Gogol). Analysis of the play “The Inspector General” (N.V.

N.V. Gogol about the idea of ​​the comedy “The Inspector General”

“In The Inspector General, I decided to collect in one pile everything bad in Russia that I knew then, all the injustices that are being done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required from a person, and at one time laugh at everything.” .

Image of the city

The writer chose a small provincial town as the setting for the action, from which “even if you ride for three years, you won’t reach the border”; He made provincial officials the heroes of the comedy. The image of the city acts as an integral system. The city is represented by mayors, officials, city landowners, merchants, and the lower classes of the city. The small town in The Government Inspector appeared as a kind of microcosm, depicting which Gogol captured the typical features of the entire social system. No one doubts that this is a typical city. The author reflected almost all aspects of the life of the Russian city, showed all classes and estates, with the exception of peasants who do not play a role in public life, all state institutions, with the exception of the army and the church.

Gogol does not limit his satire to the district town. The image of Khlestakov is associated with the theme of St. Petersburg, where the hierarchical ladder reaches the very top. The images of officials occupy a central place in the image of the city.

Bureaucracy

Assessing the image of the mayor, Belinsky wrote: “... he inherited from his father and from the world around him the following rule of faith and life: in life you need to be happy, and for this you need money and ranks, and to acquire them, bribery, embezzlement, sycophancy and obsequiousness before the authorities, nobility and wealth, breaking and bestial rudeness before the lower ones. Simple philosophy! But note that in him this is not debauchery, but his moral development... and he justifies himself with the simple rule of all vulgar people: “I’m not the first, I’m not the last, everyone does this.”

If Khlestakov is “a phantasmagoric face, a face that, like a lying, personified deception, was carried away along with the troika God knows where,” then the mayor, far from being as simple-hearted and stupid a deceiver as Khlestakov, turns out to be deceived not only and not so much by Khlestakov, but oneself, what psychologists call a person’s value or behavioral attitude, and one’s “bad conscience.”

“No one before him had ever written such a complete course on the pathological anatomy of a Russian official. Laughing, he mercilessly penetrates into the innermost corners of this unclean, malicious soul.”

Means of satirical typification

The “auditor's situation” is a situation of fear, followed by self-exposure and mutual exposure of the characters.

Speech characteristics of the characters: popular expressions (“extraordinary lightness of thought”, etc.); alogisms (“patients recover like flies”); hyperbole (“watermelon for seven hundred rubles”, “soup in a saucepan from Paris”, etc.).

The telling names (Ukhovertov, Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, Khlestakov, etc.) and paired characters (Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky) are not accidental.

Comical situations in the play enhance the satirical effect (the mayor puts on a case instead of a hat, etc.).

The love affair is of a parody-comic nature (Khlestakov simultaneously turned the heads of the mayor’s wife and his daughter).

The author's position is expressed in “Notes for Gentlemen Actors”, in the author's stage directions, in a silent scene, the meaning of which is the trial of officials. The author does not say this explicitly in the text, but he undoubtedly believes in fair retribution.

The comedy “The Inspector General,” written in accordance with the method of critical realism, depicts the era of the 30s of the 19th century. The author brings out typical characters in typical circumstances.

Genre originality of “The Inspector General”

“The Inspector General” is a socio-political comedy.

Conflict in "The Inspector General"

The main conflict on which the comedy is built is the acute contradiction between the entire social practice of the privileged bureaucracy and the interests of the people. Lawlessness, embezzlement, bribery, selfish motives of activity instead of concern for the public good are generally accepted “norms” of life, outside of which managers cannot imagine their existence.

The external side of the conflict: Khlestakov, mistakenly taken for an auditor, on the one hand, and city officials, on the other. There are no deep contradictions between the characters, and their relationships are based on misunderstandings.

The theme is the depiction in the comedy of the entire bureaucratic Russia with all its vices, ridicule of the harmful vices of man, injustice, arbitrariness, fraud, pretense, hypocrisy and self-interest...

Of course, it's not just government officials who act in comedy. In the comedy we meet all the many faces of Russia: the landed nobility, the merchants, the bourgeoisie, and the peasantry. But the author pays special attention to the characteristics of city officials, since the upcoming arrival of the auditor disturbs their peace of mind.

The idea of ​​the comedy “The Inspector General” in the epigraph preceding the comedy: “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked” - the main idea of ​​the play is laid down. Gogol’s idea is not only to laugh at what is happening, but to point out future retribution

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.” 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. Gogol's negative heroes 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.

Issues

The breadth of artistic generalization allows us to see in the comedy a satire on the entire state bureaucratic system of Tsarist Russia.

In The Inspector General, Gogol made his contemporaries laugh at what they were accustomed to and what they no longer noticed. But most importantly, they are accustomed to carelessness in spiritual life. The audience laughs at the heroes who die spiritually. Let us turn to examples from the play that show such death.

The mayor sincerely believes that “there is no person who does not have some sins behind him. This is already arranged by God himself, and the Voltairians are in vain speaking against this.” To which Judge Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin objects: “What do you think, Anton Antonovich, are sins? Sins and sins are different. I tell everyone openly that I take bribes, but with what bribes? Greyhound puppies. This is a completely different matter.”

