Library
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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution
higher professional education
"Voronezh State Pedagogical University"
Test
in Russian literature and culture (XI- XIX V.)
Topic: features of the artistic structure of comedy
N. V. Gogol's "Inspector".
2nd year students, s / o
Faculty of Humanities
Dereglazova Anastasia Evgenievna
Voronezh, 2015
A look at the work of N.V. Gogol in the play "The Government Inspector"…………………………..3
The history of the comedy "Inspector General"………………………………………………...4
The structure and composition of comedy……………………………………………………..5
The role of the literary work of N.V. Gogol's "Inspector"………………………12
References………………………………………………………………………13
1. A look at the work of N.V. Gogol in the play "The Government Inspector"
The Inspector General was a stunning blow to the very foundations of the Nikolaev regime. It is not for nothing that the play aroused, even in its original, relatively harmless version, the rage of the ruling mob. For those who were a little smarter in the reactionary camp, it was not difficult to figure out that with its outward vaudeville good nature, anecdotal plot and other “softening” qualities, The Inspector General was a cruel blow precisely to the foundations of the existing system.
It would seem that the play had a lot of data so that it could pass for a comedy of the vaudeville type. The underlined anecdotalism of the incident that formed the basis of the plot, as it were, indicated the exclusivity, almost even the improbability of what was depicted in the play.
Nemirovich-Danchenko V.I. in his well-known article on The Inspector General, he noted that even the most brilliant dramatic writers needed several scenes in order to "start a play." In "The Government Inspector" one first phrase of the mayor - and the whirlwind went, the play is already abruptly tied up. Moreover, it is tied tightly, in one knot, “with its entire mass”, by the fates of all the main characters.
Gogol saw the most complete expression of artistic harmony and absolute perfection of poetic form in the work of Pushkin. A distinctive feature of his skill, he believed, is "the speed of description in extraordinary art with a few features to signify the entire subject." Pushkin's brush, says Gogol, "flies". He attached importance to the laconicism and energetic rhythm of the narrative as a very important aesthetic principle. Nothing harms art so much as "verbosity", "eloquence". A true artist strives for the inner capacity of the word, which is achieved, first of all, by its accuracy. Such, for example, is Pushkin's lyrics: “There are few words, but they are so precise that they mean All" .
Gogol, in turn, strove for a similar ideal in his own work. Here is one example that quite clearly reveals the direction of his artistic searches. The famous first phrase of the mayor - amazing in its brevity and expressiveness - went through a complex creative crucible and underwent a long evolution before it became what we know it to be.
Gogol, in essence, did not want to offend anyone as an "auditor". But from the pleasure of overturning and turning reality, he, How the artist, too, could not refuse. Moreover, according to the law of comedy, not some small a sinner who has nowhere to fall, he is so low costs, but the authorities and persons of a sufficiently high rank. King Lear should be the jester. The higher and wider the ranks take humor, all the better and for art, and for reconciliation and enlightenment, which it promises to the viewer. If you collect all the great things on earth and at once laugh at everything, then you have to wait, the blessed will come time. Waving at the princes of men, comic art stands at the gates of paradise ... So Gogol, without thinking about anything bad, made a tunnel with the "Auditor" and he himself got to the "Auditor" into a trap - in underminers of ranks and foundations.
Subsequently, he got out for a long time, proving, firstly, that light the laughter of his comedy uplifts and reconciles, inspiring love even to bearers of evil, and secondly, that this laughter is socially useful, arousing horror, indignation and raising to the fight against villains. The ends meet, we see, do not converge. In the second paragraph disappears already a broad and kind interpretation of laughter, and a satirical lesson unusual for Gogol's comedy, but later acquired by him, appears. Such bitterness was not observed in him at the time of the creation of the "Inspector General" (and therefore the first point of justification seems to be closer to the truth).
But no matter how bright and conciliatory this laughter may be, it still diverges from life on a larger scale and hence is necessarily subject to suspicion on the part of those in power and on the part of every practical, sane person. Laughter as such cannot get along with reality in its habits, customs, in its solid and serious regularity.
“Firstly, there is absolutely no benefit to the fatherland; secondly ... but secondly, there is no use either.
Because laughter, especially when it has reached such degrees as it happened in The Inspector General, is a violation of any order worked out by life in a dull and stubborn struggle, of any stability in the world, and, without encroaching on any undermining, in itself concludes already something socially dangerous. Art is already in the seed, in the creation of an image, in conflict with the image of human life, although its laughter is not from evil, but from the fullness of consciousness that everything in this world is beautiful and extraordinary. Art is criminal by its nature, thirsting not for a way of life, not for everyday life, but for exceptions and violations. Without them, you see, he can’t even sit and write a silver key in The Inspector General, and, no matter how hard the authors try to keep up appearances, already by the number of pages allotted in art to murder and confusion, deceit, forgery and all kinds of disorder, it’s clear where it slopes...
After The Inspector General, Gogol could not laugh. More precisely, he did it already with the remnants of his past concussions. The Inspector's laughter paralyzed him. The beginning of the paralysis is palpable already in the silent scene crowning the comedy. As soon as the Governor said: “What are you laughing at? “You’re laughing at yourself! ..”, in the development of the comic, a paroxysm seemed to set in, and when, after laughing to our heart’s content and clapping our hands, we again looked at the stage, we were horrified to find the author of the world comedy among the frozen figures. He no longer laughed, but seemed to freeze with a face distorted from petrified laughter in some unnatural pose. Finally, trying to overcome the stupor that had come over him with the "Inspector General", Gogol exposed his "inner cage" to everyone with an invitation to verify his honest intentions.
