- Essays
- On literature
- Gogol
- The role of lyrical digressions in the poem Dead Souls
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is the greatest creator of Russian literature. “Dead Souls” is his most famous creation. The author put all the features of his own talent into this work.
Lyrical digressions play a vital mission. in the work "Dead Souls". In them the poet touches on the most important social problems. The writer contrasted his thoughts about the destiny of man and the fate of his Motherland with dark pictures showing Russian life.
At the beginning, lyrical digressions take a narrative form. In them, the author speaks about the heroes, but as events unfold, their hidden motive becomes more broad and multifaceted.
The digression that ends the story about Korobochka tells of the similarity of the heroine with her “sister”, who, not paying attention to external differences, leads the same lifestyle.
The poetic deviation at the end of the fifth chapter carries completely different ideas. In it, the writer does not talk about the characters or their attitude towards them. This digression tells the story of the great Russian people and the talent of the Russian population.
If you don’t think about it, this departure is in no way connected with previous events, but in fact, without it it is impossible to fully disclose the topic.
Of great importance are lyrical digressions that tell about the creative and life fate of the author in his contemporary society. This retreat imprinted not only his thoughts about art, but also his position towards the ruling strata of society and towards the people. It determined Gogol's ideological path.
The writer’s civic fervor reaches extraordinary power in his lyrical digression - “Rus, Rus'! I see you from my wonderful, beautiful distance.” Vulgarity, emptiness, baseness of life appear even more clearly against the background of upbeat poetic lines. This method of contrast is used very skillfully by the author. as a result of such a sudden contrast, the negative qualities of the heroes of “Dead Souls” are better understood.
The highest feeling of patriotism enveloped the face of the Russian Empire, ending the opening volume of the poem, an Image that embodied that standard of perfection that illuminated the author’s path when describing petty, vulgar existence.
Such is the significance of lyrical digressions in the structure of creation. But the most important thing is that they reveal the writer’s point of view on art and relationships between people. On the pages of the work, the creator wanted not only to expose, but also to establish his moral standard, and announced it in his delightful lyrical digressions, where all his thoughts and feelings were imprinted, and first of all, a colossal feeling of love for his own people and country, the conviction that that the fatherland will be freed from the rule of the “swamp lights” and will return to the right course: the path of the living soul.
Sample 3
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is the author of the poem “Dead Souls”. The main character of the work is Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. Lyrical digressions are moments when the author begins to comment and describe the actions that occur in the work in the first person. Thus, a person can find out the author’s opinion and answer his own questions. Thanks to lyrical digressions, readers can more emotionally and deeply understand the essence of the work.
Throughout the reading of the entire work, all lyrical digressions can be divided into two types, the first are associated with reflections on the native land, the country in which Nikolai Vasilyevich lives, reflections related to the origin of man and the meaning of life in general. The first digression occurs at the moment when Chichikov learns about the nickname that was given to Plyushkin. At this moment, the author begins to express his thoughts and thoughts, and also admires how the Russian language can most accurately express a person’s thoughts.
Throughout this entire discussion, the author expresses his deepest respect and love for his native language, which he studied from the very cradle. Pride and respect for the Motherland washes over the author. In addition to all of the above, there are the following reflections related to youth, which passes by life as quickly as life flows by.
Despite all the author’s considerations, he cannot touch upon a topic that is very close to his soul; this is a topic concerning two opposing authors who are connected by life, but they have different beginnings. The first author is perceived by the people as positive, he knows how to make an impression, he talks about how beautiful life is and tries to make up for all the sorrows of life and present them in a different light.
But there is another side of authorship, a side that is alien to every reader. After all, it is this author who shows life as it really is, he does not decorate it, does not make it a fairy tale that you can believe in. It is for this reason that the people disliked this author and it is difficult for every reader to read these works, because every person understands the reality in which he lives.
Lyrical digressions and their meaning in the poem by N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls"
The meaning of lyrical digressions in the poem Dead Souls is multifaceted. It was no coincidence that Gogol considered his work a poem. Thus, the writer emphasized the breadth and epic nature of the narrative, the importance of the lyrical principle in it.
