Satirical wit and dramatic innovation of the comedy The Inspector General. Gogol's innovation in the comedy "The Inspector General"

“The Inspector General” is one of the brightest works of Russian and world literature. In strength and depth, in artistic skill comedy stands on a par with such works of Russian classical literature, like “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov, “Eugene Onegin” and “Boris Godunov” by Pushkin, “Hero of Our Time” by Lermontov.

The comedy was based on a Russian joke suggested by Pushkin. The story with the auditor itself was not new in literature. Before this, there was Veltman’s story “Provincial Actors” and Kvitka-Osnovyanenko’s work “A Visitor from the Capital, or Turmoil in a County Town.”

"The Inspector General" is a work Gogol's innovation. At the same time, Gogol continues the traditions of Fonvizin and Griboyedov, but at the same time he overcomes the edifying features of drama and creates a model of social
And also a funny comedy. Gogol valued previous dramaturgy for the fact that it revealed the illnesses and wounds of modern life.
"Inspector" - realistic comedy. All heroes - typical characters. The situation shown in the comedy is unusual, but it develops quite realistically; the exceptionality of the situation is psychologically justified.

The comedy presents all the main aspects of urban reality. The play takes place in a provincial provincial town, which is an independent artistically in comedy, although it represents a world closed in itself, all the events taking place there are shown as a consequence of the feudal and bureaucratic system of Russia. The world that Gogol paints reflects the entire system of city government: the court, charitable institutions, post office, police. The image of this city is not a specific image, but a collective one. The concentration of all sorts of abuses here is unrealistic, but at the same time typical.

In the drama of the 18th century, the vulgar world, the accusatory world, is always contrasted with a bright beginning. In Gogol's comedy there is no ideal, there is no other than what is depicted. From this we can conclude that everything that happens in the play is the norm, the law of reality. The only one positive character in the play there is laughter, designed to expose and ridicule social vices.

All urban strata appear before us: officials, urban landowners: Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky; merchants, philistines. There is only no army and clergy, since they were not subordinate to the city authorities.

Gogol's city is a city of officials, all of whose images are typified in comedy, and their comicality is enhanced speaking names: mayor Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin, trustee of charitable institutions Zemlyanika, doctor Gibner, policemen Svistunov, Pugovitsyn, Derzhimorda, retired officials: Rastakovsky, Lyulyukov.

Officials are characterized by a spirit of nepotism, idle pastime, bribery, gossip, and a low cultural level. In relation to bribes, there is a certain subordination. (Let us remember the mayor’s remark: “Look, you’re not taking according to your rank.”)
The motif of ignorance and stupidity is also present in the play. Gogol denounces such a characteristic sign of his time as hierarchy: the attitude towards a person is determined by his rank and well-being. All officials are not averse to making money at someone else's expense. In the presented city, bribery and complete lawlessness flourish.

Gogol notes that the traditional comedy with a love affair is clearly outdated. Unlike “Woe from Wit,” “The Inspector General” is a purely social comedy. A love affair comes down to two comic scenes Khlestakov’s explanations with the mayor’s daughter and wife. In addition, “The Inspector General” lacks intrigue in the traditional sense of the word.

In comedy there are no external impetuses to action and there is no external comedy. The self-deception of officials and the entire course of events is motivated by the characters themselves. A “situation of delusion” arises, which was generated by the officials’ fear of retribution for the sins they committed. Fear paved the way for self-deception. Gogol's innovation in the comedy "The Inspector General" is that it depicts a situation in which deception occurs involuntarily, since Khlestakov does not pretend to be anyone, and only his inner emptiness and passivity confirm the possibility of such a situation arising. The mayor was deceived by Khlestakov’s simple-heartedness and his unbridled lies; An experienced rogue would hardly have fooled Anton Antonovich. The unintentionality of Khlestakov’s actions confused him. The mayor and Khlestakov are exponents of the same reality. They are swindlers and rogues, although they reveal themselves in different ways. They have a common logic of behavior and language.

