Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is a recognized genius who stands out from his “colleagues.” Namely, the ability to work in different genres and be equally good at them. Every admirer of this favorite’s talent has probably wondered what the writer was like in life. A brief description of Gogol will answer this question.
Personality
The personality of the great writer was formed under the influence of his parents. Thanks to his father, Nikolai Gogol began to be interested in art. He was not just a connoisseur of beauty, but also its creator. Many facts from the biography of the author “In the evening on a farm near Dikanka” indicate that it was he who pushed his son to literary activity.
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is deservedly considered one of the most mystical figures among the intelligentsia of the 19th century. All his work is imbued with mysticism, in which the hand of the genius’s mother, a God-fearing woman, is visible.
Despite the fact that Gogol was born into a wealthy family, he was close to the life that a simple person lived in the Russian lands in those days. Observing the relationship between peasants and lords, Nikolai sympathized with the former, which was always reflected in his works.
Interesting to know: Nikolai Gogol - short biography, facts. Interesting to know: Nikolai Gogol - the personal life of the poet.
Abstract: Portrait in the poem by N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls"
Content:
1. Introduction
2. Main part
3. Literature
Introduction
Among the wonderful people who make up the glory and pride of Russian culture, an outstanding place belongs to Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. An inspired master of the poetic word, he created brilliant works that captivate readers with the depth and truthfulness of his images, the enormous power of creative generalization of life phenomena, and brilliant artistic skill.
The amazing power of Gogol's artistic generalizations arose on the basis of the writer's close connection with life. In its movement, its density, he drew both the pathos of his inspiration and the richness of the content of his works. An artist of great social passion, Gogol inquisitively peered into the processes taking place in reality. And not as an indifferent observer, but as a citizen writer, vitally interested in the fate of the people and the country, he reflected the typical features of life. In order to understand the writer’s work in its living, concrete ideological and artistic originality, it is necessary to clarify its real connections with historical reality, the ideological struggle, and the literary movement of the era.
Gogol did not work on any of his works, including “The Inspector General,” with such faith in his calling as a citizen writer with which he created “Dead Souls.” He did not devote so much deep creative thought, hard work and time to any other work of his. The writer considered the creation of “Dead Souls” the most important, largest work of his life. The accusatory pathos that characterizes Gogol's best artistic creations was expressed most fully and forcefully in the poem-novel.
Gogol began work on Dead Souls in the fall of 1835, before he began The Inspector General. In the very letter in which he told Pushkin about his intention to take up comedy, Gogol said: “I began to write Dead Souls.” The plot stretches out into a long novel and, it seems, will be very funny. But now I stopped it on the third chapter. I'm looking for a good sneaker with whom I can get along briefly. In this novel I want to show at least from one side all of Rus'.” According to Gogol, the plot of “Dead Souls,” as well as “The Inspector General,” was suggested to him by Pushkin. At the beginning, Pushkin was going to write a novel or story based on this plot, but, in all likelihood, feeling that the theme of the new work was closer to Gogol’s creative talent, he gave him his plot.
“Dead Souls” was not created as a general portrait of Russia, the task was different - to show it only from one side, but at the same time to dig as deeply as possible and through everyday life, through particulars, to get to the cherished, to the mystery of the Russian person and the subtlest bends of his character. Gogol wrote to Zhukovsky: “For a long time now I have been occupied with the idea of a large essay, in which everything that is good and bad in Russian people would appear, and the property of our Russian nature would be revealed to us more clearly.”
There is no doubt that one of the important elements in the characteristics of a literary hero is his portrait. The main task of my work is to show the role of the portrait (external description) in revealing the character of the hero, to prove the unity of the external appearance and the internal spiritual world of Gogol’s characters. But first, let’s look at the dictionaries and how they interpret the word “portrait.”
«PORTRAIT
(French portrait) - a pictorial, sculptural, photographic or any other image of a certain person.”
Dictionary of foreign words.
«PORTRAIT
, portrait, -tets, -tishka, image of a person, his face, features, painting; similar, appearance, image, appearance, face. Portrait of the chest, half-length, full-length. Miniature portrait, oil, engraved, photographic, etc. Description of the character, life and appearance of a person, similar to him.”
V. Dahl. Dictionary.
«PORTRAIT
, 1. The image of a person in a painting, photograph, or sculpture. Half-length portrait. Sculptural portrait. Group portrait (several persons). Verbal portrait (in criminology: a description of a person’s appearance using a certain method). 2. transfer Artistic depiction, image of a literary hero.”
S. I. Ozhegov. Dictionary of the Russian language.
«PORTRAIT
(from the French portrait - portrait, image) - in a literary work, an image of the hero’s appearance: his face, figure, clothes, demeanor.
