The author's attitude towards the heroes of the auditor. A satirical depiction of reality in the comedy N
“Lessons from Gogol the Inspector General” - Binary lesson on literature and law “Power and society in the comedy of N.V. Gogol “The Inspector General” (8th grade). Binary lesson. Features of a binary lesson: Why are binary lessons on law needed in combination with others humanities: BINARY LESSON – training session, combining the content of two subjects of the same cycle (or educational field) in one lesson.
"Literature Inspector" - Postmaster. Mayor. Luka Lukich Khlopov. Comedy by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol “The Inspector General”. The production was a colossal success. Just don't talk. Very helpful and fussy. I'm at balls every day. Khlestakov (grabbing his daughter’s hand). Strawberries. This is my first house in St. Petersburg. Judge. It’s so well known: the house of Ivan Alexandrovich.
"Gogol the Inspector General" - School library. 1851 - author introduced last changes in one of the replicas of 4 actions. Inspector. “THE AUDITOR” Staged in the theatre. IVAN ALEXANDROVICH KHLESTAKOV, OFFICIAL FROM St. Petersburg. N.V. Gogol. There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked folk proverb. Characters. “Somewhat stupid and, as they say, without a king in my head.”
“Gogol lesson The Inspector General” - Make a small tablet about the officials of the county town. Inn servant. Guests and guests, merchants, townspeople, petitioners. You see and hear them... Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin, judge. Read act 1 of the comedy. Fevronya Petrovna Poshlepkina, mechanic. V.G. Belinsky. Poster for the comedy “The Inspector General” Characters:
“Gogol the Inspector Literature” - Biography of N.V. Gogol - 30. Derzhimorda. Name the authors and titles literary works mentioned in the comedy. Collegiate Registrar. What establishments in Tsarist Russia were called godly? "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka". Mayor (goes to church every Sunday). Voyage is a journey.
“The Inspector General” - 2. Name the hero. This is how things are done in a well-ordered society.” Khlestakov about himself: “After all, you live to pick flowers of pleasure.” Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin judge. You will read another letter with pleasure...” Almost the city center... Greyhound puppies. He doesn’t pay any money and doesn’t go. A street with old houses where the heroes of The Inspector General could walk.
The idea, the design and features of the composition.
In “The Inspector General,” Gogol later recalled, I decided to collect in one pile everything bad in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices that are done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required from a person, and behind one laugh at everything at once."
This idea of Gogol found brilliant implementation in his comedy, defining its genre as a socio-political comedy. The driving spring in “The Inspector General” is not love affair, not events privacy, but phenomena of social order. The plot of the comedy is based on the commotion among officials awaiting the auditor, and their desire to hide their “sins” from him. Thus, it was determined that compositional feature comedy, as the absence of a central character; such a hero in “The Inspector General” became, in Belinsky’s words, “a corporation of various official thieves and robbers,” the bureaucratic mass.
This bureaucracy is given primarily in his official activities, which, naturally, entailed the inclusion of images of the merchants and philistines in the play.
"Inspector" is big picture bureaucratic-bureaucratic rule of feudal Russia in the 30s.
The brilliant writer, Gogol, while drawing this picture, managed to write every image included in it in such a way that, without losing its individual originality, at the same time it represents a typical phenomenon of the life of that time.
The comedy also ridiculed the everyday side of life of the city's inhabitants: mustiness and vulgarity, insignificance of interests, hypocrisy and lies, arrogance, complete lack of human dignity, superstition and gossip.
This everyday life provincial Russia of that time is also revealed in the images of the landowners Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, the wife and daughter of the mayor, in the images of merchants and bourgeois women.
Images of officials
The action in The Inspector General dates back to the early 30s of the last century. All kinds of abuses of power, embezzlement and bribery, arbitrariness and disdain for the people were characteristic, deep-rooted features of the bureaucracy of that time. This is exactly how Gogol shows the rulers of the county town in his comedy.
At their head is the mayor. He is not stupid: he judges more sensibly than his colleagues the reasons for sending an auditor to them, with wise life and service experience, he “deceived swindlers over swindlers”, “put the bait on such swindlers that they are ready to rob the whole world.”
The mayor is a convinced bribe-taker: “This is how God himself arranged it, and the Voltairians are in vain speaking against it.”
He is an embezzler: he constantly embezzles government money.
The goal of his aspirations is “over time... to become a general.” Why does he need this? “According to the concept of our mayor,” says Belinsky, “to be a general means to see before you humiliation and meanness from the lower ones, to oppress all non-generals with your swagger and arrogance.” These traits still appear in him today. In communicating with his subordinates, in relation to the population of the city, he is self-confident, rude and despotic: “And whoever is dissatisfied, then I will give him such displeasure...”; “Here I am, the channeler...”; “What, samovar-makers, arshinniks...” Such rude shouts and abuse are typical of the mayor.
But he behaves differently in front of his superiors. In a conversation with Khlestakov, whom he mistook for an auditor, the mayor tries to show himself as an executive official, speaks ingratiatingly and respectfully, peppering his speech with expressions accepted in the bureaucratic circle: “In other cities, I dare to report to you, city governors and officials care more about their own affairs.” there is benefit; and here, one might say, there is no other thought than to earn the attention of the authorities through decorum and vigilance.”
The second most important person in the city is Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin. Unlike other officials, he is a representative of the elected government: “elected as a judge by the will of the nobility.” Therefore, he behaves more freely with the mayor, allowing himself to challenge him. He is considered a "freethinker" in the city and educated person, since I read five or six books. Officials speak of him as an eloquent speaker: “Every word you say,” Strawberry tells him, “then Cicero 1 rolled off his tongue.” Being carried away by hunting, the judge takes bribes with greyhound puppies. He doesn't deal with cases at all, and the court is a complete mess.
