered the most “well-read” and “somewhat free-thinking.” Unscrupulousness, self-interest, various abuses of official position - these are the morals of the district officials. It’s interesting that embezzlement, bribery, robbery of the population are all terrible social vices- are shown by Gogol as everyday and even natural phenomena.

In “The Inspector General” I decided to put together

everything bad in Russia... and one at a time

laughed at everything.

N. Gogol

Comedy "The Inspector General" - the first " big essay"N.V. Gogol. Great satirist believed that “if you laugh, it’s better to laugh hard at what is really worthy of universal ridicule.” And Gogol perfectly managed to cope with this difficult task.

In fact, Gogol “invented” little in his comedy. The prototypes of the main characters - the official, the people in power - were always before the writer's eyes. The characters, manner of speech, and life attitudes of the characters are directly taken from life.

The action in the comedy takes place in a small provincial town, from where “even if you ride for three years, you won’t reach any state.” This town itself is a small state, the life of which is controlled by a group of officials in power. What kind of people are these? Turning over the pages of the comedy, we understand that they are bribe-takers, embezzlers, liars, unprincipled opportunists. These officials know that the fate of many citizens depends on their actions and decisions, but they think and worry only about themselves. The fear of an inspector coming to the city, who has “secret instructions,” unites those in power into a single organism, despite the fact that they always had a low opinion of each other and worked on the principle of “don’t interfere, but don’t help the other either.” "

In a very short period of observing the life and relationships of officials, their dishonest and limited natures are revealed to us in all their ugliness.

Mayor Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky is the most main man in the city. He is rude and resourceful, but not stupid in his own way. The mayor values ​​his official position very much, since it brings him income and gives him power. Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky is greedy; he, like other officials, will never miss what is in his hands. The mayor’s love of profit and greed know no bounds: he robs merchants, spends government money on his own needs. However, he does not feel guilty for his misdeeds. “There is no person who does not have some kind of sin behind him,” the mayor is firmly convinced.

The power of other city officials is more limited and narrow, but in all other respects they are very similar to the mayor.

Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin, as can be seen from his last name, carries out his duties carelessly. He rarely looks into court cases, since he is a passionate lover of hound hunting. He, too, takes bribes without a twinge of conscience, but like greyhound puppies, so he is confident in his honesty: “Sins are different from sins. I tell everyone openly that I take bribes, but with what bribes? Greyhound puppies. This is a completely different matter."

The trustee of charitable institutions, Strawberry, is a fussy and helpful person, a rogue, a swindler, and also an informer. People who end up in the hospital run by Strawberry walk around dirty and hungry. And Strawberry does not treat his patients, believing that “a simple man: if he dies, he will die anyway; If he gets well, he’ll get well.” That’s why people in the hospital are “dying like flies.”

Khlopov, the superintendent of schools, is terribly afraid of all kinds of audits and reprimands on his own account. He is timid, fearful, and always has a reason to complain about his part. However, this pathetic man seeks the possibility of abuse of official position. Material from the site

Postmaster Shpekin is extremely stupid and limited. In response to the announcement of the arrival of the auditor, he states: “What do I think? There will be a war with the Turks." This is a man deprived moral principles: Satisfying petty curiosity, he prints out and reads other people’s letters, doing it “with pleasure.”

This is how the images of the “pillars of the city” appear before us. These people do not want and do not know how to work honestly and conscientiously. The arrival of the auditor shook up and united the whole city, but I think that this will not last long, because they communicate with the inspectors in the language that they know - servitude, bribes and promises.

Gogol's merit is that in a short comedy he managed to show a dramatic, but real life, life and customs of bureaucratic Russia in the 30s of the 19th century. “Gathering everything bad in Russia into one pile,” Gogol allowed us to laugh heartily at careerism, theft, bribery, unprincipledness and narrow-mindedness. The images created by Gogol are so realistic and life-like that they continue to excite us today.