Analyzing Gogol’s “Dead Souls”, Belinsky about the poem, subjectivity, which does not allow the author “with apathetic indifference to be alien to the world he depicts, but forces him to conduct through his living soul the phenomena of the external world, and through that, to breathe into them the living soul... »
The same thing was noted by the critic K. Aksakov, who saw in the poem “an ancient, Homeric epic.” “It may seem strange to some that Gogol’s faces change without any particular reason... It is epic contemplation that allows this calm appearance of one face after another without external connection, while one world embraces them, connecting them deeply and inextricably with internal unity,” the critic wrote.
The epic nature of the narrative, internal lyricism - all this was a consequence of Gogol’s creative ideas. It is known that the writer planned to create a large poem similar to Dante's Divine Comedy. The first part (volume 1) should not correspond to “Hell”, the second (volume 2) to “Purgatory”, the third (volume 3) to “Paradise”. The writer thought about the possibility of Chichikov’s spiritual rebirth, about the appearance in the poem of characters who embodied “the untold wealth of the Russian spirit” - “a husband gifted with divine virtues,” “a wonderful Russian maiden.” This weight gave the story a special, deep lyricism.
The lyrical digressions in the poem are very diverse in their themes, pathos and moods. Thus, describing Chichikov’s journey, the writer draws our attention to many details that perfectly characterize the life of the Russian province. For example, the hotel where the hero stayed was “of a well-known type, that is, exactly the same as there are hotels in provincial cities, where for two rubles a day travelers get a quiet room with cockroaches peeking out like prunes from all corners...”.
The “common hall” where Chichikov goes is well known to every passer-by: “the same walls, painted with oil paint, darkened at the top from pipe smoke,” “the same smoked chandelier with many hanging glass pieces that jumped and rang every time the young ran on worn oilcloths...", "the same paintings covering the entire wall, painted with oil paints...".
The role of lyrics in the work
The role of lyrics in “Dead Souls” is enormous and important for the work. Lyrical digressions are needed to:
- more accurately reveal the characters of the characters in the poem;
- transport the reader from the harsh and terrible reality described in the poem to the free expanses of Rus';
- illustrate the author’s attitude towards people and reality.
The independent stories “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin”, “Kif Mokievich and Mokiy Kifovich”, “The Peasants of the Village of Lousy Arrogance” are also a lyrical pause of the writer. They are interesting because they can be read completely separately from the work, because each of them has its own plot, its own story.
The novel “Dead Souls” is a story about vices, characters and the human soul. The meaning of N.V. Gogol’s various lyrical works is that they help to reveal the author’s attitude to these problems, sometimes with irony, and sometimes with satire.
“About the Russian people and their language”
But the main theme of the lyrical digressions in the poem is the theme of Russia and the Russian people. Here the author’s voice becomes excited, the tone becomes pathetic, irony and satire recede into the background.
In the fifth chapter, Gogol glorifies the “living and lively Russian mind,” the extraordinary talent of the people, and the “aptly spoken Russian word.” Chichikov, asking a man he met about Plyushkin, receives an exhaustive response: “... patched, patched!” - the man exclaimed. He also added a noun to the word “patched”, “very successful, but not commonly used in social conversation...”. “The Russian people are expressing themselves strongly! - exclaims Gogol, “and if he rewards someone with a word, then it will go to his family and posterity, he will drag him with him into service, and into retirement, and to St. Petersburg, and to the ends of the world.”
The image of the road that runs through the entire work is very important in lyrical digressions. The theme of the road appears already in the second chapter, in the description of Chichikov’s trip to Manilov’s estate: “As soon as the city went back, they began to write, according to our custom, nonsense and game on both sides of the road: hummocks, a spruce forest, low thin bushes of young pines, charred trunks old, wild heather and similar nonsense.” In this case, this picture is the background against which the action takes place. This is a typical Russian landscape.
In the fifth chapter, the road reminds the writer of the joys and canes of human life: “Everywhere, across whatever sorrows from which our life is woven, a brilliant joy will rush merrily, as sometimes a brilliant carriage with a golden harness, picture horses and the sparkling shine of glass will suddenly suddenly rush by past some dead poor village...”
In the chapter about Plyushkin, Gogol discusses the susceptibility of people of different ages to life impressions. The writer here describes his childhood and youthful feelings associated with the road, with travel, when everything around him aroused keen interest and curiosity in him.
And then Gogol compares these impressions with his current indifference, cooling towards the phenomena of life. The author’s reflection ends here with a sad exclamation: “Oh my youth! oh my freshness!
This reflection of the author imperceptibly turns into the idea of how a person’s character and inner appearance can change with age. Gogol talks about how a person can change in old age, to what “insignificance, pettiness, disgustingness” he can reach.