2. The history of the comedy "The Inspector General"
By 1834, the first concept of the "Inspector General" is attributed. The surviving manuscripts of Gogol indicate that he worked extremely carefully on his works: from what has survived from these manuscripts, it is clear how the work in its finished form known to us grew gradually from the original sketch, becoming more and more complicated with details and finally reaching that amazing artistic fullness and vitality, with which we know them at the end of a process that sometimes dragged on for years.
It is known that the main plot of The Inspector General, like the plot of Dead Souls, was communicated to Gogol by Pushkin; but it is clear that in both cases the entire creation, from the plan to the last details, was the fruit of Gogol's own creativity: an anecdote that could be told in a few lines turned into a rich work of art.
The Inspector General, it seems, in particular provoked in Gogol this endless work of determining the plan and the details of execution; there are a number of sketches, in whole and in parts, and the first printed form of the comedy appeared in 1836. The old passion for the theater took possession of Gogol to an extraordinary degree: the comedy never left his head; he was tormented by the thought of being face to face with society; he strove with the greatest care that the play be performed according to his own idea of characters and action; the production met various obstacles, including censorship, and finally could be realized only at the behest of Emperor Nicholas.
The Inspector General had an extraordinary effect: the Russian stage had never seen anything like it; the reality of Russian life was conveyed with such force and truth that although, as Gogol himself said, it was only about six provincial officials who turned out to be rogues, the whole society rebelled against him, which felt that it was about a whole principle, about a whole order life, in which it itself abides.
But, on the other hand, comedy was greeted with the greatest enthusiasm by those best members of society who were aware of the existence of these shortcomings and the need for denunciation, and especially by the young literary generation, who saw here once again, as in the previous works of their beloved writer, a whole revelation, a new, emerging period of Russian art and Russian society.
On April 19, 1836, the premiere of the comedy took place on the stage of the Alexandria Theater, at which the emperor himself, Nicholas I, was present. Gogol was dejected by what he saw: the idea of the comedy was not understood by either the actors or the audience, nothing was extracted from the deep meaning invested in the play. The comedy was taken for an ordinary light vaudeville. It was necessary to explain to both the actors and the audience. Gogol writes articles explaining the idea of The Inspector General: “An excerpt from a letter written by the author after the first presentation of The Inspector General to a writer”, “Theatrical tour after the presentation of a new comedy”, “Forewarning for the gentlemen of the actors”, “Decoupling of the Inspector General”.
In his “comments” on the comedy The Inspector General, Gogol noted that in order to discover the character of each character, it is necessary to involve all the participants in the play in the action. “The plot should embrace all the faces, and not just one or two, - touch on what excites more or less all the actors. Here every hero; the course and course of the play produces a shock to the whole machine: not a single wheel should remain as rusty and out of business,” Gogol wrote in Theatrical Ride.
3. Structure and composition of comedy.
The structure of the comedy "The Government Inspector"
The comedy was not written as an ordinary story (text divided into chapters), but as a script for a play. Comedy reads very well in this style: less description, more action (dialogue). In contrast to conventional works, where character descriptions go only when they meet the reader, the descriptions of the characters are written on the first pages of the comedy. The absence of such "interrupting factors" allows you to fully enjoy reading and not be distracted. In addition, it is quite easy to imagine the scene and the characters in our imagination - the scene is described at the beginning of the action or somewhere in the middle, and at the beginning of each phenomenon we observe only that someone has come or gone. In addition, this makes it easier not only to read the comedy, but also to stage it in the theater - there is no need to think about where it is better to stage this or that action, everything is already described in the text, the actors just have to play the role correctly.
Composition of the comedy "Inspector"
The first phrase of the comedy, uttered by the mayor, is the plot:
“I invited you, gentlemen, in order to tell you unpleasant news. The inspector is coming to visit us."
This phrase gives such a powerful impetus that events begin to unfold very rapidly. The main factor, because of which all the fuss begins, is the officials' fear of the auditor. The preparations of officials for the arrival of the inspector reveal to us the true picture of urban life. By the way, the picture of the city is an exposition, according to the rules of composition, it should be before the start, but here the author used the technique of compositional inversion.
So, what instructions does the Mayor give to officials?
He advises Artemy Filippovich to “put in order” charitable institutions: to put clean caps on the sick, to make inscriptions about illness over the beds “in Latin or in some other language”, and in general, it is desirable that there should be fewer patients, otherwise they will “refer to bad looking or the non-art of medicine." Ammos Fedorovich should pay attention to government places: drive out geese, etc., from those places where petitioners are.
The picture of the city is quite clear. But why doesn’t the Governor demand that his subordinates really put things in order, even if only on the occasion of the visit of the auditor? Why does he advise getting off with “minor amendments”?
The Mayor himself pronounces the answer: “There is no person who does not have some sins behind him. It is already so arranged by God himself ... ". That's what officials are counting on! The auditor will simply turn a blind eye to the visible and invisible shortcomings of the city. And they will help him close his eyes: with money, with meals, or maybe with both. Who would refuse such a thing?!
Officials treat their own sins calmly, sincerely believing that these are not sins, but sins - who doesn’t happen to!
It even has its own philosophy. “What do you think, Anton Antonovich, sins? Sins to sins are different. I tell everyone openly that I take bribes, but why bribes? Greyhound puppies. This is a completely different matter!” - says Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin. Strawberries, together with Khristian Ivanovich, chose an excellent way to treat patients: “the closer to nature, the better; we don’t use expensive medicines”, and therefore the sick recover, “like flies”. These two words are the final verdict on local medicine. The postmaster is eager to find out what the townspeople write in letters, and he opens other people's letters not out of precaution, "but more out of curiosity."