Khlestakov is a brilliant discovery of Gogol, who considered him the most complex and difficult character in his play. The main feature of his character is, as Gogol puts it, “the desire to play a role higher than his own.” This is the most significant feature of “Khlestakovism” as a socio-historical phenomenon. Khlestakov is a nonentity who, by force of circumstances, was elevated to a pedestal. Hence the inspiration with which he throws dust in the eyes of the simpletons who reverently listen to him. And the more awe his speeches evoke, the more uncontrollably his imagination inflames. And it seems that he himself has already believed the lie he created. Khlestakov is a rogue, a flighty, an “icicle”. The curious thing is that his behavior never arouses suspicion. The comedy in the relationship between the city residents and Khlestakov is enhanced by the repetition of similar scenes, for example, giving a bribe.

The more fantastic Khlestakov’s lies, the more they trust him, since officials see in him their ideal.

The entire composition of the play is based on the stupid mistake of the mayor, who mistook the “elistratishka” for statesman. The mayor’s mistake is absolutely natural, and, moreover, it is necessary.

The ending of the comedy expresses Gogol’s thought about future retribution, since the author has not yet lost hope for the triumph of justice and law. Ridiculing the vices of modernity, Gogol noted that “even those... who are no longer afraid of anything are afraid of ridicule.”

The comedy “The Inspector General” was a new step in the development of Russian drama, absorbed the best features of the previous one and, thanks to the genius of Gogol, became immortal and remains relevant to this day.

Composition: Gogol's innovation in the comedy "The Inspector General"

The novelty of The Inspector General lay, in particular, in the fact that Gogol restructured the type of stage intrigue: now it was driven not by a love impulse, as in a traditional comedy, but by an administrative one, namely: the arrival in the city of an ostensibly high-ranking person - the auditor. “You just don’t need to forget that there is an auditor in everyone’s head. Everyone is busy with the auditor. The fears and hopes of all the characters are circling around the auditor,” he wrote in “A Warning for Those Who Would Like to Play “The Inspector General” properly (1836). Subsequently, this beginning struck the director Nemirovich-Danchenko: “one first phrase... And the play has already begun. The plot is given and its main impulse is given – fear.”

Moreover, as often happens, the new turned out to be well forgotten by the old. Gogol himself in “Theater Tour after the Presentation of a New Comedy” (play small form, begun in 1836 as a response to the premiere of The Inspector General) explained: “At the very beginning, comedy was social, folk creation. At least, this is how her father, Aristophanes, showed her. Afterwards she entered the narrow gorge of a private plot, introduced a love affair, the same indispensable plot.”

A similar evolution of comedy was also depicted by August Schlegel in “Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature” (1809-1811) and Friedrich Schlegel in “History of Ancient and new literature" Also in “Professor Pogodin’s Lectures on Guerin” (Part 2, 1836), in which Gogol was keenly interested, the definition of ancient Attic comedy as political appeared. Subsequently, Vyacheslav Ivanov wrote in detail about the analogy between Aristophanes’ comedy and The Inspector General, comparing the nameless town of the mayor with the comedic City of Aristophanes (the article, written under the influence of Roman conversations with Vs. Meyerhold, was reminiscent of the famous Meyerhold production of The Inspector General, where, due to the removal of the scenes and fences, which made it possible to see everything that was happening in the background, a mystical doubling of the drama took place). However, in his comedy Gogol did not completely abandon the love affair: in the same “Theatrical Travel”, in which he tried to comprehend the experience of “The Inspector General,” the love affair was not ridiculed in general, but only because it uses hackneyed, far-fetched techniques.

