Remember the classics. Summary of “Dead Souls”, poems by N.V. Gogol

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

A stern realist of a critical direction, and also a mystic, a satirist, exposing the ulcers and vices of his time, and a subtle, penetrating lyricist; a patriot who painfully loves the Russian people, Russia, but at the same time retains a close connection with his native Little Russia, Ukraine … Such is he, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, one of the most interesting and mysterious writers of the 19th century.

The poem "Dead Souls"

So, a summary. "Dead Souls", Gogol's most famous work, is rather difficult to retell in this way. It is too saturated with philosophical and socially accusatory meaning. Yes, and lyrical digressions, their piercing, heart-wrenching tone cannot be described - Gogol is one of those writers who must be read, as they say, in the original. And yet…

To retell the summary of "Dead Souls", of course, we will begin with the famous arrival in the provincial city of NN of a certain gentleman of the "middle hand": not too fat, but not too thin; notyoung, but not old, not handsome, but not ugly either. This is the main character of the work, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, a collegiate assessor. He arrived here on his private business, settled in a hotel where cockroaches the size of prunes run in every room, and began to ask the owner about what was happening in the city and the surrounding area.

Further, the summary of "Dead Souls" should include a story about Chichikov's visit to city officials. Gogol, in one or two words, gives apt, accurate descriptions of all city rulers, along the way drawing a general picture of the mores and orders that reign in NN. It turns out that bribery, double-dealing, mutual responsibility, outright theft of public funds and many other lawlessness flourish here. However, Chichikov is not worried about this. It is important for him to know what large landowners live in the district, whether there was any pestilence in their direction, epidemics and other disasters. With officials, Pavel Ivanovich behaves extremely courteously, politely, well-mannered. He speaks little about himself, only reports that he is a victim of official injustices and wants to settle in these parts in peace. He knows how to find a key to each official, therefore he is accepted everywhere with pleasure and open arms.

He wins the favor of some landowners, whom he meets in the city, and then decides to visit new friends. And then a summary of "Dead Souls" - a story about the Hero's journey through his native Russia.

Peasant Russia gives Gogol and us an ambivalent impression. From onesides, the breadth and expanse of its open spaces remind us of the remarkable strength and talents of the Russian people. On the other hand, the outright poverty and poverty of the villages, the dirt and dullness of the landscapes set in a sad mood. Serfdom reality is truly terrible in its everyday life.

Chichikov visits in turn the estates of Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov and other landowners. He addresses everyone with a strange request - to sell him dead peasants as if they were alive. Each landowner has his own, specific reaction to the proposal. If Manilov was somewhat taken aback and gives Chichikov "souls", then at Korobochka, Sobakevich, Plyushkin he has to sweat a lot and spend money to get what he is looking for. And Gogol has a wonderful opportunity to show in all its "glory" the terrible face of serfdom, to prove that not the dead peasants, but the living landowners and officials are the same "dead souls", "non-smokers" who, like parasites, have stuck to the people and live, eating its "juices" - people's labor.

The image of the landlords is built on the principle of gradation - from the sugary Manilov, a man of "nothing else", to Plyushkin - "holes in humanity."

Plays a special role in the poem "Dead Souls" Chapter 11, a summary of which can be reduced to a story about Chichikov's life path. Gogol reveals to us not only the essence of his scam, but tells in detail about his childhood, school years, and youth. The passion for the “penny”, for hoarding corroded his soul early, turned it into a vile,an unprincipled villain, a scoundrel who will not stop at any morally unscrupulous deeds in order to obtain the desired benefit and profit. Therefore, in the story "Dead Souls" a summary of chapter 11 can be considered the ideological and artistic center of the work.

Chichikov's idea failed. Instead of dizzying success, he has to flee the city. But the hero does not lose heart. His "bird-troika" rushes across the expanses of Russia, like an inevitable fate, as a sign of the onset of a new century - the century of capitalism, predation, moral decay, the decline of morality. And Chichikov himself is a hero of the new time, a capitalist who is replacing the obsolete feudal landowners.