The novelty of the play is that in comedy there is no honest hero who would be a denouncer of all the troubles, the auditor who appeared in the person of Khlestakov was completely invented by officials - this is what is called a “mirage intrigue”, and the plot of this intrigue is the appearance on stage of two landowners - Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, who, in a hurry and interrupting each other, noticing a bunch of unnecessary details, give out the main thing - the auditor in the city, and for two weeks already. The mayor clutches his head in horror and gives the last orders: bring a sword and a hat from the room, take tenths (a police officer, chosen from city residents, from each of ten houses) and distribute brooms to clear those places where the auditor will go.
What kind of person so torments all the officials of the city with his mystery and omnipotence? How do women feel about him? Here another mirage arises - an inaccessible capital that so attracts and attracts. Marry Field Marshal of St. Petersburg! Blessings not only to one lady, but to all her relatives and friends! After Khlestakov's courtship to Marya Antonovna, amazed and not believing in his happiness, the Governor says:
“... What kind of birds we have now become! And Anna Andreevna? Fly high, damn it! The cavalry will be hung over your shoulder…” Anna Andreevna does not lag behind, having already thought about where she will live and that in her room “there will be ambergris so that it would be impossible to enter, and you would only need to close your eyes like that.”
And so, in every way appeased auditor (action 4, phenomena 1-7), who made a marriage proposal to the daughter of the mayor, practically brings to life the mirages that the officials imagine. But the "auditor" leaves and before leaving he sends a letter to a friend. The postmaster could not resist the temptation to open and read this letter. To please others, he began to read the letter in front of everyone. This moment can be called the climax of the whole comedy. Everything was striving for this. All cards are revealed. The shock of officials is growing very quickly. Already only the information that it was not the auditor, they were infuriated. Further in the letter it was painted about each official separately. As soon as it was said about some official, he immediately felt unwell. After reading the letter, they began to scold themselves for not recognizing the substitution, that this person could not be an official, that they were deceived by themselves. They began to realize that all this time Khlestakov was simply laughing at them and that all his words meant nothing.
But this is not the end. The appearance of the gendarme with the news:
“An official who arrived from St. Petersburg by personal order demands you to come to him at once. He stayed at a hotel"
and the silent scene that follows is the main denouement, giving a completely different meaning to the play, turning the comedy into a tragic farce. We have the following picture:
“The mayor in the middle is in the form of a pillar with outstretched arms and his head thrown back. On the right side, his wife and daughter, with the movement of the whole body rushing towards him; behind them is the postmaster, who has turned into a question mark facing the audience; behind him Luka Lukich, lost in the most innocent way; behind him, at the very edge of the stage, three ladies, guests, leaning against one another with the most satirical expression on their faces, directly related to the family of the mayor. On the left side of the mayor: Strawberry, tilting his head somewhat to one side, as if listening to something; behind him, the judge with his arms outstretched, crouching almost to the ground and making a movement with his lips, as if he wanted to whistle or say: “Here you are, grandmother, and St. George’s day!” Behind him is Korobkin, who turned to the audience with a narrowed eye and a caustic allusion to the mayor; behind him, at the very edge, Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky, with rushing movements of their hands towards each other, gaping mouths and bulging eyes at each other. The rest of the guests are just pillars.”
The silent scene does not have an unambiguous interpretation. Gogol insisted that the actors must "endure" a silent scene for at least a minute and a half, which seems like an eternity for a theatrical performance. This silent scene is the denouement of the whole comedy. On the one hand, this is the Last Judgment, which awaits every person after death, this explains the absurdity of the poses in which the heroes are frozen. Here everything petty, veiled, bought is discarded and only the truth of a person’s life that he lived remains, here you can no longer count on the “small sins” of the auditor, before whom you have to answer. On the other hand, the arrival of a real auditor implies the manifestation of the Conscience of everyone: “Look closely at this city, which is displayed in the play! Everyone agrees that there is no such city in all of Russia ... Well, what if this is our spiritual city and it sits with each of us? Say what you like, but the auditor who is waiting for us at the door of the coffin is terrible. As if you don't know who this auditor is? What to pretend? This auditor is our awakened conscience, which will make us suddenly and at once look with all eyes at ourselves. Nothing will hide before this auditor, because by the Nominal Supreme command he was sent and will announce it when it will not be possible to take even a step back. Suddenly it will open before you, in you, such a monster that a hair will rise from horror. It’s better to revise everything that is in us at the beginning of life, and not at the end of it, ”Gogol wrote in Theatrical Traveling. Only stony horror remains on the stage.
However, Gogol believed in the healing power of laughter, "collecting all the bad things" and showing it to the viewer, the author believes that by seeing this and laughing at it, people will change their lives for the better.