Breaking tradition, Gogol abandoned the usual hierarchy of main and minor characters. On the contrary, in his play, in all the vicissitudes of the action, there was not one, not several characters, but their entire host. Off-stage characters were also added here, filling the entire conceivable space of the city (remember, for example, the scene from the fourth act, when a “figure in a frieze overcoat” is “exhibited” through the opened door, which is interrupted by the intervention of Osip: “Get off, go! Why are you bothering? "). Gogol himself called this a “general” plot, contrasting it with a “private plot” built on a love affair. “No, comedy should knit itself together, with its entire mass, into one big, common knot. (...) Every hero is here; the flow and progress of the play produces a shock to the entire machine: not a single wheel should remain rusty and not useful.”

Gogol already wrote about the need for a plot that goes beyond the scope of personal fate, the setting of all characters without exception in the face of a generally significant, fatal event for them, in his review of the painting by K. Bryullov, which Yu. V. Mann proposes to consider as another source of dramatic conflict "Inspector" and peculiar short summary structural principles of the play. The plasticity of petrification as a visual expression of the general shock additionally united aesthetic principles Bryullov's painting and Gogol's comedy.

The situation of the auditor itself and the conflict associated with it were rethought in the comedy. qui pro quo. Instead of much more traditional types: a conscious deceiver-adventurer or a random person who, through a misunderstanding, finds himself in a false position, but does not derive benefits from it - Gogol chooses the type of “non-deceiving liar”, incapable of any deliberate actions, and at the same time successfully fulfilling what is dictated to him by circumstances role. Khlestakov’s psychological and at the same time dramatic conflict lies in the fact that he is a braggart and a liar, whose actions are not subject to any selfish or deliberate plan, but are instead subject to the force of circumstances. His lie thus becomes neither a passion nor a craft, it is just simple-minded and unprofessional. Gogol himself in 1836, in “An excerpt from a letter written by the Author shortly after the first presentation of The Inspector General to one writer,” explained that his hero is not a liar by profession, that is, he does not at all seek to deceive, but seeing that he is being listened to , speaks more cheekily, from the heart. Khlestakov's lie reveals his true nature: he speaks completely frankly and, lying, expresses himself exactly as he is. Gogol calls this lie “almost a kind of inspiration,” “it’s rare that someone won’t have it at least once in their life.”

This is precisely what explains Khlestakov’s success in the city of N (a professional fraudster would have been exposed much faster), and at the same time the strange effect of the play, when an apparently completely vaudeville situation suddenly acquires existential subtext. The hero, who according to more traditional logic should have controlled events, is subordinated to them in Gogol in the same way as other characters, who are now equalized in terms of ignorance of the real course of things. The biggest swindler in the city (Gorodnichy) is defeated not by an even more skilled opponent, but by a man who made no conscious effort to do so.

The role of the servant also changes. Gogol's Osip no longer acts as an assistant in the master's love affairs, as was the case, for example, with Moliere. Even less is he the embodiment of common sense, commenting on the owner’s actions from the point of view of an unspoiled consciousness, as was the case in Catherine’s comedies. He is a complement to the master’s character and at the same time his false mirror: the same hedonism, the same home-grown aesthetics of comfort. Thus, Osip’s “haberdashery” treatment is nothing more than a low-level version of Khlestakov’s famous ability to endlessly vulgarize everything and everyone. As D. Merezhkovsky wrote, “ greatest thoughts humanity, getting into Khlestakov’s head, suddenly become lighter than feathers.” One of the main thoughts of the 17th and 18th centuries, the thought of Montaigne, Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau about the “state of nature”, about the “return of man to nature” turns into a call for the mayor to retire “under the shade of the streams”, Epicurean freethinking “is reduced in Khlestakov into the saying of new positive wisdom: “After all, that’s what you live for, to pick flowers of pleasure.” But some traditional moves (the servant-assistant) are still comedically reinterpreted by Gogol: isn’t this where Osip’s habit of “reading moral lectures to himself for his master” comes from?