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On this page there is material on the following topics:

• essay on auditor, county town and its inhabitants
• essay about the county town continued
• the image of a district town in N.V. Gogol’s comedy The Inspector General
• district town and its inhabitants in the comedy The Inspector General

How much do we have good people,
but as much as there are chaff, from which
for whom there is no good life...
Take them to the stage! Let everyone see
people! Let them laugh!
Oh, laughter is a great thing!
N.V.Gogol

It is known that the only time Gogol had the opportunity to observe Russian provincial town, was in Kursk, where he had to stay for a week due to a crew breakdown. Through the power of literary talent, these impressions turned into images that were mysterious for all of Russia during the time of Nicholas I. It is curious that Nicholas himself confirmed this. On the way from Penza to Tambov, the tsar was injured and was treated for two weeks in Chembar. Having recovered, he wished to see local officials. They say that the sovereign carefully examined those who had come and said to the provincial leader of the nobility: “I know them...” And then added in French that he saw them at the performance of Gogol’s “The Inspector General.” Indeed, Gogol made the officials of the district town the heroes of the comedy. Thanks to a seemingly simple plot device, a passing petty official is mistaken for an auditor - the author reveals the life and customs of not only a provincial staff town, but throughout Russia.
What is Russia like in miniature - a city from which “even if you ride for three years, you won’t reach any state.”? "There's a tavern on the streets, it's unclean!" Near the old fence, “near the shoemaker, ... all kinds of rubbish were piled on forty carts.” A church at a charitable institution, “for which a sum was allocated five years ago, began to be built, but burned down...” A depressing picture.
How is life for the “merchants” and “citizens”? Some were robbed, some were flogged, some had bruises on their cheekbones from Derzhimorda’s zeal; the prisoners are not fed, the hospitals are stinking, unclean, and the sick “are all recovering like flies.”
And everything is to blame for the extreme cynicism of actions and arbitrariness of the “pillars of the city” - those who, by virtue of their public duty, are called upon to resist lawlessness and care for the welfare of the townspeople. However, the conical effect in the play is precisely based on the discrepancy between the actions of the heroes and their social calling. The mayor, for example, proudly announces: “I’ve been in the service for thirty years! I’ve deceived three governors!” The judge echoes him: “I tell you frankly that I take bribes, but what are bribes with? Greyhound puppies. This is a completely different matter.” The postmaster, having listened to the order: “to print out every letter a little,” naively admits: “I know, I know, don’t teach this, I do this not so much out of precaution, but more out of curiosity: “I love to die to know what’s new in the world.” .
So, complete unscrupulousness, selfish calculation, abuse of official position - this is what forms the basis of the consciousness and activity of the “masters of life.” But most importantly, Gogol will remove the veil of secrecy from bribery - the most dangerous and widespread vice of the huge bureaucratic apparatus of Russia. It’s not for nothing that during the Mayor’s monologue “Why are you laughing? Are you laughing at yourself!” the actor Shchepkin came close to the ramp and threw these words into the prim stalls, where many prototypes of Gogol’s heroes sat, among whom, according to Mikhail Semenovich himself, were half “takers” and half “givers.”
And yet, embezzlement, bribery, robbery of the population - all these inherently terrible phenomena - are shown by Gogol as everyday and completely natural. According to Anton Antonovich’s deep conviction, “there is no person who does not have some sins behind him,” who would miss what “floats into his hands.”
And now there is an “incognito” auditor in the city - an unexpectedly looming danger for all officials, but especially for the Mayor. After all, the first demand is from the father of the city, and his sins are more serious: “not only fur coats and shawls, and bags of goods from merchants are floating into the hands, but also the state treasury, funds allocated for the improvement of the city, social needs. And this is not an immediate order.” correct: “you won’t remove mountains of garbage, you won’t cover empty spaces and ruins with straw, you won’t build a church, and most importantly, you won’t silence all the offended.”
But the whole point is that it’s not an auditor who lives in the hotel, but a pathetic “elistrate” who squandered his money in St. Petersburg. According to the laws of the conical, Gogol gives his hero a terrifying surname, derived from the word lash - to hit with a backhand. And the officials are trembling. The mayor himself did not recognize the “wick”, “dummy”. The even more frightened Anton Antonovich perceives every remark of the frightened Khlestakov in a completely different sense. However, everything was decided by a repeatedly tested remedy - a bribe. She confirmed the idea that the game went according to all the rules. Now I would like to get the guest drunk and find out everything completely. Which of the auditors refused a tasty treat!
In the end, events turn out in such a way that the auditor “field marshal” is already Anton Antonovich’s son-in-law and the patron of the family. The viewer is convinced that extraordinary ease of thought is not characteristic of Khlestakov alone. She takes the Governor and his wife to St. Petersburg, where Anton Antonovich is going to “kill” the rank of general, eat hazel grouse and smelt. And Anna Andreevna’s room should have “such an aroma that it is impossible to enter.” And the newly-minted general is already triumphant, before whom everyone trembles and trembles: the titular, the mayor... Despite the fact that the Mayor has just experienced panic fear upon learning that the merchants complained about him, he is immensely happy. After all, now this fear will creep through others in front of his person. It's tempting to see those trembling and trembling! Contempt for inferiors and servility high ranks- this is what forms the basis of relationships in bureaucratic world. Therefore, the scene of congratulations to the Gorodnichy family on their newfound happiness is depicted by Gogol as a parade of hypocrisy, envy and arrogance.
Gogol promised Pushkin that the comedy would be “funnier than the devil,” laughter permeates every episode and scene of the comedy. However, by showing not private, but officials, in whose hands is power over people, Gogol deduces stage action beyond the scope of an anecdotal incident. His cheerful, but sharp and stern word fights for a person’s high calling, an intelligent, noble life. I recall the words of Chernyshevsky: Gogol “was the first to present us to us in our present form... The first taught us to know our shortcomings and to abhor them.”