4. The content and disclosure of the essence of the play and the characters of the heroes of "The Government Inspector" N.V. Gogol
The Inspector General is a comedy of a clear official profile, social from beginning to end. Fear of superiors and an attraction to a higher rank absorb in her, it seems, everything personal in a person. Man appears here exactly according to Aristotle - as a social animal. Having abandoned the love affair that made the weather at the theater, Gogol offered her in return a much stronger, as he put it, electricity, already contained in the news itself from the very beginning - “the auditor!” It was worth pronouncing this word, as everything in his comedy ran and boiled. “Re - vis - zor” sounds in Russian, like “zhe vu zem” in French, like “Hyundai hoch” in German. It is enough to say "auditor" to immediately start it all. The plot prompted by Pushkin, as Gogol asked, turned out to be purely Russian, fundamentally Russian sourdough. It was she who allowed the text to lie down, exactly according to the measure, in the box of classical drama, into the harmonious idea and form of the “auditor”, although turned inside out, but completely, from the first to the last line, without a trace and without a makeweight, launched on a single screw , on an inverted uniform. Having stocked up with the key of the “auditor”, which turns a sleepy city into a disturbed anthill, idle onlookers and bourbons into obliging dancers, Gogol in The Theater Journey could afford to hint at the discovery of a universal engine, a magic wand or root, from the touch of which everything is tied and untied by itself , revolutionizing theatrical art:
“... They are looking for a private plot and do not want to see a common one. ... No, comedy must knit itself, with all its mass, into one big, common knot. The tie should hug all faces, not just one or two,- to touch on what worries more or less all the actors. Here every hero; the course and course of the play produces a shock to the whole machine: not a single wheel should remain as rusty and out of business.
In Gogol, according to Russian customs, the plot is filled entirely with public interest, leaving no room for other kinds of passions. By the way, in that he saw our national trait - attachment not to personal reasons, but to the aspirations of society. Indeed, administrative enthusiasm takes on a sarcastic form in The Inspector General. In the curves of Gorodnichiy, in Bobchinsky's readiness to run "cockerel" after the droshky, in the supple word "labardan-s" there is something of love languor. On the other hand, the greed of Gorodnichiy's daughter and wife for visiting incognito is based on public interest, like his, Khlestakov's, amorous visits, advances. Erotica gives him an extra chance to show off in his position. Under the skirts, he crawls not as a ladies' man, but as an auditor.
Another finding, no less valuable for the scene, raised by Gogol to an unprecedented height for us, was that a completely random and not even aware of this substitution, a hungry traveler, gets into the auditors, thanks to which the figure, terrifying and providing action in the play, herself is in itself an obvious fiction. Thus, Gogol staked out with his comedy the most promising conflict in the stage sense - the contradiction between speech and the position of the speakers, which is what drama is famous for and keeps as a special kind of literature that finds a place and time on the stage to speak out of place. With the appearance of an imaginary auditor, the play includes not just an important boss and a clever rogue, but the very personification of the theater - an involuntary and mutual deception. Russian drama is celebrating the feast of theatricality in its purest, unalloyed form as the Inspector General.
From the very first remarks, the advent of the “auditor”, like a magic love potion, spilled through the veins of the comedy, capturing the whole reality, the whole mass of performers and extras, whirled and rushed the entire stage car into its orbit. Everyone ran to hide. When, as in hide-and-seek, “markers!” are shouting, announcing the resumption of the horse, a wave came to the audience that they mistook the auditor, and everyone, out of fright, having fallen into deceit, ceased to understand who is whose and where the raid is, then intrigue , jumping up, burst into an explosion of play, a true apotheosis of the comedic word and deed. "Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!" - under this cry of the mayor's wife, the curtain falls in the first act, and under the same chorus everything lives in the "Auditor", entangled, interrupting
The play warns from the very beginning, and words and expressions are scattered throughout the text that speak of the exclusivity of everything that happens. Khlestakov, according to Gogol, is the main character of the play and the most unusual - not only in character, but also in the role that fell to him. In fact, Khlestakov is not an auditor, but not an adventurer who deliberately deceives those around him either. It seems that he is simply not capable of a pre-planned trick, an adventure; this, as Gogol says in remarks, is a young man "without a king in his head", acting "without any consideration", possessing a certain degree of naivety and "candor". But it is precisely all this that allows the false auditor to deceive the mayor with the company, or rather, allows them to deceive themselves. “Khlestakov does not cheat at all, he is not a liar by trade,” wrote Gogol, “he himself will forget that he is lying, and he himself almost believes what he says.” The desire to show off, to become a little taller than in life, to play a more interesting role, destined by fate, is characteristic of any person. The weak are especially susceptible to this passion. From a fourth-class employee, Khlestakov grows up to "commander in chief". The hero of the analysand is experiencing his finest hour. The scope of lies stuns everyone with its breadth and unprecedented strength. But Khlestakov is a genius of lies, he can easily come up with the most unusual and sincerely believe in it.
Thus, in this episode, Gogol deeply reveals the versatility of the protagonist's character: outwardly ordinary, nondescript, empty, "wick", and inwardly - a talented dreamer, superficially educated fanfaron, in a favorable situation reincarnating as the master of the situation. He becomes a "significant person" who is given bribes. Having got the taste, he even begins to demand in a rude form from Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky: "Do you have any money?"
It is impossible not to agree with the opinion of the poet. Indeed, in the "scene of lies" Khlestakov - the bubble, swells to the maximum and shows itself in its true light, in order to burst in the denouement - phantasmagorically disappear, rushing off on a troika. This episode is truly a "magic crystal" comedy. Here, all the features of the protagonist, his "acting skills" are focused and highlighted. The scene makes it possible to better understand that "uncommon lightness in thoughts" about which Gogol warned in his remarks to the gentlemen of the actors. Here comes the culminating moment of pretense and lies of the hero. The convexity of the "scene of lies" is Gogol's formidable warning to subsequent generations, wishing to protect them from a terrible disease - Khlestakovism. Its impact on the viewer is great: those who have lied at least once in their lives will see what excessive lies can lead to. Looking at the image of Khlestakov, you understand how terrible it is to be in the shoes of a liar, experiencing a constant fear of exposure.