The nature of the portrait and, consequently, its role in the work can be very diverse. The simplest portrait is a naturalistic, passport portrait copied from a real person.
In literature, a psychological portrait is more common, in which the author, through the appearance of the hero, seeks to reveal his inner world, his character.”
Dictionary of literary terms.
Of course, for us the most acceptable meaning of the word “portrait” is given in the dictionary of literary terms. It is from these positions that we will characterize the main characters of the poem “Dead Souls”.
Main part
Portrait as a means of characterizing the external and internal appearance of a character in the creative practice of N.V. Gogol has several varieties. This is first of all a traditional portrait, for example, a portrait of a beauty with scarlet lips, dark eyebrows and light eyes. But in this traditional portrait Gogol seeks to discover “spiritual movement”; qualitative characteristics do not constitute the main content of the “verbal portrait”.
It is significant that N.V. Gogol’s portrait can be given as if from the outside, from the point of view of an attentive observer, seeking to discern the inner, psychological world of the character behind the external appearance. And this is inherent not only, and even, perhaps, not so much to the main characters of the story, but to occasional figures.
Gogol's skill was also reflected in his portrait sketches, in the unusual quality of his characteristics, and in his special attention to color and tone in descriptions of appearance. Moreover, this subtlety in the naming of color (and impressions of it) was reflected when the portrait was given from the position of a certain person.
Trying to clearly draw the characters in the poem and make them memorable. Gogol masterfully recreates the external features of the hero, his gestures, and manner of behavior. Each hero has his own special, unique appearance, which will never allow him to be mixed with any other character. Without expanding the variety of individual characteristics of the hero, the writer identifies the main, characteristic features in the portrait. The artistic portrait in the poem is distinguished by sculptural clarity and a clearly expressed emphasis on the leading features. The ingenious power of the portrait images created by Gogol lies in the fact that the portrait for him is the key to the inner world of the heroes. Let's take Manilov's portrait. “In appearance, he was a distinguished man, his facial features were not devoid of pleasantness, but this pleasantness seemed to have too much sugar in it;
there was something in his techniques and turns that ingratiated himself with favor and acquaintance. He smiled enticingly, was blond, with blue eyes.” Before us is a clearly defined external appearance of the hero, but we also vividly sense his character. Every detail here is incredibly expressive. And blue eyes, and a tempting smile, and an overly sweet pleasantness, and ingratiating methods of address - all this is surprisingly aptly defined by Manilov, giving a certain idea about his psychological characteristics.
Having outlined the appearance of the hero, his “remarkable” features, the writer, in the course of the narrative, highlights and highlights some of these features. This concerns, first of all, the smile that does not leave Manilov’s face.
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Character
You can find out what kind of character Gogol had based on the memories of his comrades and loved ones about him. According to data that has survived to this day, Nikolai Vasilyevich was a nature of contradictions. Gogol despised what his contemporaries loved, and adored what seemed ugly to them. The writer made a negative first impression. Nikolai seemed stern and disdainful of those around him, but as soon as you got close to the genius, he opened up on the other side: kind, generous, sympathetic.
Describing Gogol's character, one cannot help but note his isolation and silence, which sometimes reached the point of absurdity. For example, Nikolai Vasilyevich never responded to insults, which, according to his comrades, he often heard addressed to him.
The writer did not like to talk about his goals and methods of achieving them. Nikolai did not even divulge his relatives to the details of his activities; the great writer could not stand it when people came to him with questions. Because of this, he was known as secretive.
Gogol was always ready to help those who needed his help. And we are talking not only about alms, which he did not spare the beggars, but also about recommendations, thanks to which his friends achieved success in their professional activities. He had many influential acquaintances. Surprisingly, despite his silence and a certain aloofness, he made new friends quickly. He knew how to get people to talk, open up, and partly used this to enrich the characters of his literary creations, beloved by millions of heroes.
Hairstyle of the blond Gogol - “A La Muzhik”
No, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol did not wear a bob. Contemporaries call his haircut à la moujik (a la man)
. This is a men's hairstyle that came into fashion after Napoleon's Russian campaign.
The writer had “several head brushes, one of which was very large and crooked: Gogol used it to comb his long hair,” Dmitry Mikhailovich Pogodin (the eldest son of M. P. Pogodin, writer, historian, journalist and collector, in whose house Gogol stayed three times when coming to Moscow from abroad). Among other things, in that bag there was also “some kind of oil with which he smeared his hair, mustache and goatee.”
Gogol had his hair done by coiffeurs - hairdressers (from the French coiffeur - in Russia this word was used until the 20-30s of the last century).
“Gogol’s acquaintances assured me that they sometimes met him in Moscow at the coufers’ and that he curled his hair. He also worked a lot on his mustache,” recalled Lev Ivanovich Arnoldi, an official for special assignments under the Kaluga governor N.M. Smirnov - the husband of his sister A.O. Smirnova.