Such elimination of the figure of reasoning and reasoning as such had another effect in Gogol: the traditional division of characters into vicious and virtuous was overcome. However, as a relic of Catherine’s type of comedy, one can consider the final remark of the Governor, “Why are you laughing? You’re laughing at yourself!..” (cf. in Catherine II’s play “About Time” the maxim of the maid Mavra: “We condemn everyone, we value everyone, we mock and slander everyone, but we don’t see that we ourselves are worthy of laughter and condemnation.”

When working on The Inspector General, Gogol deliberately reduced manifestations of crude comedy (such as, for example, brawls and blows, which were originally present in the text, were removed from the final edition of the play). Of the farcical scenes in the play, only one remains: the scene of Bobchinsky’s fall at the door (in general, the very name Bobchinsky, in combination with Dobchinsky, goes back to the folklore archetype: Thomas and Erema). The eavesdropping scenes, which are usually a source of comedy, are also reimagined. So, when Bobchinsky overhears the conversation between Gorodnichy and Khlestakov, this does not lead to the disclosure of the secret (he only hears what would have become known to him anyway). The transformation and reduction of comic techniques moves the comic principle into the sphere of psychological interaction of characters. “Gogol finds stage movement in surprises, which manifest themselves in the characters themselves, in the versatility human soul, no matter how primitive it may be.”

Paradoxically, for all his innovation, Gogol quite strictly adhered to the canons of classicist drama. This includes speaking names, characteristic of the comedies of classicism, directly indicating a vice: Derzhimorda (“hits you so that you just hold on”, Lyapkin-Tyapkin (cases going on in court are a blunder), Khlestakov (“extraordinary lightness in thoughts”), etc.

Going against romantic aesthetics, which fought to overthrow the shackles of three unities (a demand extremely harshly formulated by V. Hugo in the “Preface” to “Cromwell” - a position to which Pushkin was not alien), Gogol scrupulously adheres to all unities. Perhaps the only weak deviation we see is only in one position: instead of one location, the comedy features two - a room in a hotel and a room in the mayor's house. As for the unity of time, here Gogol clearly adheres to the classic law, although in a weakened version: traditionally, a more strict observance of unity was possible - no more than 24 hours, which, in particular, was prescribed “ Poetic art» Boileau; a less strict option suggested no more than 36 hours, i.e. one and a half days. If we remember that the fourth and fifth acts of “The Inspector General” represent the events of the next day, then it becomes clear that the action of the comedy fits into one and a half days. As for the unity of action, it is obvious that this is also observed. Moreover, as already mentioned, it is on the unity of action, understood as the unity of the situation, that the whole comedy rests.

Compositionally, the play was also very carefully constructed. In total it consisted of five acts. The climax came exactly in the middle: in the 6th phenomenon of the 3rd act, consisting of 11 phenomena. The participants in the conflict were symmetrically introduced into action: in the first act Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky talked with each of the townspeople, in the fourth act the officials took turns paying visits to Khlestakov. In the fifth act there followed a new presentation of all the characters, but now indirect, through the prism of the perception of Khlestakov writing a letter to Tryapichkin. Needless to say, how symmetrically Gogol built the final silent scene with the mayor “in the middle in the form of a pillar...”. As Andrei Bely wrote, “the plot is removed, the plot is a circle... The last phenomenon returns to the first; both here and here there is fear: the middle is a swollen darkness.”

At the same time, the denouement that occurred in the fifth act, naturally marking the finale, at the same time fulfilled the role of a new climax, which was expressed by a silent scene, close in genre to popular late XVIII – early XIX V. “living pictures”, introduced into theatrical and secular use by J. L. David and J. B. Isabey. However, it was here that Gogol deviated from the laws of plausibility: the scene, according to the author’s instructions, was supposed to last from one and a half to two to three minutes and contained a plurality of meanings, up to the eschatological meaning of the highest, Divine judgment. Its most important feature was the general petrification of the characters.