Returning to the words of the great sage Krylov, I would like to paraphrase an excerpt from his other fable "The Crow and the Fox": For how many years they have been telling the world that lies are vile, harmful.
Unfortunately, even today this vice finds a corner in the hearts of people, and the only way to fight a lie is by ridiculing it. Gogol understood this well and realized this idea with faith in the "bright nature of man" in the "scene of lies."
Let's re-read individual scenes and episodes, take a closer look at the life of a provincial, God-forgotten town, from which "even if you ride for three years, you won't reach any state." The patriarchal simplicity of provincial customs makes the mayor, without too much diplomacy, inform the officials about the arrival of the auditor. At the same time, it is amusing to listen to the thoughtful opinion of the most "enlightened and free-thinking" person in the city, Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin, who explains this visit by political reasons, by the fact that Russia wants to wage war. The very comparison of Russia's foreign policy and the miserable, petty interests of provincial officials is ridiculous.
The orders of the mayor to his subordinates to take urgent measures before the arrival of the auditor immediately give an idea of the state of affairs in the city hospital, court, and schools. Everywhere disorder, dirt, theft. So you see the sick in dirty hats, smoking strong tobacco, which look very much like blacksmiths. Such a comparison made by the mayor is funny and sad at the same time, because behind this lies the complete helplessness of unfortunate sick people who are completely dependent on scoundrels and scammers.
A funny, typically provincial detail about geese with caterpillars darting under the feet of visitors to the presence hints quite transparently at the state of justice in the city. The very name of Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin does not require additional comments. Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky's discussions about school teachers, for example, about the one who, having ascended the pulpit, necessarily makes a terrible grimace, which can be misinterpreted by Mr. Inspector, are permeated with humor.
Luka Lukich Khlopov, the mortally frightened superintendent of district schools, fully agrees with the mayor, recalling how, because of this teacher's behavior, he was reprimanded for instilling free-thinking thoughts in youth. This is no longer funny, because in Russia in the 30s of the 19th century, depicted in comedy, progressive, freedom-loving views were mercilessly suppressed and persecuted. This was especially true of educational institutions, which were considered hotbeds of harmful anti-government ideas.
Is it not that "the mayor is stupid as a gray gelding", "the postmaster is a scoundrel, he drinks bitter", "the overseer of a charitable institution Strawberry is a perfect pig in a yarmulke", "the superintendent of schools is rotten through and through with onions", "Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin in mauvais ton of the strongest degree "... All these characteristics from the letter of Khlestakov, also an empty little man, are evil, but true. The officials of this provincial town wear masks and are terribly afraid that someone will see their true nature. It is fear that makes them mistake Khlestakov's pacifier for an auditor. And not to see his lies behind his own deceitful essence.
In order to catch the mechanism of the play, where no one before Gogol collected so much evil at once, did not plunge the whole city into darkness, from which no auditors could escape, one can analyze the plots of the play, the actions and remarks of the characters.
First, there is no one here who would truly suffer from the authorities and public disorder. There is no virtue here, everyone here is moderately vicious, and therefore, in fact, we have nothing to worry about. Merchants-arshinniks are the first thieves and, plucked by the Gorodnichiy, they immediately overgrow.
It is a pity, as a human being, it is only the perpetrators of lawlessness who find themselves in an extremely unpleasant situation by the end of the comedy. And most of all, I feel sorry for the Governor:his fall is the most terrible of all, although, of course, the funniest of all.
Secondly, in the perception of the play (for the sake of close empathy), it is necessary to renounce later accretions on it, whether in the form of criticism that was indignant at the state of affairs in Russia, or in the form of the author's tricks to justify in hindsight, turning irresponsible laughter on the right path. It is especially difficult to protect oneself from the sensitive influence that Dead Souls have on reading the play under the label of Gogol's subsequent and dominant work, as if created in direct continuation of The Inspector General. Comedy involuntarily turns to a huge education that is alien to it in essence, and in its neighborhood grows dim, freezes, cluttered up with things, cabinets, as in Sobakevich's estate, among which one can no longer see a human face.
This tendency manifested itself very clearly in the production of Meyerhold, who designed The Inspector General into the condensed materiality and stuffiness of Dead Souls. Directed by Meyerhold (not to mention many other, less talented interpretations and productions) was aimed at all-round densification of the matter that squeezed the soul and air out of the luminous body of the comedy. The Inspector General was put under the pressure of Gogol's monstrous still lifes.
5. The role of the work of art N.V. Gogol "Inspector"
In its creative overflow, The Inspector General surpasses Gogol, who, having written it in an unprecedentedly short time, then remained riveted to it for many years and kept trying to figure out explanations and notes for The Inspector General, a whole forest of props, buttresses, typing them into a new volume - theatrical tours, denouements, amendments to his indefatigable comedy. The long-term commentaries composed by him, sometimes not climbing into any gates, also indicate the intolerability of the task - to understand what, after all, was written as a result of his hasty play.
In art since ancient times, it has been noticed that roles and positions have become plot-forming, structural forms that have come into a strange contradiction with the tried and tested way of life, but not this way itself. That is, art picks up from life not general rules, but violations of the rules and begins with the removal of life from a state of equilibrium, gravitating towards the sphere of the forbidden, unusual, lawless. Art begins with a miracle, and in the absence of such, it begins with deceit, forgery, betrayal, loss and crime. That is why the aesthetic fact (in search of shocked harmony) is accompanied by tears and laughter, and at its very base are located on the sides of the sister - tragedy and comedy. Laughter in the broadest sense is the true symptom or impulse of art, its original definition. In this capacity, he penetrates and washes with himself any poetic creation, being, as it were, the cause and eternal accompaniment of creativity. Secretly, every artist laughs, every image of him is ridiculous.