The trustee of charitable institutions, Strawberry, is “a fat man, but a subtle rogue.” In the hospital under his jurisdiction, patients are dying like flies; The doctor “doesn’t know a word of Russian.” On occasion, Strawberry is ready to denounce his colleagues. Introducing himself to Khlestakov, he slandered the postmaster, the judge, and the superintendent of schools.
Timid, intimidated, and voiceless is the superintendent of the schools, Khlopov, the only one among the officials who is not a nobleman.
Postmaster Shpekin is opening letters. His speech is poor in thoughts and words.
All officials are drawn by Gogol as if they were alive, each of them is unique. But at the same time, they all create the overall image of the bureaucracy governing the country, reveal the rottenness of the socio-political system of feudal Russia,
With a devastating laugh, Gogol castigates the bureaucracy of Tsarist Russia: the officials’ complete lack of understanding of their duty, their bureaucracy, bribery and embezzlement, sycophancy, low cultural level.
Khlestakov
This whole world of provincial officials and ordinary people comes into motion and exposes itself with its speeches and actions while waiting for the auditor and after his arrival imaginary auditor- Khlestakova.
The image of Khlestakov was written with exceptional artistic power and the breadth of typical generalization. According to Gogol’s definition, Khlestakov is “one of those people who are called empty in the offices. He speaks and acts without any consideration.” Khlestakov himself does not know what he will say in the next minute; “Everything in it is a surprise and a surprise” for himself. “He lies with feeling; his eyes express the pleasure he received from this.” But the most important one, characteristic Khlestakov - “the desire to play a role at least one inch higher than the one assigned to him.” This is the essence of “Khlestakovism”; it gives the image of Khlestakov broad typicality, enormous generalizing power.
Osip
Among the heroes of The Inspector General, drawn sharply satirically, Osip occupies a special place. Gogol shows a serf servant, although spoiled by life “under the masters” and by the city, but still retaining positive features Russian peasant: sobriety of mind, folk ingenuity, the ability to see through his master, all his emptiness: “...does not take care of business: instead of going to office, he goes for a walk along the prespekt, plays cards.”
The nationality of comedy and the typicality of its images
The comedy “The Inspector General” is one of the best works of N.V. Gogol. The plot of the comedy was suggested to him by A.S. Pushkin. Grateful to Pushkin, Gogol argued that his comedy would be “funnier than the devil.” Laughter, indeed, permeates every episode, every scene of the comedy. However, this is a special laughter, laughter through tears, an accusatory laughter. Gogol takes the action of comedy beyond the scope of an anecdotal incident. In the comedy "The Inspector General" he created a gallery of incredibly funny characters. Moreover, they all turned out to be easily recognizable types of people. Even Tsar Nicholas confirmed this. After one meeting with provincial officials, he said to the provincial leader of the nobility: “I know them...” and then added in French that he had seen them at a performance of Gogol’s “The Inspector General.”
Gogol really did not just paint the officials of a single county town. He created collective, typical images.
So, the city is headed by Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky. The mayor is dishonest, robs merchants without a twinge of conscience, condones lawlessness, does not fulfill his official duties, cheats, and wastes government money. The city under the leadership of Anton Antonovich was mired not only in lawlessness, but also in dirt. There is garbage, drunkenness, immorality all around. The mayor turns out to be a fool when he finds out that Khlestakov is not an auditor at all, and he himself is not the future father-in-law of a high-ranking St. Petersburg official. Anton Antonovich is funny. Gogol mercilessly castigates embezzlement, corruption, and abuse of official position. In the person of Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky's wife and daughter, the author ridicules empty coquetry and stupidity.
About Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin, the writer already in “Notes for Gentlemen Actors” ironically notes that he has read “five or six books,” and Khlestakov in his letter calls the judge a person of bad taste. By nature of his service, Lyapkin-Tyapkin is called upon to administer justice. But instead, he himself breaks the law - he takes bribes, which he talks about openly. Lyapkin-Tyapkin turns a blind eye to many judicial unrest. For example, geese with goslings bred in the front room. He simply has no time to do this. The judge does not fulfill his official duties; he prefers to “chase hares” and visit Dobchinsky’s wife. The trustee of charitable institutions, Strawberry, is a big “sneak and rogue”; he is very helpful and fussy. With extraordinary efficiency, Strawberry invites Khlestakov to put his denunciation against his recent friends on paper. It seems that in return he hopes to receive forgiveness for his own sins, and the trustee of charitable institutions has a lot of them: the sick wear dirty caps, instead of habersoup, cabbage is everywhere and always for lunch, expensive medicines are not used anywhere. The money allocated for charitable purposes goes straight into Strawberry's pocket.
Postmaster Shpekin is “simple-minded to the point of naivety.” This author's definition full of sarcasm. Shpekin loves to read other people's letters, and keeps the ones he likes as souvenirs, so that he can read them out loud to his friends in his spare time.
V. G. Belinsky, in one of his letters to Gogol, called “The Inspector General” “a corporation of various official thieves and robbers,” and this assessment is very fair. The characters in the comedy are well aware of their sins and are so frightened by the news of the inspector’s arrival and possible exposure that they mistake an ordinary petty official for an inspector from the capital.
Khlestakov is a young man of about twenty-three, somewhat stupid and “without a king in his head.” Already in this description there is a caustic author's ridicule. Khlestakov is an ordinary helipad, a reveler, a fanfare. He throws away his father's money, thinks only about pleasures and clothes. In addition, he is a tireless liar. He is on friendly terms with the head of the department “himself”, they even wanted to make him a collegiate assessor, he lives in the mezzanine. Already this lie makes those present numb, and Khlestakov gets into real excitement and simply chokes on his enchanting fantasies: he is closely acquainted with Pushkin, he writes himself; he was written by famous works, the State Council is afraid of him, he will soon be promoted to field marshal... Without thinking about the consequences, Khlestakov begins to openly pester the mayor’s wife and daughter and even promises to marry both of them. He does not think about his words or his actions.