Gogol's innovation as a playwright In response to Aksakov's remark that modern Russian life does not provide material for comedy, Gogol said that this is not true, that comedy is hidden everywhere, that, living in the midst of it, we do not see it, but that if the artist transfers it to art, to the stage, then We'll be rolling our heads over ourselves with laughter. It seems that this phrase contains the general meaning of Gogol’s innovation in drama; the main task is to transfer the comedy of everyday life to the stage. As Grigoriev said in one of his articles, it is obvious that a new ore was discovered by the great poet, the ore of analysis of everyday ordinary reality. This choice of subject matter also dictated artistic means.

Gogol's plays are comedies, but comedies contrasted with classic works of this genre, firstly, in plot compared to high comedy, and secondly, the types derived from Gogol’s comedies are contrasted with the types of plays of that time. Instead of cunning lovers and intractable parents, living, everyday national characters appeared on the stage.

Murder, poison Gogol drives out madness in his plays, death becomes the result of gossip, intrigue, eavesdropping. Gogol rethinks the principle of unity of action as the unity of the plan and its execution by the main character. In Gogol's plays, it is not the hero who controls the plot, but the plot that develops logically gambling, carries the hero. The hero's goals are opposed final result, approaching the goal turns out to be moving away from it at a huge distance Vladimir of the third degree. Gogol creates a situation unusual for the play, instead of one personal or domestic intrigue, the life of an entire city is depicted, which significantly expands the social scale of the play and allows the goal of writing the play to be realized in one heap of everything bad in Russia. The city is extremely hierarchical, the development of the entire comedy is concentrated within it. Gogol creates an innovative situation when a city torn apart by internal contradictions becomes capable of integral life, thanks to a general crisis, general feeling fear of higher powers.

Gogol covers all aspects public life management, but without administrative details, in a universal form. In the Theater Travel it is said that humanity is found everywhere. In his comedy under the wide system officials a wide range of spiritual properties has been derived from the good-natured naivety of the postmaster to the cunningness of Strawberry. Each character becomes a symbol of sorts.

But a certain psychological property correlates with the character not as his main feature, but rather as a range of certain mental movements. The postmaster, as Gogol himself says, is only a simple-minded to the point of naivety, but with no less simple-minded malice, when reading Khlestakov’s letter, he repeats three times “The mayor is stupid, how gray gelding. All the characters’ feelings are transferred from the artificial to the sphere of their real manifestation, but at the same time, the writer takes human life in all its depth.

And when Bobchinsky says to Khlestakov, I humbly ask you, when you go to St. Petersburg, tell all the nobles there, various senators and admirals, that your Excellency, or Excellency, lives in such and such a city, Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky.

This is how Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky lives. Gogol shows in this request his desire to signify his existence in the world, the highest moment of his life. In his play, Gogol tries to limit comic effects. The Inspector General is a comedy of characters. We laugh, according to Gogol, not at the crooked nose of the characters, but at the crooked soul. The comic in the play is subordinated to the depiction of types, arises from the manifestation of their psychological and social properties. In Theatrical Travel, Gogol writes Yes, if we take the plot in the sense in which it is usually accepted, then it definitely does not exist. But, it seems, it’s time to stop relying on this eternal tie lt gt. Now the drama is more strongly tied to the desire to get an advantageous place, to shine and outshine, at all costs, the other, to be noted for neglect, for ridicule.

Don’t they now have more power, money capital, advantageous marriage what is love? So, Gogol refuses the traditional structure of the play.

Nemirovich-Danchenko quite clearly expressed the new principles of constructing the play. The most remarkable theater masters could not begin the play except in the first few scenes. In The Inspector General, there is one phrase: I invited you, gentlemen, in order to tell us very unpleasant news: the inspector is coming to us and the play has already begun. The denouement is similar.