In Gogol, "artist" and "comedian" merged into one especially fully. Laughter and in its external manifestations served him as an indicator of feelings, vitality and poetic force, coincided directly with the work of writing and creating forms. All his spiritual strings, whether they are gloomy or lyrical, are connected with a comic nerve, which is invariably mixed into his creative sighs and tears.
Speaking about the characters in his comedy, Gogol called her the only honest hero - laughter. Indeed, the play is full of funny situations, unexpected situations, comic errors, ironic remarks, sarcastic characteristics. Even the plot of the comedy itself is based on the fact that officials, frightened by the news of the arrival of a powerful auditor, take the empty and insignificant Khlestakov for him. This mistake at the end of the comedy creates a grotesque situation when the cunning, rude and despotic mayor himself becomes a victim of deception. The mayor's words, full of impotent rage, that he "deceived scammers over scammers", "even deceived three governors" arouse laughter. The auditorium trembles with laughter, and the mayor throws a murderous remark at the audience: "What are you laughing at? You are laughing at yourself! .." These words suggest seriously thinking about what makes us laugh so merrily at the presentation of Gogol's comedy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
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Essay plan
1. Introduction. The originality of the artistic structure of comedy.
2. The main part. Plot-compositional originality of "Inspector".
— Exposition in the plot of a comedy.
- Tie.
- Herald Heroes. Action development.
- The first acquaintance of the Governor with Khlestakov. Action development.
— The third and fourth acts of the comedy. The development of action in a real conflict and culminating episodes in a "mirage" intrigue.
— Fifth act. The climax and denouement of the play /
3. Conclusion. Gogol's innovation.
In comedy N.V. Gogol acts as an innovative playwright. He overcomes the traditional techniques of classicism poetics, vaudeville techniques, departs from the traditional love affair, turning to a satirical depiction of society, a city that grows into a grandiose symbol of the Russian state. “I wanted to put together everything bad in Russia and at one time ... laugh at everything,” wrote N.V. Gogol. Let's try to analyze the plot-compositional structure of the work.
The originality of the author was already in the fact that the exposition in the comedy follows after the plot. The plot of the play is the first phrase of Gorodnichiy: "... the auditor is coming to us." And only after that we plunge into the atmosphere of life in the county town, find out what orders are established there, what local officials do. We will also learn some details here: about how the guests of charitable institutions are kept, what procedures the judge has established “in government places”, what is happening in educational institutions ..
The plot of the real intrigue of the comedy, as we have already noted above, is the first line of Gorodnichiy. IN AND. Nemirovich-Danchenko in the article "Secrets of Gogol's stage charm" noted Gogol's extraordinary courage and innovation in creating the plot. “The most remarkable masters of the theater,” he says, “could not start a play except in the first few scenes. In The Government Inspector, there is one sentence, one first sentence: “I have invited you, gentlemen, in order to tell you unpleasant news: the auditor is coming to visit us,” and the play has already begun. The plot is given, and its main impulse is given - fear. However, it is worth noting that there is no fear here yet. The plot in the play is distinguished by comedy, satire, and psychologism. The arrival of the auditor is certainly unpleasant news, but the situation is traditional. Gorodnichiy has extensive experience in such cases (he deceived two governors). The inspector is coming, but they are not afraid of him yet. The city still holds the initiative in its hands. However, the city is already set in motion. The mayor vigorously distributes instructions to officials. Gogol showed himself to be a talented playwright, inventing such a plot, thanks to which all the actors of the comedy immediately set in motion. Each of them acts according to his character and his crimes. We also note that the protagonist himself is not present either in the exposition or in the plot of the play.
Further, Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky appear in the comedy and bring news of the mysterious guest of the tavern. Here Gogol uses the image of messenger-heroes, traditional for comedies. Only the news they bring is unconventional. From nothing they create the image of the auditor. The arrival of a stranger seems unexpected to them, his behavior is mysterious (he lives, observes, does not declare himself). And this is where confusion begins among the officials, fear arises. The scene depicting the heroes-heralds is extremely important in the artistic fabric of the play. Some researchers believe that it is a kind of completion of the plot in the real conflict of the play. Other critics (who indicated the presence of two intrigues in the plot - real and "mirage") see in it the plot of a "mirage" intrigue. It seems that we can consider this scene as a development of the action after the plot (Gorodnichiy's message) in the real conflict of the play.
The scene of Gorodnichiy's first acquaintance with Khlestakov is built on a very complex comedy. This scene is also a development of the action both in a real and in a "mirage" conflict. Khlestakov feels fear, believing that they are going to send him into a debt hole. The mayor believes that his interlocutor is distinguished by cunning and deceit: “what a fog he let in!”. The characters do not understand each other, being on different wavelengths, as it were. But the Governor regards all Khlestakov's behavior as some kind of subtle game, the conditions of which he quickly accepts. And the seduction of the imaginary auditor begins. To begin with, Anton Antonovich gives him a bribe. This is a turning point in Gorodnichiy's behavior. He overcomes shyness and feels more confident. The situation is certainly familiar to him and familiar. Then he invites him to live in his house, visit charitable institutions, a district school, a prison. In a word, it is active. We note here the comedy in the development of the conflict. “From the point of view of common sense, the hero who leads the action, the attacker, the attacker, should be the auditor, since he is a government official who came to the city with an audit, with a check, and Khlestakov does not attack anyone, since he is not an auditor. He turns out to be the object of an attack, by an absurd coincidence he was mistaken for an auditor, and he repels this attack as best he can. The hero leading the action is the Mayor. At the heart of all his actions is one desire: to deceive the auditor, to create the appearance of well-being, not to allow a single person in the city to tell the auditor about malfeasance.<…>All this "on the contrary" will go through all the most important moments in the development of the conflict.