Both author’s digressions here echo the image of Plyushkin, with the story of his life. And therefore, Gogol’s thought ends with a sincere, excited appeal to readers to preserve in themselves the best that is characteristic of youth: “Take with you on the journey, emerging from the soft youthful years into stern, embittering courage, take with you all human movements, do not leave them behind.” road, you won’t get up later! The old age coming ahead is terrible, terrible, and nothing gives back and back!
“On literature and writing”
In lyrical digressions, Gogol talks about literature, writing, and various artistic styles. The author’s irony is also present in these arguments; here one can discern the hidden polemic of the realist writer with romanticism.
So, depicting the character of Manilov. Gogol ironically notes that it is much easier to depict large characters by generously throwing paint on the canvas: “black scorching eyes, drooping eyebrows, a wrinkled forehead, a cloak black or scarlet like fire thrown over the shoulder - and the portrait is ready...”. But it is much more difficult to describe not romantic heroes, but ordinary people, “who look very similar to each other, but when you look closely, you will see many of the most elusive features.”
Elsewhere, Gogol talks about two types of writers, obviously hinting at the romantic writer and the realist writer. satirical “A wonderful destiny is enviable” for the first, who prefers to describe sublime characters that demonstrate the “high dignity of man.” But this is not the fate of the second, “who dared to bring out all the terrible, stunning mud of little things that entangle our lives, all the depth of the cold, fragmented, everyday characters with which our earthly, sometimes bitter and boring road is teeming.” “His field is harsh,” and he cannot escape the modern court, which considers his works “an insult to humanity.” There is no doubt that Gogol is talking here about his own destiny.
“On the way of life of Russian landowners”
Gogol satirically describes the way of life of Russian landowners. So, talking about the pastime of Manilov and his wife, Gogol remarks, as if in passing: one might notice that there are many other activities in the house besides long kisses and surprises... Why, for example, do you cook stupidly and uselessly in the kitchen? Why is the pantry pretty empty? Why is there a thief as a housekeeper?.. But all these are low things, and Manilova was brought up well.”
In the chapter devoted to the image of Korobochka, the writer talks about the “extraordinary ability” of the Russian person to communicate with others. And here comes the author's outright irony. Noting Chichikov’s rather unceremonious treatment of Korobochka, Gogol notes that the Russian man has surpassed the foreigner in the ability to communicate: “it is impossible to count all the shades and subtleties of our treatment.”
Moreover, the nature of this communication depends on the size of the interlocutor’s fortune: “we have such wise men who will speak completely differently to a landowner who has two hundred souls than to one who has three hundred...” - the writer notes.
In the chapter on Nozdrev, Gogol touches on the same topic of “Russian communication,” but in a different, more “positive” aspect of it. Here the writer notes the unique character of the Russian person: his good nature, easygoingness, gentleness. Nozdryov’s character is quite recognizable - he is a “broken fellow”, a reckless driver, a reveler, a gambler and a rowdy. He has a habit of cheating while playing cards, for which he was beaten several times. “And what’s strangest of all,” Gogol notes, “that can only happen in Rus' alone is that after some time he already met again with those friends who were pestering him, and he met as if nothing had happened, and he, they say, nothing, and they are nothing."
About the vastness of Rus', national character and the bird troika
The first volume of Dead Souls ends with a description of the troika rapidly flying forward, which is a real apotheosis of Russia and the Russian character: “And what Russian doesn’t like driving fast? Is it possible for his soul, striving to get dizzy, to go on a spree, to sometimes say: “Damn it all!” - Is it his soul not to love her?.. Eh, three! Bird-three, who invented you? You know, you could have been born to a lively people, in that land that doesn’t like to joke, but has spread out evenly across half the world... Rus'? where are you going? Give an answer. Doesn't give an answer. The bell rings with a wonderful ringing; The air, torn into pieces, thunders and becomes the wind; everything flies past, no matter the network on earth, and, looking askance, other peoples and states step aside and give way to it.”
The meaning of lyrical digressions in the poem Dead Souls is quite varied. These are satirical sketches by Gogol, and pictures of Russian life, and the writer’s reflections on literature, and ironic observations on the psychology of the Russian person, the peculiarities of Russian life, and pathetic thoughts about the future of the country, about the talent of the Russian people, about the breadth of the Russian soul.