Depiction of the morals of a district town in the comedy by N.V. Gogol “The Inspector General”

I. Introduction

In the comedy “The Inspector General,” Gogol strove for very broad generalizations (“I decided to collect in one pile everything bad in Russia that I knew then... and laugh at everything at once”). Therefore, the city in comedy is a generalized, typical image; it is no coincidence that it does not have any, even a conventional name. This is any of thousands of similar cities in Russia.

II. main part

1. The city in the comedy is a district one, that is, the smallest of all in Russia at that time. This is a wilderness, from it, in the words of the City, it’s okay, “even if you gallop for three years, you won’t reach any state.” The inhabitants of the city have a very weak idea of ​​metropolitan life (this is partly why Khlestakov manages to pass for important person). In general, enlightenment almost did not touch even the highest officials: the author notes that the judge read five or six books as a rare and remarkable phenomenon; In a district school, strange orders and wild logic reign (if a teacher “cut a student’s face,” this means that he instills in the youth

free-thinking thoughts), etc.

2. The most striking feature of district morals is the complete arbitrariness of the officials. It is virtually uncontrollable (an auditor from St. Petersburg is an out of the ordinary phenomenon for them, but the Governor and his officials, apparently, can easily cope with it). Gogol did not bring out a single one in his comedy honest man, with the possible exception of Khlopov, but he is so downtrodden and intimidated that big picture but doesn't change. Extortion, embezzlement and arbitrariness have become part of the life of the district city, and many officials, and other townspeople, consider them to be in the order of things: The mayor is convinced that “this is already arranged by God himself,” the judge sincerely believes that taking bribes with greyhound puppies is quite It’s possible that it doesn’t occur to the postmaster that by opening and even holding letters, he is acting illegally. The mayor reprimands the quarterly not because he took a piece of cloth from the merchant, but because he took too much: “Don’t you take according to rank!”, etc.

III. Conclusion

Gogol was the first writer in Russian literature who began to study and depict the average Russian district or provincial town. ‘Before him, the scene of action was either the capital or the village. Thus, Gogol laid the foundation for a very important tradition, which was inherited by such writers as Leskov, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Gorky and others.