The events of the third act also represent a very stage in the development of the conflict. Khlestakov probably begins to guess that he is being mistaken for an important state person, and begins to play this role, very naturally. He talks about his life in the capital and lies to such an extent that he completely exposes himself. The scene of lies is the culmination of the hero's self-exposure. However, the Governor and other officials take the hero's lie for granted. What is the reason for such behaviour? As the researchers note, “fear set the stage for deception. But Khlestakov's sincerity deceived him. An experienced rogue would hardly have led Gorodnichiy, but the unintentionality of Khlestakov's actions confused him.<…>... In all cases - even at the moment of the most incredible lies - Khlestakov is sincere. Khlestakov invents with the same sincerity with which he previously spoke the truth, and this again deceives the officials. This is followed by the scene of the visit of the imaginary auditor by local officials - he takes money from everyone. The scene of bribes contains a crudely comic move. The first visitor, the judge, is still embarrassed to offer Khlestakov money: he does it clumsily, with fear. However, Khlestakov resolves the tense situation by asking for a loan. And then he borrows from each of the officials, and the amounts increase from visit to visit. Then follows the scene of courtship of Khlestakov for the daughter and wife of Gorodnichiy. He is wooing Marya Antonovna. This scene contains a parody of a love affair. As V. Gippius notes, “the unity of time required a fast pace, but still gave scope within five acts and twenty-four real hours. As if mocking this rule, Gogol contains two explanations, a misunderstanding with rivalry, an offer and an engagement within a half-act and a few minutes, in order to laugh at this “phantom” in the last act. Thus, the scenes of lies, bribes and matchmaking are the development of the action in the real conflict of the play and at the same time the culminating episodes in the “mirage” conflict.
In the fifth act, we have a climax in the development of real intrigue - this is the scene of Khlestakov's exposure. The mayor triumphs: he not only managed to hide his affairs from the auditor, but also almost intermarried with him (this scene is also the climax in the development of the "mirage" intrigue). However, his triumph is overshadowed by the arrival of the Postmaster with a letter that reveals the true state of affairs. The scene of reading Khlestakov's letter is the culmination of a real conflict and at the same time the denouement of a "mirage" intrigue. However, the comedy does not end with this episode. This is followed by the appearance of a gendarme, who announces the arrival of a real auditor. This scene represents the denouement in the real conflict of the play. Thus, the plot action returns to where it began. Gogol has acquired various interpretations of critics. One of its interpretations: the real auditor has finally arrived and the city is waiting for a real fair punishment. Another version: the arrived official is associated with heavenly punishment, which all the actors of the comedy are afraid of.
Thus, N.V. Gogol is an innovator in the development of dramatic techniques, in the depiction of the conflict. In his comedy, he almost completely abandoned the love affair. The love triangle Marya Antonovna - Khlestakov - Anna Andreevna is defiantly parody. The plot is based on an unusual case, an “anecdote”, which, however, allows you to deeply reveal social relations and ties. The protagonist is not present in either the first or the last act of The Inspector General: he is absent both in the plot and in the denouement. The climax in the development of the real conflict also occurs without Khlestakov. The dynamics of the "Inspector" follows a certain rule - "already wants to reach, grab it with his hand, when suddenly insanity" . This equally applies to Gorodnichiy, to his ambitious hopes, and to Marya Antonovna, to her love aspirations. The basis of the action of the play is not personal clashes, but a general, social principle. Gogol has no positive characters in the play. The ideal leaves the writer in the subtext. This is an idea, a moral criterion, from the standpoint of which the author evaluates social vices. According to Gogol, laughter is the only positive aspect of comedy. These are the main features of the poetics of Gogol the playwright.
1. Lion P.E., Lokhova N.M. Literature: For high school students and entering universities: Textbook. M., 2002, p.210.
2. Mann Yu.V., Samorodnitskaya E.I. Gogol at school. M., 2008, p. 97.
3. Bogomolova E.I., Zharov T.K., Kedrova M.M. A guide to literature. M., 1951, p. 151., p. 152.
4. Mann Yu.V., Samorodnitskaya E.I. Gogol at school. M., 2008, pp. 118–119.
5. Gippius V. Gogol. L., 1924, p. 99.
Gogol's idea found a brilliant implementation in his comedy, defining its genre as socio-political comedy. The driving spring in The Inspector General is not a love affair, not private life events, but social order phenomena. The plot of the comedy is based on a commotion among the officials who are waiting for the auditor, and their desire to hide their "sins" from him. Thus, such a compositional feature of the comedy was determined as the absence of a central character in it; such a hero in the "Inspector" was, in the words of Belinsky, "a corporation of various service thieves and robbers", bureaucratic masses. This bureaucracy is given, first of all, in his official activity, which, naturally, entailed the inclusion of images of the merchant class and the bourgeoisie in the play.