The comedy takes place in an ordinary county town. Gogol does not give it a name, emphasizing that he painted Russia in miniature, that similar morals are widespread throughout the Russian side. Everywhere, according to the writer, they steal, cheat, mess around, take and give bribes, and this is especially bitter. Gogol does not make people laugh, but cruelly ridicules and castigates the vices of his contemporary society. But could he have known that in the lines of his comedy the reader of the twenty-first century would painfully recognize and modern Russia, where the Skvoznik-Dmukhanovskys, the Lyapkins-Tyapkins, the strawberries rule the roost?..
The history of the creation of Gogol's work "The Inspector General"
In 1835, Gogol began work on his main work - “ Dead souls" However, the work was interrupted. Gogol wrote to Pushkin: “Do me a favor, give me some kind of story, at least some kind, funny or unfunny, but a purely Russian joke. My hand is trembling to write a comedy in the meantime. Do me a favor, give me a plot, the spirit will be a five-act comedy, and I swear it will be funnier than the devil. For God's sake. My mind and stomach are both starving.” In response to Gogol's request, Pushkin told him a story about an imaginary auditor, about a funny mistake that entailed the most unexpected consequences. The story was typical for its time. It is known that in Bessarabia they mistook the publisher of the magazine for an auditor. Domestic notes» Pork. In the provinces, too, a certain gentleman, posing as an auditor, robbed the entire city. There were others similar stories, which Gogol’s contemporaries talk about. The fact that Pushkin's anecdote turned out to be so characteristic of Russian life made it especially attractive to Gogol. Later he wrote: “For God’s sake, give us Russian characters, give us ourselves, our rogues, our eccentrics on their stage, for everyone’s laughter!”
So, based on the story told by Pushkin, Gogol created his comedy “The Inspector General”. Wrote it in just two months. This is confirmed by the memoirs of the writer V.A. Solloguba: “Pushkin met Gogol and told him about an incident that happened in the city of Ustyuzhna, Novgorod province - about some passing gentleman who posed as a ministry official and robbed all the city residents.” It is also known that while working on the play, Gogol repeatedly informed A.S. Pushkin about the progress of its writing, sometimes wanting to abandon it, but Pushkin persistently asked him not to stop working on “The Inspector General”.
In January 1836, Gogol read a comedy at an evening with V.A. Zhukovsky in the presence of A.S. Pushkina, P.A. Vyazemsky and others. On April 19, 1836, the comedy was staged at the Alexandria Theater in St. Petersburg. The next morning Gogol woke up famous playwright. However, not many viewers were delighted. The majority did not understand the comedy and reacted to it with hostility.
“Everyone is against me...” Gogol complained in a letter to the famous actor Shchepkin. “The police are against me, the merchants are against me, the writers are against me.” And a few days later, in a letter to the historian M.P. After a while, he bitterly notes: “And what would be accepted by enlightened people with loud laughter and sympathy, is what the bile of ignorance outrages; and this is general ignorance..."
After the production of The Inspector General on stage, Gogol is full of gloomy thoughts. Bad game actors and general misunderstanding push the writer to the idea of going abroad, to Italy. Reporting this to Pogodin, he writes with pain: “A modern writer, a comic writer, a writer of morals should be far away from his homeland. The prophet has no glory in his homeland.”
Genre, genre, creative method
Comedy is one of the most basic dramatic genres. The genre of “The Inspector General” was conceived by Gogol as a genre “ social comedy", touching upon the most fundamental issues of the people, public life. From this point of view, Pushkin's anecdote was very suitable for Gogol. After all, the characters in the story about the imaginary auditor are not private people, but officials, representatives of the authorities. Events associated with them inevitably involve many people: both those in power and those under power. The anecdote told by Pushkin easily lent itself to this artistic development, in which he became the basis of a truly social comedy. The Inspector General contains humor and satire, which makes it a satirical comedy.
“The Inspector” N.V. Gogol is considered an exemplary comedy. It is remarkable for the unusually consistent development of the comic position of the main character - the mayor, and the comic position grows more and more with each picture. At the moment of the mayor’s triumph, when he sees his daughter’s upcoming wedding, and himself in St. Petersburg, Khlestakov’s letter is a moment of the strongest comedy in the situation. The laughter that Gogol laughs in his comedy reaches extraordinary power and acquires important meaning.
IN early XIX century in Russian literature, along with romanticism, realism began to develop - a direction in literature and art that strives to depict reality. Penetration critical realism in literature is primarily associated with the name of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, in theater arts- with the production of “The Inspector General”. One of the newspapers of that time wrote about the dramaturgy of N.V. Gogol: “His original view of things, his ability to capture character traits, to put the stamp of typism on them, his inexhaustible humor, all this gives us the right to hope that our theater will soon be resurrected, that we will have our own national theater, who will treat us not with forced antics in someone else’s manner, not with borrowed wit, not with ugly alterations, but with artistic representations of “our social” life... that we will not clap wax figures with painted faces, but living creatures, which, once seen, can never be forgotten.”
Thus, Gogol’s comedy, with its extraordinary fidelity to the truth of life, angry condemnation of the vices of society, and the naturalness in the unfolding of events, had a decisive influence on the establishment of the traditions of critical realism in Russian theatrical art.
Subject of the work
An analysis of the work shows that the comedy “The Inspector General” raises both social and moral themes. TO social topics refers to the life of the county town and its inhabitants. Gogol collected in provincial town all social shortcomings were shown by the social structure from a minor official to a mayor. City 14, from which “even if you ride for three years, you won’t reach any state,” “there’s a tavern on the streets, uncleanliness,” near the old fence, “that near the shoemaker... all sorts of rubbish is piled on forty carts,” makes a depressing impression . The theme of the city includes the theme of everyday life and the life of the people. Gogol was able to fully and, most importantly, truthfully portray not only officials and landowners, but also ordinary people... Disorder, drunkenness, and injustice reign in the city. Geese in the court waiting room, unfortunate patients without clean clothes once again prove that officials are inactive and are busy with other things. And all officials are satisfied with this state of affairs. The image of the district town in The Inspector General is a kind of encyclopedia of provincial life in Russia.