Glossary:

• morals of the county town auditor
• essay on the topic auditor the finest description morals
• depiction of a district town in Gogol's comedy The Inspector General

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The comedy "The Inspector General", written by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol in 1835 and staged for the first time in 1836, reflected contemporary writer reality - Russia first half of the 19th century century. On stage the comedy was performed with great success: the events described in it were so realistic and the features of the main characters. They say that Nicholas I, after watching the play, forced his ministers to attend the performance of The Inspector General. And critics characterized the comedy as “filled with life’s truth.” At the same time, thanks to The Inspector General, Gogol had many enemies. “The author invented some kind of Russia and some kind of city in it, into which he dumped all the abominations that you only occasionally find on the surface of real Russia: he accumulated so much trickery, meanness, ignorance.” But I think that such negative assessments only confirm the genius of the literary work and testify to the depth and extreme accuracy (which not everyone likes) of the life phenomena shown.

So, before us is a provincial town. Or rather, Gogol’s contemporary Russia in miniature. What is she?

Public places where domesticated geese and goslings “scurry about” in the hallway underfoot. The assessor, from whom he always “gives back a little vodka.” Hospitals, along the corridors of which “there is such cabbage that you only need to take care of your nose.”

There is “tavern, uncleanliness” on the streets. Near the old fence, “all kinds of rubbish were piled on forty carts.”

The private bailiff “cannot be used in the case” because he is dead drunk. “They’ve already poured out two buckets of water, and I still haven’t sobered up.” The quarterly steals silver spoons into his boots.

What about the townspeople? Some were flogged without any guilt, some were beaten by Derzhimorda.

Such is the depressing life of a district town. And the blame for its ugliness, in my opinion, lies with the district officials. After all, it was their attitude to their duties that brought the city to this state. But officials have no time to serve for the good of the state. They spend their time at endless dinners, drinking parties, card games, and spend their efforts on vulgar conversations and stupid gossip.

In the comedy "The Inspector General" there is no character who would consider the bribery thriving in the town to be a vice. On the contrary, bribery, embezzlement, and theft of residents are perceived by officials, that is, people in public service, as a completely ordinary, even routine part of life. And how could it be otherwise if the main bribe-taker is the mayor himself?! It’s not for nothing that he self-confidently declares: “I’ve been living in the service for thirty years... I’ve deceived swindlers after swindlers, swindlers and swindlers such that they’re ready to rob the whole world, I’ve tricked them at random.”

Maybe that’s why the mayor, having learned that the quarterly “stole” a “piece of cloth” from the merchant, considers it his duty to only lightly reproach him: “Look! You’re not taking it according to rank!” And he, apparently, treats the judge’s “open” confession about bribery quite calmly: “Well, what does it matter if you take bribes like greyhound puppies? But you don’t believe in God..."

What other features are endowed with comedy characters? Immediately noticeable low level their education and insignificance of interests.

Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin, who has mastered five or six books in his entire life, is considered the most “well-read.” Postmaster Shpekin “death loves to find out what’s new in the world.” But he gets information about news from other people's letters, not considering it shameful to open them. The mayor's wife and daughter are hunting only for suitors, fresh gossip and new outfits.

But the main feature that Gogol noticed that is inherent in officials is, perhaps, reverence for rank. What, other than the desire to please the higher authorities, could make the mayor, who was skilled in official intrigues (“He deceived three governors!..”), see in Khlestakov, quite young man, pathetic “elistratishka”, “wittle” and “dummy”,

a formidable auditor? It is the fear of the capital inspector (and, as you know, even a thief’s cap will burn) that overshadows the mayor’s mind so much that the mayor accepts the pile of fables in the speeches of the tipsy Khlestakov at face value: “It’s curious to look into my hallway when I haven’t woken up yet: the counts and the princes mill about and buzz there like bumblebees,” “I’ll be promoted to field marshal tomorrow,” and so on.

It is characteristic that at first the mayor seeks to give the capital’s auditor a bribe (“Well, thank God, he took the money. Things seem to be going well now”), and then treat him to dinner, not skimping on wine. There is no doubt that similar actions against inspectors were taken almost throughout Nikolaev Russia.