Gogol finds stage movement in surprises that manifest themselves in the characters themselves, in the versatility of the human soul, no matter how primitive it may be. External events do not move the play. A general thought is immediately set, the idea of ​​fear, which is the basis of the action. This allows Gogol to dramatically change the genre at the end of the play with the revelation of Khlestakov’s deception, the comedy turns into tragedy. If in 1832 Gogol writes Pogodin Drama lives only on the stage. Without it it is like a soul without a body, then in 1842 Gogol prefaces his play with the epigraph of Necha blaming the mirror, The story is crooked, clearly aimed at the reader, which gave critics a reason to generalize about the lack of stage presence of the comedy.

And, although the comedy is indeed very difficult for stage implementation, and Gogol himself wrote about dissatisfaction with its productions, the comedy was still designed specifically for the viewer. The fourth wall principle is observed, and besides, Why are you laughing? You're laughing at yourself! there are no replicas in the hall. But Gogol, for the first time in Russian comedy, paints not a separate island of vice into which virtue can rush in, but a part of a whole.

He actually does not have a denunciation, as in the comedy of classicism; the critical beginning of the play is that his model of the city can be expanded to an all-Russian scale. Wide vital meaning The Auditor's situation is that it could arise almost anywhere. This is the vitality of the play.

What will we do with the received material:

If this material was useful to you, you can save it to your page on social networks:

More abstracts, coursework, and dissertations on this topic:

Innovation of Chekhov's dramaturgy
Disputes about his work continue to this day. Many literary works have been written about him, but despite this, his work cannot be... In my opinion, more has been written about Chekhov than he himself wrote. What is this? Probably... It is in the person of Chekhov that Russian drama breaks down national barriers and begins to play decisive role in the development of the world...

The image of the Motherland and people in Gogol's poem "Dead Souls"
I. Contents.II. Introduction III. Main part 1. Dead Souls- title of the poem. 2. Genre of Dead Souls 3. Did Gogol know Russian life? 4. Russia in.. IV. Conclusion. I. Introduction. How huge, what original story All.. The greatness, the breadth of the soul of the people, preserved by them in the very oppression, this theme sounds in Dead Souls all the time, again and again..

Traditions and innovation in the works of symbolists, acmeists, futurists
After centuries of medieval churchmen preaching that man is a “vessel of sin” and calling for humility, literature and art... New type R. takes shape in the 19th century. This is critical realism. It is significant.. Its flourishing in the West is associated with the wives of Stendhal and Balzac in France, Dickens, Thackeray in England, and Russia - A..

A.V. Sukhovo-Kobylin. The importance of the trilogy for the development of domestic drama
In 1857, the investigation into the murder of Simone-Demanche, the playwright’s mistress, ended, which gave S. K. abundant material for subsequent parts of it.. It appeared in the Russian press only in 1869. In 1882 it was possible to carry out.. So different in their direction and aesthetic criteria, magazines such as “Bulletin of Europe” and “Delo” agreed on...

"Autobiographical beginning" in Gogol's works
Its disclosure involves indicating how the events experienced by the author, his own memories and personal impressions were reflected in the writer’s works.. His life and writings Ed. Pokrovsky V M, 1915 B. N. Skvortsov Skvortsov.. For the first chapter, the thoughts expressed by N. Kotlyarevsky in the article Artistic, philosophical and..

Life of N.V. Gogol in St. Petersburg
The very first weeks of his stay in the capital brought Gogol bitter disappointment. He failed to fulfill his dream. Unlike Piskarev, the hero... I wanted to collect here some bright psychological phenomena, put those.. They were sharply negative. Gogol took his failure very painfully. He is leaving St. Petersburg, but soon again...

Gogol's Taras Bulba - a hymn to banditry?
The Rus' of that time could not and did not intend to attack anyone, but, on the contrary, it was very afraid of attacks from its neighbors, especially the Tatars from the south and... Trade in stolen slaves was also an important source of income. Among the slaves.. Sciences developed in Polish lands, although in specific medieval forms (theology, philosophy, alchemy..