The social theme is continued by the image of St. Petersburg. Although the events take place in a provincial town, St. Petersburg is invisibly present in the action, symbolizing respect for rank and the desire for material well-being. It is to St. Petersburg that the mayor strives. Khlestakov arrived from St. Petersburg, his stories are full of vain boasting about the delights of metropolitan life.
Moral themes are closely related to social ones. Many actions characters comedies are immoral because their environment is immoral. Gogol wrote in “The Author's Confession”: “In “The Inspector General” I decided to collect in one pile everything bad in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices that are done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required from a person, and laugh at everything at once.” This comedy is aimed at “correcting vices”, at awakening conscience in a person. It is no coincidence that Nicholas I, after the premiere of The Inspector General, exclaimed: “Well, a play! Everyone got it, and I got it the most!”
The idea of the comedy "The Inspector General"
The epigraph preceding the comedy: “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked” contains the main idea of the play. The environment, order, foundations are ridiculed. This is not “a mockery of Russia,” but “a picture and a mirror of social... life.” In the article “The St. Petersburg Scene in 1835-36,” Gogol wrote: “In The Inspector General, I decided to collect in one pile all the bad things in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices... and laugh at everything at once. But this, as we know, had a stunning effect.”
Gogol’s idea is not only to laugh at what is happening, but to point out future retribution. The silent scene that ends the action is clear evidence of this. Retribution awaits officials of the county town.
The exposure of negative heroes is given in comedy not through a positive hero (there is none in the play), but through action, deeds, and dialogues. Negative heroes Gogol themselves expose themselves in the eyes of the viewer. They are exposed not through morality and teachings, but through ridicule. “Vice is struck here only by laughter,” wrote N.V. Gogol.
Nature of the conflict
Usually the conflict of a dramatic work was interpreted as a clash of positive and negative principles. The innovation of Gogol's dramaturgy lies in the fact that in his play there is no goodies. The main action of the play revolves around one event - in county town N an auditor is traveling from St. Petersburg, and he is traveling incognito. This news excites officials: “How is the auditor? There was no concern, so give it up!”, and they begin to fuss, hiding their “sins” for the arrival of the inspector. The mayor is especially trying - he is in a hurry to cover up especially large “holes and gaps” in his activities. A petty official from St. Petersburg, Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov, is mistaken for an auditor. Khlestakov is flighty, frivolous, “somewhat stupid and, as they say, without a king in his head,” and the very possibility of taking him for an auditor is absurd. This is precisely where the originality of the intrigue of the comedy “The Inspector General” lies.
Belinsky identified two conflicts in the comedy: external - between the bureaucrats and the imaginary auditor, and internal - between the autocratic bureaucratic apparatus and the general population. The resolution of situations in the play is related to the nature of these conflicts. External conflict is overgrown with many of the most absurd, and therefore funny, collisions. Gogol does not spare his heroes, exposing their vices. The more merciless the author is to comic characters, the more dramatic the subtext sounds internal conflict. This is soul stirring Gogol's laughter through tears.
The main characters of the work
The main characters of the comedy are city officials. The author's attitude towards them is implied in the description appearance, behavior, actions, in everything, even in “ speaking surnames" Surnames express the essence of the characters. It will help to make sure of this " Dictionary living Great Russian language" V.I. Dalia.
Khlestakov - central character comedies. He represents a typical character, embodies a whole phenomenon, which later received the name “Khlestakovism.”
Khlestakov is a “metropolitan thing”, a representative of those noble youth who flooded the St. Petersburg offices and departments, completely neglecting their duties, seeing in the service only an opportunity for a quick career. Even the hero’s father realized that his son would not be able to achieve anything, so he summons him to his place. But Khlestakov, accustomed to idleness and unwilling to work, declares: “...I cannot live without St. Petersburg. Why, really, should I ruin my life with men? Now the needs are not the same, my soul thirsts for enlightenment.”
The main reason for Khlestakov’s lies is the desire to present himself on the other side, to become different, because the hero is deeply convinced of his own uninterestingness and insignificance. This gives Khlestakov’s boasting a painful character of self-affirmation. He extols himself because he is secretly full of contempt for himself. Semantically, the surname is multi-layered; it combines at least four meanings. The word “whip” has a lot of meanings and shades. But the following are directly related to Khlestakov: lying, idle talk; scolding - a rake, a shuffler and a red tape, insolent, impudent; khlestun (whip) - Nizhny Novgorod - idle connecting rod, parasite. The surname contains all of Khlestakov as a character: an idle rake, an impudent red tape, who is only capable of strong, smart lies and idle talk, but not working at all. This is truly an “empty” person for whom lies are “almost a kind of inspiration,” as Gogol wrote in “Excerpt from a Letter...”.
The head of the city is the mayor Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky. In “Notes for Gentlemen Actors,” Gogol wrote: “Although he is a bribe-taker, he behaves respectably... somewhat reasoned; speaks neither loudly nor quietly, neither more nor less. Every word is significant." He began his career young, from the very bottom, and in his old age he rose to the rank of chief of the district town. From a letter from a friend of the mayor, we learn that Anton Antonovich does not consider bribery a crime, but thinks that everyone takes bribes, only “the higher the rank, the greater the bribe.” The audit is not scary for him. In his lifetime he has seen a lot of them. The mayor proudly announces: “I have been living in the service for thirty years! He deceived three governors!” But he is alarmed that the auditor is traveling “incognito.” When the mayor finds out that the “auditor” has already been living in the city for the second week, he clutches his head, since during these two weeks the non-commissioned officer’s wife was flogged, there is dirt on the streets, the church for the construction of which money was allocated did not begin to be built.