By the way, Arnoldi was one of the few to whom Gogol read chapters from the second volume of Dead Souls.
And in his youth, Gogol, not like the “coiffers,” rarely combed his hair himself: “... he was repeatedly confronted with the appearance of his lack of hair. The disheveled nature of Gogol's head became part of our common ridicule. His head was hardly ever combed with it; her hair fell into his face in uncombed strands. He also did not like to get his hair cut often, as the school authorities demanded of us,” wrote Vasily Ignatievich Lyubich-Romanovich, poet, translator, Gogol’s friend at the Nezhin gymnasium.
Gogol began to thoroughly take care of his appearance only after moving to St. Petersburg in 1828 - he even shaved his hair so that it grew thicker, and during this period he wore a wig: “...sometimes cotton wool peeked out from under his wig, which he put under the springs, and white ribbons were always sticking out from behind the tie,” Panteleimon Aleksandrovich Kulish, publicist, historian, poet, and first biographer of Gogol, cites eyewitness accounts.
In general, when the hair grew back, this is what happened: “The hair was curled, and the tuft in front was raised quite high, in the shape of a curl, as they wore then,” the writer and journalist, publisher of Sovremennik, wrote down his impressions of the first meeting with Gogol. Ivan Ivanovich Panaev.
The classic image of the writer: “the usual “Gogol” parting, an emphasized “silk hair brace” - developed abroad, mainly in Italy, where Gogol moved in the circle of Russian artists and where almost all his famous portraits were created.
For comparison, here are two testimonies from Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov, a writer, theater critic, memoirist and generally a person who knew Gogol closely: “Gogol’s appearance was then completely different and unfavorable for him: a crest on his head, smoothly trimmed temples, a shaved mustache and chin, large and the tightly starched collars gave a completely different physiognomy to his face: it seemed to us that there was something Ukrainian and roguish about him,” he recalls the writer’s appearance in 1832, when he lived in St. Petersburg, served in the department of appanages and had just published the second part books “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”. And this is how Aksakov meets him in Moscow already in 1839, where he arrives after a three-year stay abroad: “Gogol’s appearance changed so much that he could not be recognized: there were no traces of the former, smoothly shaven and cropped (except for the crest) dandy in a fashionable tailcoat! His beautiful blond thick hair lay almost to his shoulders; a beautiful mustache and goatee completed the change; all facial features took on a completely different meaning.”
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, who met him in 1851, remembered what Gogol was like in the last years of his life: “I took a closer look at his features. His blond hair, which fell straight from his temples, as usual among Cossacks, still retained the color of youth, but had already thinned noticeably; his sloping, smooth, white forehead still exuded intelligence.”
Alexey Terentyevich Tarasenkov, a famous Moscow doctor, found Gogol in 1852 already like this: “Gogol walked a little hunched over, hands in his pockets, a tie simply tied, a worn dress, long hair, combed so that it covered a significant part of the forehead and always the same; he always wore a short, trimmed mustache; in general, it was clear that he cared little about his external environment” (all quotes given here are from the collection “Gogol in the Memoirs of Contemporaries” and the book by V. Veresaev “Gogol in Life”).
Why blond?
Blond is a person with light brown hair. And if you look at the portraits of writers by F.A. Moller and A.A. Ivanov - they painted him in Rome from life, unlike other artists who redrew the already dark daguerreotypes and made Gogol almost a burning brunette, it is clear that his hair is still light (adjusted for the colors that have faded over time ).
It is also known that Maria Nikolaevna Sinelnikova (1817-1892) - the only woman who openly confessed her love to the writer, after his death ordered a gold mourning ring in which she kept a light brown (!) strand from Gogol's head - locked it with a diamond and never with did not part with the ring. On its inside there was an inscription engraved - “Died. N. Gogol. 1852 Feb. 21".
And here is another testimony from his younger sister Olga Vasilievna Gogol (married Golovnya; 1825–1907): “His hair was light brown and his eyes were brown. As a child, his hair was blond, and then it darkened. My brother’s hair became especially dark after he shaved himself in St. Petersburg. There was such a belief that whoever comes from Little Russia to St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg water has such an effect on him that his hair falls out. And when my brother arrived in St. Petersburg, he shaved his head. After that his hair darkened. A footman traveled with him from here, he advised him to shave, but the footman did not listen and became bald.”
Source: TheQuestion
Updated 20/08/19 20:02
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Hobbies and habits
The general characteristics of Gogol indicate that the great genius was satisfied with a simple life. Gogol spent most of this life with one suitcase, in which everything that was really dear to him was stored. However, Nikolai Vasilyevich was not always like this. In his youth, he collected many trinkets, useless things. His comrades noted that if at one time the writer had not given his property, including his estate, to his relatives, he would probably have turned into a typical owner-acquirer.