The judge is sure that bribes with greyhound puppies cannot be considered bribes, “but, for example, if someone’s fur coat costs five hundred rubles, and his wife’s shawl...”

Devotion to the ideals of friendship and “sacred liberty” in the lyrical works of A.S. Pushkin (“In the depths of Siberian ores...”).

An example of Pushkin’s friendly devotion is the message “In the depths of the Siberian ores...” It is addressed to the exiled Decembrists. The uprising against the tsarist regime by leading noble officers, which took place in St. Petersburg on December 14, 1825, agitated the entire public life of Russia. It was also a rich source of inspiration for A.S. Pushkin, a singer of will and freedom who hated tyranny.
Deeply experiencing the fate of the officers exiled to hard labor, impressed by the courage and scope of the work they began, the poet writes to his friends, full of the most sincere admiration, “In the depths of the Siberian ores...”.
Deep in Siberian ores
Keep your proud patience,
Your sorrowful work will not be wasted
And I think about high aspiration.
According to A.S. Pushkin and many leading people of that time, the uprising was not defeated, because the work begun so decisively would be supported by descendants.
After the suppression of the uprising, many turned away from the arrested Decembrists, even friends who were afraid of the tsar's disfavor. That is why the poet expresses the hope that
The desired time will come:
Love and friendship up to you
They will reach through the dark gates...

The poet strives to support his comrades in days of difficult trials. Wanting to instill cheerfulness in their hearts, he calls on his friends to maintain “proud patience”, assures that the struggle was not in vain, their work was not in vain. The author believes that “the desired time will come” and their friendly union will reunite:
The heavy shackles will fall,
The dungeons will collapse and there will be freedom
You will be greeted joyfully at the entrance,
And the brothers will give you the sword.

What features and signs do you think F.I. “spied” in his “Autumn Evening”? Tyutchev? What personality traits do you think a person should have in order to be able to “spot” such traits?

The poem “Autumn Evening” dates back to the period of F. I. Tyutchev’s early work. It was written by the poet in 1830 during one of his short visits to Russia. Created in the spirit of classical romanticism, this elegant, light poem is not just landscape lyricism. Tyutchev interprets the autumn evening in it as a phenomenon of natural life, looks for an analogy to the phenomenon of nature in the phenomena of human life, and these searches give the work a deep philosophical character.

Traits:
the lightness of autumn evenings
diversity of trees
sad orphaned land
gusty, cold wind
In the instant impression of an autumn evening, Tyutchev contained his thoughts and feelings, the entire infinity of his own life. Tyutchev compares autumn with spiritual maturity, when a person gains wisdom - the wisdom to live and appreciate every moment of life.

To notice this, it seems to me, you need to have life experience or simply meet such suffering people on your way. And, of course, you need to be a talented poet.

Idea, 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 force in “The Inspector General” is not a love affair, not events of private life, 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. This also determined such a compositional feature of the comedy as the absence of a central character in it; 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.

“The Inspector General” is a broad picture of the bureaucratic and 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 of 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" and an educated man in the city, having 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 in anticipation of the auditor and after the arrival of the imaginary auditor - Khlestakov.

The image of Khlestakov is written with exceptional artistic power and 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 basic, characteristic feature of Khlestakov is “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 serf, although spoiled by life “under the masters” and the city, but still retaining the positive features of the Russian peasant: sobriety of mind, folk ingenuity, the ability to see right through his master, all his emptiness: “... he is not involved in business: instead in order to be appointed to office, and he goes for a walk around the prespekt, playing cards.”

The nationality of comedy and the typicality of its images

"The Inspector General" is a truly folk comedy. Its nationality lies primarily in its ideological content. The comedy is permeated with the writer’s deepest hatred for the bureaucratic-bureaucratic system that reigned in Russia of his time, for the big and small “derzhimords”. Gogol shows bureaucracy as an anti-people power.

“The Inspector General” is a comedy that every schoolchild, as well as adults, is familiar with. According to Gogol, he wanted to collect in this work “everything bad” that was happening in Russia at that time. The author wanted to show what injustice reigns in those places where justice is needed most. Characteristics of the characters will help you fully understand the theme of the comedy. “The Inspector General” is a comedy that showed the true face of bureaucracy at the beginning of the 19th century.

The main idea of ​​"The Inspector General". What did the author want to show?

It is the characteristics of the characters that will help you understand the main thought and idea of ​​the work. “The Inspector General” reflects the bureaucracy of that time and each character in the work helps the reader understand what the author wanted to say with this comedy.

It must be said that every action taking place in the comedy reflects the entire administrative-bureaucratic system. The image of officials in the comedy “The Inspector General” clearly shows readers of the 21st century the true face of the bureaucracy of that time. Gogol wanted to show what was always carefully hidden from society.