Secrets and mysteries of Gogol's personality
Gogol's works have retained their vitality and artistic value and in our time. Gogol exposed and ridiculed the ugly, disgusting world.. Laughter, crying, the road, death, fire (burning of manuscripts and even printed ones.. Despite numerous research readings, Gogol both as an artist and as a person is still shrouded..

Semantic field of state in the poem Dead Souls by N.V. Gogol
Chapter II. Partial and thematic affiliation of words with the semantics of “state” in the poem “Dead Souls” by N. V. Gogol. Conclusion. List.. The problem with words of state categories is that there is no single... Words of state category as a lexical-grammatical category need special study for a number of reasons. This..

The theme of the "little man" in Gogol's works
IV Conclusions of the author of the abstract. Annotation. this work aimed at revealing an idea little man Russian.. A little man, a representative of the democratic strata, a man of the people, with the blessings of Pushkin, Gogol and Belin-..

N.V. Gogol is one of the key figures in literary process first half of the 19th century V. The second half of the century is often called the “century of prose.” It was Gogol and Pushkin who became the “father” of Russian realistic prose. Gogol is a unique author's individuality. His works have always made a special impression on readers. Dramatic works play an important role in his work.

Gogol's predecessors in Russian drama can be called Fonvizin and Griboedov. Griboedov acted as an innovator, moving away in his work from the basic principles of comedy (he pushed aside the love affair by introducing a plot developing in conjunction with it social conflict; filled the comedy negative characters and portrayed only one positive face, etc.).

Gogol's innovation lies in the choice of conflict, which is the basis of the work. Looking back at the works of his predecessors, Gogol comes to the conclusion that love affair has already exhausted itself. Seeing that she was becoming the basis dramatic conflict too often, Gogol decides to choose a different path. He finds new story, more relevant for modern times: the plot about the auditor. The figure of the auditor has always been scary for city officials who live in constant fear of an audit. And it is precisely “the fear of expectation, the very horror, the thunderstorm of the law moving in the distance” (Gogol), which seizes the officials, and forms the dramatic situation in The Inspector General.

Gogol resorts to the technique of compositional inversion: the plot appears before the exposition. The action in the comedy begins instantly, with the very first phrase of the mayor: “I invited you, gentlemen, in order to tell you the most unpleasant news. An auditor is coming to us.” The plot includes almost all the characters, which corresponds to Gogol’s theoretical idea of ​​composition social comedy: “The comedy should knit itself by itself, with its entire mass into one large, common knot. The tie should hug the whole face, and not just one or two.”

The exposition turns out to be the dialogues of officials in the first act, revealing the real state of affairs in the city and showing internal contradiction in the minds of officials between their dishonest activities and a completely clear conscience. Believing that every person has “minor sins,” they classify their activities in this category. Gogol shows the peculiar psychology of city officials: the whole world is divided into two parts for them - the one surrounding them real life, based on the unwritten laws of bribery and lies. and a life unknown to them according to written laws, which require them to care not about their own benefit, but about the public good. The horror of the visiting auditor is due to the uncertainty of the situation: to which world does the visiting auditor belong? But the fear of officials is combined with hope, based on previous experience and a high opinion of themselves (“I deceived swindlers on swindlers... I deceived three governors!”).

All actions of the play are based on the behavior of the characters in emergency situation arrival of the auditor, corresponding to the character of each of them. City officials represent a certain comedy whole system, but at the same time the characters are sharply individualized. They are unique in their individual characteristics, which is what it does interesting reception their “serial” report on the state of affairs in the entrusted institution, “serial” presentation to Khlestakov, “serial” reading of the ill-fated letter. In constructing a system of characters, Gogol resorts to another innovative technique: he refuses to depict positive hero. If in Griboyedov’s comedy Chatsky was such a hero-ideologist, a partial hero-reasoner, then Khlestakov cannot be called a positive hero, he is an “icicle, a rag” with poverty of thinking and narrow interests. Thus, comedy has absolutely no tall hero. The author called laughter a positive hero.