“Skvoznik” (from “through”) is a cunning, keen-minded, insightful person, a passer-by, a rascal, an experienced rogue and climber. “Dmukhanovsky” (from “dmit” - Little Russian, i.e. Ukrainian) - to dmukhat, dmitsya - to puff up, to pomp, to become arrogant. It turns out: Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky is a swaggering, pompous, cunning scoundrel, an experienced rogue. The comedy arises when the “cunning, keen-minded” rogue made such a mistake in Khlestakov.
Luka Lukich Khlopov is a superintendent of schools. He is very cowardly by nature. He says to himself: “If someone of a higher rank speaks to me, I simply don’t have a soul, and my tongue has withered like dirt.” One of the school teachers accompanied his teaching with constant grimaces. And the history teacher broke chairs from excess feelings.
Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin - judge. Considers himself very smart person, since I’ve read five or six books in my entire life. He is an avid hunter. In his office, above the filing cabinet, hangs a hunting rifle. “I tell you frankly that I take bribes, but what are bribes for? Greyhound puppies. This is a completely different matter,” the judge said. The criminal cases that he considered were in such a state that he himself could not figure out where the truth was and where the lies were.
Artemy Filippovich Zemlyanika is a trustee of charitable institutions. Hospitals are dirty and messy. The cooks have dirty caps, and the sick are dressed as if they worked in a forge. In addition, patients smoke constantly. Artemy Filippovich does not bother himself with determining the diagnosis of the patient’s disease and his treatment. He says about this: “A simple man: if he dies, he will die anyway; If he recovers, then he will recover.”
Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin is a postmaster, “a simple-minded person to the point of naivety.” He has one weakness: he likes to read other people's letters. He does this not so much out of precaution, but more out of curiosity (“I love to know what’s new in the world”). He collects the ones he especially liked. The surname Shpekin may have come from the southern Russian word - “shpen” - an obstinate person, cross to everyone, a hindrance, an evil mocker. So, with all his “simplicity to the point of naivety,” he brings people a lot of evil.
Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky are paired characters, big gossips. According to Gogol, they suffer from “extraordinary itching of the tongue.” The surname Bobchinsky may have come from the Pskov word “bobych” - a stupid, clueless person. The surname Dobchinsky does not have such an independent semantic root; it was formed by analogy (sameness) with the surname Bobchinsky.
The plot and composition of "The Inspector General"
A young rake, Khlestakov, arrives in town N and realizes that city officials accidentally mistake him for a high-ranking auditor. Against the backdrop of a myriad of violations and crimes, the perpetrators of which are those same city officials led by the mayor, Khlestakov manages to play a successful game. Officials happily continue to break the law and give the false auditor large amounts money as bribes. At the same time, both Khlestakov and other characters understand perfectly well that they are breaking the law. At the end of the play, Khlestakov manages to escape by “borrowing” money and promising to marry the mayor’s daughter. The latter’s rejoicing is hampered by Khlestakov’s letter, read by the postmaster (illegally). The letter reveals the whole truth. The news of the arrival of a real auditor makes all the characters in the play freeze in amazement. The finale of the play is a silent scene. So, “The Inspector General” comically presents a picture of criminal reality and depraved morals. Story line leads the heroes to pay for all their sins. The silent scene is an expectation of inevitable punishment.
The comedy “The Inspector General” compositionally consists of five acts, each of which can be titled with quotes from the text: Act I - “Unpleasant news: an auditor is coming to see us”; Act II - “Oh, subtle thing!.. What a fog you let in!”; Act III- “After all, that’s what you live for, to pick flowers of pleasure”; Act IV - “I’ve never seen anything like this before” good reception"; Act V - “Some pig snouts instead of faces.” The comedy is preceded by “Notes for Gentlemen Actors,” written by the author.
“The Inspector General” is distinguished by its original composition. For example, contrary to all regulations and norms, the action in a comedy begins with distracting events, with a plot. Gogol, without wasting time, without being distracted by particulars, introduces to the essence of things, to the essence dramatic conflict. In the famous first phrase of the comedy, the plot is given and its impulse is fear. “I invited you, gentlemen, in order to tell you some very unpleasant news: an auditor is coming to us,” the mayor informs the officials gathered at his place. The intrigue starts with your first phrase. From this second, fear becomes a full-fledged participant in the play, which, growing from action to action, will find its maximum expression in the silent scene. In the apt expression of Yu. Mann, “The Inspector General” is a whole sea of fear.” The plot-forming role of fear in comedy is obvious: it was he who allowed the deception to take place, it was he who “blinded” everyone’s eyes and confused everyone, it was he who endowed Khlestakov with qualities that he did not possess, and made him the center of the situation.
Artistic originality
Before Gogol, in the tradition of Russian literature in those works that could be called the forerunner of Russian satire of the 19th century. (for example, “The Minor” by Fonvizin), it was typical to depict both negative and positive heroes. In the comedy “The Inspector General” there are actually no positive characters. They are not even outside the scene and outside the plot.
The relief depiction of the image of city officials and, above all, the mayor complements the satirical meaning of the comedy. Tradition of bribery and deception official completely natural and inevitable. Both the lower classes and the top of the city’s bureaucratic class cannot imagine any other outcome than to bribe the auditor with a bribe. A nameless district town becomes a generalization of all of Russia, which, under the threat of revision, reveals the true side of the character of the main characters.
Critics also noted the peculiarities of Khlestakov’s image. An upstart and a dummy, the young man easily deceives the experienced mayor.
Gogol's skill was manifested not only in the fact that the writer was able to accurately convey the spirit of the times, the characters' personalities corresponding to this time. Gogol surprisingly subtly noticed and reproduced the linguistic culture of his heroes. Each character has his own way of speaking, his own intonation, and vocabulary. Khlestakov’s speech is incoherent, in conversation he jumps from one moment to another: “Yes, they already know me everywhere... I know pretty actresses. I’m also a variety of vaudeville performers... I often see writers.” The speech of the trustee of charitable institutions is very resourceful and flattering. Lyapkin-Tyapkin, the “philosopher” as Gogol calls him, speaks incomprehensibly and tries to use as much as possible more words from the books he has read, often doing it inappropriately. Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky always speak vying with each other. Their vocabulary is very limited; they make abundant use of introductory words: “yes, sir,” “if you please see.”