The famous writer was interested in history, in particular the history of his homeland. He loved music and could boast of good vocal abilities. Gogol spent his free time busy with sewing and knitting. Botany was of great interest to him. Like many of his contemporaries, Nikolai Vasilyevich often visited the theater and even took part in productions himself.
Polarities of Character
“Each of us, a hundred times a day, is either a scoundrel or an angel” (Gogol) (1, p. 347).
“The conversation turned to Gogol; each of us made our own comments about him and his character, about his oddities. We examined him as a writer, as a person, and much about him seemed inexplicable and mysterious to us. How, for example, can we reconcile his constant striving for moral perfection with his pride, which we have all witnessed more than once? His amazingly subtle, observant mind, visible in all his works, and at the same time, in ordinary life, some kind of stupidity and lack of understanding of the simplest and most ordinary things? We also remembered his strange manner of dressing, and his ridicule of those who dressed ridiculously and without taste, his religiosity and humility, and, too often at an hour, a strange impatience and little condescension towards his neighbors; in a word, they found an abyss of contradictions that seemed difficult to combine in one person” (L. I. Arnoldi) (1, p. 457).
Precision and planning of manipulative actions is the highest adventurism
“Gogol’s passion for writing (during his years at the Lyceum - N.N.) intensified more and more, but there was no time to write... What did Gogol do? Enraged! Suddenly there was a terrible alarm in all departments: “Gogol has gone mad!” - we came running and saw that Gogol’s face was terribly distorted, his eyes were sparkling with a wild brilliance, his hair was puffed up, he was grinding his teeth, foaming at the mouth, falling, throwing himself and hitting furniture - he was furious! ... There was only one way left: to call four employees at the Lyceum for the Disabled, they ordered them to take Gogol and take him to a special department of the hospital, where he stayed for two months, perfectly playing the role of a madman there” (T. G. Pashchenko) (1, p. 53– 54).
“I don’t pay anyone for my maintenance and living. I live with one person today, with another tomorrow. I will also come to you and live with you, without paying you a penny for it” (Gogol - Vilyegorskoy).
“Gogol, by his nature, tried to influence the crowd with his external existence; he liked to show himself in some mysterious perspective and to hide from her certain little things that particularly affected her. So, after the publication of “Evenings,” while passing through Moscow, at the outpost he arranged things in such a way that he could register and get into the “Moskovskie Vedomosti” not as a “collegiate registrar,” which he was, but as a “collegiate assessor.” Gogol cleaned up the road predicate “registrar” and replaced it with another – “assessor”” (P.V. Annenkov) (1, p. 489).
Preaching - fear of other people's opinions
“But listen: now you must listen to my word, for my word has doubly power over you, and woe to anyone who does not listen to my word. (Then there is a request in high-flown expressions to give up everything and go to the village, Danilevsky’s estate, for one year, to take care of household affairs. - N.N.). So, meekly and unquestioningly fulfill my request... From now on, my word is invested with the highest power” (Gogol - in a letter to A.S. Danilevsky) (1, p. 307).
“...Be so kind: it’s true that there are some rumors about “Dead Souls.” For the sake of our friendship, bring them to my attention, whatever they may be. I need them all anyway. You can’t imagine how much I need them..." (Gogol - N. Ya. Prokopovich) (1, p. 342).
Slave - master
“His book can be harmful to many. She is all imbued with flattery and terrible pride under the guise of humility. He flatters a woman, her beauty, her charms; he flatters Zhukovsky, he flatters the authorities. He was not ashamed to print that nowhere can one speak the truth as freely as here... (S. T. Aksakov) (1, p. 400).
Modesty - self-exaltation
“I feel some kind of timidity to return alone,” Gogol writes to Aksakov from Rome. Now it’s painful and almost impossible for me to take care of the trifles and troubles of the road. I need peace of mind and the happiest, most cheerful disposition of soul possible; I now need to be protected and cherished. I came up with this: let M.S. Shchepkin and K.S. Aksakov come for me: they need it - M.S. for health, K.S. for the harvest, which it’s time for him to get down to. And I couldn’t find anyone dearer to my soul than these two, who could come for me. I would then be traveling with the same youthful feeling as a schoolboy on vacation going home from a boring school to his native roof and free air. Now I need to be cherished, not for me, no! They will do something that is not useless. They will bring with them a clay vase. Of course, this vase is now all cracked, quite old and barely standing; but this vase now contains a treasure; therefore, it must be protected” (Gogol to Aksakov) (1, p. 286).
“Gogol is not proud, but has a kind of originality in life - this is his business” (K. F. Chizhov) (1, p. 352).