The unusual construction of the character system increases the breadth of generality of what is depicted. Gogol, generalizing as much as possible. strives to show the typicality of the described city and the officials living in it, the “speaking” surnames (private bailiff Ukhovertov, policeman Derzhimorda, judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin) serve not so much to characterize individuals, carriers of vices, but rather to typify the image of society as a whole. All city officials are characterized by illogical thinking. It, coupled with fear, leads them to self-deception. They mistake the “helicopter” for an auditor, and the emergence of the so-called “mirage” intrigue, which turns out to be nothing, is based on this fact. At the first meeting of the mayor with Khlestakov, fear of the inspector makes him not believe his eyes (“But what a nondescript, short one, it seems that he would crush him with a fingernail”), and not believe his ears: Khlestakov speaks the honest truth - the mayor admires his “cunning” ( “Oh, a thin thing! It lies, lies and never stops.” The main goal of the mayor is to force the auditor to spill the beans, and Khlestakov, a minor official who fears that he will be sent to prison for non-payment, suddenly, before the eyes of the audience, turns into important person: “I confess, I would not demand anything more, as soon as you show me devotion and respect, respect and devotion.” Khlestakov seems to accept the terms of the game proposed by the mayor.

The image of Khlestakov is the discovery of Gogol. This is a rogue, but a rogue according to the situation. He did not want to deceive anyone, and only fear and the illogical thinking of officials turned him into an auditor. Khlestakov is simple-minded. And that is precisely why he appears in the eyes of the mayor as a real auditor, because he speaks from the heart, sincerely, and the mayor looks for tricks in his words. Innocence allows Khlestakov not to deceive anyone, but only to play the roles that officials impose on him. Khlestakov fully justifies the description given to him by Gogol: “He speaks and acts without any consideration.” However, the mirage dissipates and two imaginary endings follow (Khlestakov’s departure and the reading of the letter). Khlestakov’s departure does not arouse suspicion among anyone, since he, having proven himself decent person, will definitely return if he promised. But the reading of Khlestakov’s letter that followed his departure puts everything in its place and brings the officials down to earth. It is noteworthy that when reading the letter, all the officials described in it from a negative side think only about the insult inflicted on them by Khlestakov. They do not understand that the danger that awaits them ahead and is already approaching them is much worse than “becoming a laughing stock.”

Following the reading of the letter, the true denouement occurs: the “silent scene” that followed the news of the arrival of a real auditor in the city. "Silent scene" is a flexible way of expressing the author's idea. Gogol's comedy is addressed not to a narrow circle of select, enlightened readers, but to the entire mass of the reading public. This led to Gogol’s rejection of the “fourth wall” principle. The line between the characters in the comedy and the audience in the hall is blurred for several minutes, during which the “petrified group” stands motionless on the stage. There is a feeling of unity between the characters and the audience. Heroes frozen in a moment of great crisis. overshadowed by the idea of ​​inevitable retribution. Instilling in the reader the idea of ​​this supreme court was Gogol's main task, which he expressed in a “silent scene.”

The only "honest and noble face in comedy there is laughter" (Gogol). But laughter in comedy is not directed at a specific person, an official, or at a specific county town, but on the vice itself. Gogol shows how terrible the fate of a person struck by him is. The play combines comedy and drama, which lies in the discrepancy between a person’s initially high purpose and its unrealization. exhaustion in pursuit of life's mirages. The final monologue of the mayor and the scene of Khlestakov's matchmaking are full of drama, but the culmination of the tragic, when the comic completely fades into the background, is the final “silent scene”.

Gogol's comedy, in many ways, developed the traditions of Griboyedov's social comedy, continues the search for new expressive and visual arts. Gogol's bold experiments led to the creation of a unique work that embodied many innovative features.