Meaning of the work
Gogol was disappointed by public opinion and the unsuccessful St. Petersburg production of the comedy and refused to take part in the preparation of the Moscow premiere. At the Maly Theater, the leading actors of the troupe were invited to stage “The Inspector General”: Shchepkin (mayor), Lensky (Khlestakov), Orlov (Osip), Potanchikov (postmaster). The first performance of The Inspector General in Moscow took place on May 25, 1836 on the stage of the Maly Theater. Despite the absence of the author and the complete indifference of the theater management to the premiere production, the performance was a huge success.
The comedy “The Inspector General” did not leave the stages of Russian theaters both during the USSR and in modern history. It is one of the most popular productions and enjoys success with the audience.
Comedy had a significant influence on Russian literature in general and drama in particular. Gogol's contemporaries noted her innovative style, depth of generalization and prominence of images. Right after the first readings and publications, Gogol’s work was admired by Pushkin, Belinsky, Annenkov, Herzen, and Shchepkin.
The famous Russian critic Vladimir Vasilyevich Stasov wrote: “Some of us then also saw The Inspector General on stage. Everyone was delighted, like all the young people of that time. We repeated by heart... entire scenes, long conversations from there. At home or at a party, we often had to enter into heated debates with various elderly (and sometimes, to shame, not even elderly) people who were indignant at the new idol of youth and assured that Gogol had no nature, that these were all his own inventions and caricatures that there are no such people in the world at all, and if there are, then there are much fewer of them in the whole city than here in one comedy. The fights were hot, long-lasting, to the point of sweat on the face and palms, to sparkling eyes and dull beginnings of hatred or contempt, but the old men could not change a single feature in us, and our fanatical adoration of Gogol only grew more and more.”
The first classical critical analysis of “The Inspector General” belongs to the pen of Belinsky and was published in 1840. The critic noted the continuity of Gogol’s satire, which takes its toll creativity in the works of Fonvizin and Moliere. Mayor Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky and Khlestakov are not carriers of abstract vices, but a living embodiment moral decay Russian society generally.
Phrases from the comedy became catchphrases, and the names of the characters became common nouns in the Russian language.
Point of view
Comedy N.V. Gogol's "The Inspector General" was received ambiguously. The writer made some explanations in a short play “Theater Travel,” which was first published in the Collected Works of Gogol in 1842 at the end of the fourth volume. The first sketches were made in April-May 1836, inspired by the first performance of The Inspector General. When finalizing the play, Gogol especially tried to give it a fundamental, generalized meaning, so that it would not look like just a commentary on The Inspector General.
“I’m sorry that no one noticed the honest face that was in my play. Yes, there was one honest thing, noble face, acting in her throughout her entire continuation. This honest, noble face was laughter. He was noble because he decided to speak out, despite the low importance given to him in the world. He was noble because he decided to speak, despite the fact that he gave the comedian an offensive nickname - the nickname of a cold egoist, and even made him doubt the presence of the tender movements of his soul. No one stood up for this laughter. I am a comedian, I served him honestly, and therefore I must become his intercessor. No, laughter is more significant and deeper than people think. Not the kind of laughter that is generated by temporary irritability, a bilious, painful disposition of character; not the same one either light laughter, which all flows out of the bright nature of man, flows out of it because at the bottom of it lies an eternally flowing spring of it, but which deepens the subject, makes to appear brightly what would have slipped through, without the penetrating power of which the trifles and emptiness of life would not be so frightening person. The despicable and insignificant thing that he indifferently passes by every day would not have grown before him in such a terrible, almost caricatured force, and he would not have cried out, shuddering: “Are there really such people?” whereas, according to his own consciousness, there are worse people. No, those who say that laughter is outrageous are unfair! The only thing that outrages you is that it is dark, but laughter is bright. Many things would outrage a person if they were presented in their nakedness; but, illuminated by the power of laughter, it already brings reconciliation to the soul. And the one who would take vengeance against an evil person almost makes peace with him, seeing the base movements of his soul ridiculed.”
This is interesting
We are talking about the history of the creation of one play. Its plot is briefly as follows. The case takes place in Russia, in the twenties of the last century, in a small county town. The play begins with the mayor receiving a letter. He is warned that an inspector will soon arrive in the district under his jurisdiction, incognito, with a secret order. The mayor informs his officials about this. Everyone is terrified. Meanwhile, a young man from the capital arrives in this provincial town. A most empty little man, I must say! Of course, the officials, scared to death by the letter, take him for an auditor. He willingly plays the role imposed on him. With an important air, he interviews officials, takes money from the mayor, as if on loan...
Various researchers and memoirists in different time noted at least a dozen “life anecdotes” about the imaginary auditor, the characters of which were real faces: P.P. Svinin traveling through Bessarabia, Ustyug mayor I.A. Maksheev and St. Petersburg writer P.G. Volkov, Pushkin himself, who stayed in Nizhny Novgorod, and so on - Gogol may have known all these everyday jokes. In addition, Gogol could have known at least two literary adaptations of a similar plot: a comedy by G.F. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko “A Visitor from the Capital, or Turmoil in a District Town” (1827) and the story by A.F. Veltman "Provincial Actors" (1834). This “stray plot” did not represent any special news or sensation. And although Gogol himself assured that the comedy by G.F. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko had not read A Visitor from the Capital, or Turmoil in a District Town, but Kvitka had no doubt that Gogol was familiar with his comedy. He was mortally offended by Gogol. One of their contemporary spoke about it like this:
“Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, having learned through rumors about the contents of The Inspector General, became indignant and began to eagerly await its appearance in print, and when the first copy of Gogol’s comedy was received in Kharkov, he called his friends to his house, read his comedy first, and then “The Inspector General”. The guests gasped and said with one voice that Gogol’s comedy was entirely taken from his plot - both in plan, and in characters, and in private settings.”