The history of the creation of "The Inspector General"

It is known that Gogol began working on the play in 1835. There are several versions about what was the reason for writing “The Inspector General”. However, it is worth noting that the traditional version is that the plot of the future comedy was suggested to the author by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. There is confirmation of this, which was found in the memoirs of Vladimir Sollogub. He wrote that Pushkin met Gogol, after which he told him about an incident that happened in the city of Ustyuzhna: some passing, unknown gentleman robbed all the residents, posing as a ministry official.

Pushkin's participation in the creation of the comedy

There is another version, also based on the words of Sollogub, which suggests that Pushkin himself was once mistaken for an official when he was in Nizhny Novgorod in order to collect materials about the Pugachev rebellion.

While writing the play, Gogol communicated with Pushkin and informed him about how work on “The Inspector General” was going. It is worth noting that the author tried several times to quit working on the comedy, and it was Alexander Sergeevich who insisted that Gogol finish the work.

The image of officials in the comedy “The Inspector General” reflects the bureaucracy of that time. It is worth saying that the story underlying the work reveals the whole essence of the administrative and bureaucratic system of Russia at the beginning of the 19th century.

The image of the main characters in the comedy "The Inspector General". Table of officials

In order to understand the main idea and theme of the work, it is necessary to understand the images of the main characters in the comedy. All of them reflect the officialdom of that time and show the reader what injustice reigned where justice should have been above all.

The main characters of the comedy "The Inspector General". Table of officials. A brief description of.

The image of officials in the comedy “The Inspector General” shows what injustice reigned at that time. In courts, hospitals and other institutions, it would seem that there should be justice and honesty, but the images of officials in Gogol’s work clearly show that at the beginning of the 19th century, things were completely different throughout Russia.

The main idea of ​​the comedy "The Inspector General". Theme of the work

Gogol said that in his work he wanted to collect all the “stupidity” that was observed at that time. The theme of the play is to ridicule human vices: hypocrisy, fraud, self-interest, etc. The image of officials in the comedy “The Inspector General” is a reflection of the true essence of officials. The author of the work wanted to convey that they were unjust, dishonest and stupid. The bureaucrats cared absolutely nothing about ordinary people.

The comic nature of "The Inspector General"

The comicality of the work lies in the fact that instead of the auditor, whom everyone in the city was afraid of, an ordinary person arrived, deceiving all the officials.

"The Inspector General" is a comedy that shows the true face of Russian officials in the early 19th century. The author wanted to show: they were so unfair, pathetic and stupid that they could not distinguish an ordinary person from a real auditor.

“The Inspector General” is a truly brilliant work by N.V. Gogol; there is no person who has not heard the phrase: “The Inspector General is coming to see us.” The comedy is written easily in the grotesque genre and therefore is read quickly, with pleasure and at ease. But, despite the simplicity of the play’s presentation, the questions that the author raises and the depth of the creation are not as simple as it seems at first glance.

Of course, at the heart of the creation is the theme of officials, their arbitrariness and immorality, but we should not forget that behind the positions there are always people with their own weaknesses and vices. It is this problem that N.V. raises for everyone to see. Gogol. The author touches on taboo topics, those issues that are not customary to be exposed like dirty linen.

The plot takes place in a provincial county town, located somewhere in the outback: “Yes, from here, even if you ride for three years, you won’t get to any state.” City N is ruled by the mayor, who takes advantage of his position and impunity by committing arbitrariness - plundering the treasury and accepting bribes in any equivalent. Both he and other officials have a very unique understanding of caring for the well-being of the city and its residents. Everything is perceived through the prism of profit, completely forgetting about morality and moral values. Thus, the money allocated for the construction of the church was stolen long ago. The city is in disrepair, the hospital is dirty, the patients look like blacksmiths and smoke tobacco, the guards at the court are raising geese and drying things, the teachers are grimacing and making faces at their students. Medicines are not purchased due to the judgment: “if he dies, he will die anyway; if he gets well, then he’ll get well,” that’s why people in the county town “are recovering like flies.” The police, instead of fulfilling their duties, riot, get drunk and beat up the townspeople. But at the same time, the mayor is “firm in his faith” and attends church every Sunday.

This whole familiar way of life is changed by the news of the arrival of the auditor. The city administration, fearing the hour of reckoning, in the bustle and attempts to hide its sins, mistakenly takes for an auditor a completely different person - Khlestakov, who in the comedy acts as a counterweight to the officials. He comes from a completely different environment, and is a stupid, narrow-minded, boastful person “without a king in his head.” But it is precisely this spontaneity that misleads the representatives of the town authorities.

Officials, accustomed to judging by themselves, try in every possible way to please the false auditor and slip him bribes, while not forgetting to inform on each other. Khlestakov, a greedy man, very quickly gets carried away by the possibility of easy money, and leaves the city with a decent amount, leaving the bureaucrats with nothing.

Thus, the Auditor contains all possible human sins. It is not for nothing that Nikolai Vasilyevich ends the comedy with a silent scene. Only through such a technique can one draw the final line, once again further highlight all the shortcomings and character traits of the characters, and point out that any evil does not go unpunished!