Just shortly before Gogol began writing his “The Inspector General,” the magazine “Library for Reading” published a story by the then very famous writer Veltman entitled “Provincial Actors.” The following happened in this story. An actor goes to a small provincial town for a performance. He is wearing a theater uniform with orders and all sorts of ailets. Suddenly the horses bolted, the driver was killed, and the actor lost consciousness. At this time, the mayor had guests... Well, the mayor, therefore, was reported: so, they say, and so, the horses brought the governor-general, he was in a general’s uniform. The actor - broken, unconscious - is carried into the mayor's house. He is delirious and in his delirium he talks about government affairs. Repeats excerpts from his various roles. He's used to playing various important people. Well, now everyone is finally convinced that he is a general. For Veltman, it all starts with the fact that the city is waiting for the arrival of an auditor...
Who was the first writer to tell the story about the auditor? In this situation, it is impossible to determine the truth, since the plot underlying “The Inspector General” and other named works belongs to the category of so-called “ wandering stories" Time has put everything in its place: Kvitka’s play and Veltman’s story are firmly forgotten. Only specialists in the history of literature remember them. And Gogol’s comedy is still alive today.
(Based on the book by Stanislav Rassadin, Benedikt Sarnov “In the Country literary heroes»)
Vishnevskaya IL. Gogol and his comedies. M.: Nauka, 1976.
Zolotussky I.P. Prose poetry: articles about Gogol / I.P. Zolotussky. - M.: Soviet writer, 1987.
Lotman Yu.M. About Russian literature: Articles and studies. St. Petersburg, 1997.
Mann. Yu.V. Poetics of Gogol / Yu.V. Mann. - M.: Fiction, 1988.
Yu.V. Mann. Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General". M.: Fiction, 1966.
Stanislav Rassadin, Benedikt Sarnov. In the land of literary heroes. - M.: Art, 1979.
According to V.Ya. Bryusov, in his work N.V. Gogol strove for the “eternal and infinite.” The artistic thought of N.V. Gogol always strived for broad generalization; his goal in many works was to draw the most full picture Russian life. Speaking about the idea of “The Inspector General,” Gogol noted that in this work he decided to “...gather in one pile everything bad in Russia that he knew then... and laugh at everything at once...”. This is how the city of “The Inspector General” arose, which the author called “the combined city of the entire dark side.”
The comedy presents all sides of Russian reality. N.V. Gogol depicts the most diverse layers of the urban population. The main representative of the bureaucracy is the mayor, Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky. Urban landowners are represented by Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, the merchants - by Abdulin, and the philistines - by Poshlepkina. The choice of characters is determined by the desire to cover as broadly as possible all aspects of social life and management of society. Each sphere of life is represented by one person, and the author is primarily interested not in the social function of the character, but in the scale of his spiritual or moral values.
Zemlyanika runs charitable institutions in the city. His people die “like flies,” but this does not bother him at all, because “he is a simple man: if he dies, he will die anyway; if he recovers, then he will recover.” The court is headed by Lyapkin-Tyapkin, a man who “read five or six books.” Drunkenness and rudeness flourish in the police. People are starved in prisons. The Derzhimord policeman, without any embarrassment, enters merchants’ shops as if they were his own storeroom. Out of curiosity, postmaster Shpekin opens other people's letters... All officials in the city have one thing in common: each of them views their public position as an excellent means of living without worries, without expending any effort. The concept of public good does not exist in the city; riots are happening everywhere and injustice is rampant. Surprisingly, no one even tries to hide their criminal attitude towards their duties, their own idleness and idleness. Bribery is generally considered a normal thing; even, most likely, all officials would consider it abnormal if a person suddenly appeared who considered taking bribes a very shameful activity. It is no coincidence that all officials are confident in their hearts that they will not offend the auditor when they go to him with offerings. “Yes, and it’s strange to say. There is no person who does not have some sins behind him,” says the Governor knowingly.
The city in the play is depicted through an abundance of everyday details in the stage directions, but, above all, of course, through the eyes of the city owners themselves. And therefore we know about real streets where there is “tavern, uncleanliness,” and about geese that were bred in the courthouse waiting room. Officials are not trying to change anything even before the arrival of the auditor: it is enough to just decorate the city and its public places, put a straw pole near the garbage dump so that it looks like a “layout,” and put clean caps on the unfortunate patients.
In his play N.V. Gogol creates a truly innovative situation: a torn internal contradictions, the city becomes a single organism thanks to a common crisis. The only sad thing is that the common misfortune is the arrival of the auditor. The city is united by a feeling of fear; it is fear that makes city officials almost brothers.
Some researchers of N.V. Gogol’s work believe that the city in “The Inspector General” is an allegorical image of St. Petersburg and that Gogol, only for censorship reasons, could not say that the action takes place in northern capital. In my opinion, this is not entirely true. Rather, we can say that the city in the play is any Russian city, so to speak, collective image Russian cities. Gogol writes that from this city to the capital, “you can gallop for at least three years” - you won’t get there. But this does not make us begin to perceive the city in the play as a separate island of vice. No, N.V. Gogol does everything to ensure that the reader understands that there is no place anywhere where life would proceed according to different laws. And the proof of this is the “auditor” who came from St. Petersburg. Of course, it could also happen that the auditor would not take bribes. But there is no doubt that if this happened to any of the characters in the play, he would regard this incident as his personal bad luck, and not at all as a victory for the law. All the officials in the play know, they are simply confident: their norms and customs will be close and understandable to others, like the language they speak. In “Theatrical Travel” N.V. Gogol himself wrote that if he had depicted the city differently, readers would have thought that there was another, bright world, and this one was only an exception. No, that's not true, unfortunately. The city in “The Inspector General” amazes with its monstrosity. We see a picture of people’s disunity, their distance from the true meaning of life, their blindness, ignorance of the true path. People have lost the natural ability to think, see, hear. Their behavior is predetermined by one only passion to acquire: position in society, ranks in the service, wealth. Man gradually loses his human appearance. And such a fate awaits everyone who... far from morality and spiritual values. It becomes sad when you think that all the officials in the play are the same, that there is not a single bright image there. And yet there is a positive hero in the comedy. This hero is laughter, “that laughter that flows entirely from the bright nature of a person... without the penetrating power of which the trifles and emptiness of life would not frighten a person so much.”
About “The Inspector General’s Denouement”...
- Why did it become necessary to write “The Inspector General’s Denouement”, which explains the idea of the play? Why couldn't people understand the hidden spiritual meaning comedy?
Gogol's works have a multifaceted and complex artistic structure. At the same time, they are so bright and original that they are not fully revealed from the first reading, even for thinking people. At the same time, it cannot be said that the innermost, spiritual meaning of “The Inspector General” was not understood by his contemporaries. For example, Emperor Nicholas Pavlovich understood him very accurately. It is known that he not only attended the premiere himself, but also ordered the ministers to watch “The Inspector General.” During the performance he clapped and laughed a lot, and when leaving the box he said: “Well, a play! Everyone got it, and I got it more than everyone else!” Isn’t it a very correct, Gogolian reaction? Unlike the other spectators sitting in the hall.
- Or maybe the emperor had something else in mind? Maybe he felt responsible for the officials?
Probably this happened too. But the main thing is to apply to yourself what is happening on stage. As Gogol said, “application to oneself is an indispensable thing that every viewer must do from everything, even not from The Inspector General, but which it is more fitting for him to do about The Inspector General.”
And then, Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich, without a doubt, recognized himself in Khlestakov’s fantasies. Let us remember the episode when Khlestakov completely lies and says that every day he Winter Palace It also happens that the State Council itself is afraid of him. Who can be afraid of the State Council - the highest legislative body Russian Empire, whose members were appointed personally by the king? “I’m at balls every day,” Khlestakov boasts. “There we had our own whist: the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the French envoy, the English, the German envoy and me.” I wonder who the Foreign Minister and the envoys of European states might be playing whist with? To the timid Luka Lukich Khlopov, superintendent of schools, the unforgettable Ivan Aleksandrovich declares: “And in my eyes there is definitely something that inspires timidity. At least I know that no woman can stand them, right?” It is known that Sovereign Nikolai Pavlovich had such a piercing and penetrating gaze that no one could lie to him. That is, Khlestakov is already trying on the Monomakh cap, and the Emperor could not help but feel this. That’s for sure, everyone got it, and he got it more than everyone else.
However, in general, the public regarded the comedy as a farce, since they were not ready for this kind of performance. The audience was brought up on vaudeville and foreign plays, the repertoire of that time.
Image of Khlestakov
Most bright image comedy is Khlestakov, the one who was the culprit of extraordinary events. Gogol immediately makes it clear to the viewer that Khlestakov is not an auditor (preceding Khlestakov’s appearance with Osip’s story about him). However, the whole meaning of this character and his attitude to his audit “duties” do not immediately become clear.
Khlestakov does not experience any orientation process upon arrival in the city - for this he lacks elementary observation. He does not make any plans to deceive officials - he does not have sufficient cunning for this. He does not consciously take advantage of the benefits of his position, because he does not even think about what it consists of. Only just before leaving Khlestakov vaguely realizes that he was taken “for statesman", for someone else; but for whom exactly, he still did not understand. Everything that happens to him in the play happens as if against his will.
Gogol wrote: “Khlestakov, in himself, is an insignificant person. Even empty people call him the most empty. Never in his life would he have done something that could attract anyone’s attention. But the power of universal fear created a wonderful comic face out of him. Fear, having clouded the eyes of everyone, he gave him a field for a comic role."
Khlestakov was made a nobleman by the fantastic, perverted relationships in which people are placed with each other. But, of course, this also required some of Khlestakov’s own qualities. When a person is scared (and in this case, not just one person, but the whole city is scared), then the most effective thing is to give people the opportunity to continue to intimidate themselves, without interfering with the catastrophic increase in “general fear.” The insignificant and narrow-minded Khlestakov does this with success. He unconsciously and therefore most faithfully plays the role that the situation requires of him.
Subjectively, Khlestakov was perfectly prepared for this “role.” In the St. Petersburg offices, he accumulated the necessary stock of ideas about how a manager should behave. “Having been cut off and cut off until now in everything, even in the habit of walking with a trump card along Nevsky Prospect,” Khlestakov could not help but secretly try on the experience he had gained, and not dream of personally doing everything that was being done to him every day. He did this disinterestedly and unconsciously, childishly mixing reality and dream, reality and desire.
The situation in which Khlestakov found himself in the city suddenly gave scope for his “role.” No, he was not going to deceive anyone, he only graciously accepted those honors and offerings that - he is convinced of this - were rightfully due to him. “Khlestakov does not cheat at all; he is not a liar by trade; he himself forgets that he is lying, and he himself almost believes what he says,” wrote Gogol.
The mayor did not foresee such a case. His tactics were designed for a real auditor. He would, without a doubt, have figured out the imaginary auditor, a swindler: the situation where cunning collides with cunning was familiar to him. But Khlestakov’s sincerity deceived him. An auditor who was not an auditor did not intend to impersonate him and nevertheless successfully played his role - the officials did not expect this...
And why, in fact, shouldn’t Khlestakov be an “auditor”, a boss? After all, an even more incredible event could have happened in “The Nose” - the escape of Major Kovalev’s nose and his transformation into a state councilor. This is an “inconsistency,” but, as the writer laughingly assures, “in all this, really, there is something. Whatever you say, such incidents do happen in the world; rarely, but they do happen.”
In a world where “our fate plays with us” is so strange and incomprehensible, it is possible that something happens not according to the rules. The aimlessness and chaos itself becomes “correct”. “There are no definite views, no definite goals - and the eternal type of Khlestakov, repeated from the volost clerk to the tsar,” said Herzen.