The Inspector General is a broad picture of the bureaucratic bureaucratic rule of feudal Russia in the 1930s. The ingenious writer, Gogol, drawing this picture, managed to write each image included in it in such a way that he. without losing its individual identity, at the same time it is a typical phenomenon of the life of that time.
The mayor is a convinced bribe-taker: “This is already arranged by God himself, and the Voltairians speak against it in vain. He is an embezzler: he constantly embezzles state money.
The goal of his aspirations is "over time ... to get into the generals." Why does he need it? “According to the concept of our mayor,” says Belinsky. - to be a general means to see humiliation and meanness from the lower ones in front of you. In dealing with subordinates, in relation to the population of the city, he is self-confident, rude and despotic: "L who will be dissatisfied, then after the ladies of such displeasure ..."; “Here I am them, canals ...”; "What samovars, arshinniks ..." Such rude shouts and abuse are characteristic of the mayor.
But otherwise he keeps himself 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, he says, filling his speech with expressions accepted in the official circle: “In other cities, I dare to tell you, city governors and officials are more concerned about their own, that is, good, except in order to earn the attention of the authorities with deanery and vigilance.
The famous and most interesting Gogol comedy The Inspector General has an unusual literary composition for that time. The main difference is that it does not give a detailed history of all those actions that lead to the main event, which is reflected in the comedy and underlies the entire artistic narrative. In literature, the absence of prehistory is called exposition. Some researchers believe that as such an exposition for Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" one can take a small digression in the comedy of the author himself - "Remarks for gentlemen of the actors." But this fact is not confirmed by anything, so all this remains at the level of speculation and conjecture.
What can you learn from this author's digression even before you start reading the entire Gogol comedy? In this short story, the author describes the characters of his characters in more detail, allowing the actors to understand them to the end and correctly and competently play them later on stage. There is another distinguishing feature of Gogol's comedy: the whole action of the work begins immediately with the plot, and it is already contained in the phrase of the Governor, who informs the city officials about the purpose for which he gathered them. And then the Governor says that soon the auditor should come to the city, and this news, both for him and for all city officials, is unpleasant. One sentence, but from it much becomes clear and the reader can only wait to see what the outcome of this whole action will be.
The main driving force of Gogol's comedy, which helps the action to develop quickly, replacing them, is the fear of city officials. It is so strong with them that it is easy for them to see an auditor in a passing petty official. But Khlestakov has long proved himself in the city, living in the most seedy tavern in the city. By the way, in the course of the story, the reader learns that he has been living there for the second week, but he has nothing to pay. Therefore, he cannot move further, since he does not have enough funds for this. But no one even thinks about it, the fear of the mayor and his assistant officials is much stronger. It is he who has such a strong effect on the officials of the county town that everyone is trying to serve the imaginary auditor, not even seeing that he is of a completely different level. Officials are afraid of exposure, and this fear pushes them to rash acts that look stupid and ridiculous in the course of Gogol's narrative.
And the main character is so stupid and ignorant that he does not immediately understand why the attitude towards him suddenly changes and everyone shows great zeal to serve him. Even his servant begins to understand this faster than the master himself. But the highest point in the development of all actions in Gogol's narrative is the scene when Khlestakov begins to lie and it is already impossible to stop. Gogol shows this as the culmination of his work. The author ironically describes how a man from the low class of officials is trying to prove to everyone that he occupies a high place. And with each phrase of the protagonist, it becomes higher and higher, and there are more lies. The imaginary auditor sees how city officials are listening to him and is ready to lie even more, just to remain in the spotlight.
Finally, he also achieves his fame, stands at its peak, and does not see it at all, and does not want to notice that his own words are different, that it is impossible to line them up in some kind of logical chain. And the more Khlestakov drinks, the higher his pedestal becomes. He triumphs and enjoys the fact that I finally listen to him and, the strangest thing, they believe him. But in comedy, the denouement is the moment when everyone: both the mayor and his officials read a letter written by Khlestakov themselves. He writes to his friend a certain Tryapichkin and tells what an interesting adventure happened to him. This is how the truth is revealed and this is the outcome of the entire Gogol event.
Everyone will learn that Khlestakov is not an inspector, and the way he describes in his letter the society of the county town, where he spent some time, amuse even the officials themselves. Only not those about whom they begin to read the characteristic. And here everyone clearly realizes that they, people who consider themselves smart, mistook the most insignificant person for the auditor. Are they surprised at how everyone could take him for an auditor? But Gogol's mastery is emphasized by the fact that at the end of his play he also inserts a "silent scene", which gives the work a certain peculiarity in the composition.
And when all the heroes are fascinated by the revealed truth, a gendarme appears who informs the mayor and city officials that a real auditor has arrived in their dirty county town. So the action ends, as if creating a circle. After all, now the urban society, which is in power, is again returning to its former state, and they are overcome by fear. And this is a kind of Gogol's hint that now all the inhabitants of the county town, who did not do their job, will face retribution. That is why the dramatic skill of Nikolai Gogol was so highly valued, who in a completely new way wrote the most original work of Russian literature, which became the treasure of the Russian theater.
Among the features of The Inspector General, as a comedy, are:
- the absence of positive types, which were the reasoners in the comedies of the 18th century, which is Chatsky in Griboyedov. However, Gogol himself found that in his comedy there is a positive, noble face, namely, laughter; but under this face, in fact, the author himself is hiding, exposing his unsightly heroes to general ridicule.
- Another feature of comedy is the absence of a love affair in it, which was previously considered an almost inevitable attribute of any play.
- This feature is associated with the special nature of the plot of the whole comedy. Gogol himself says on this occasion: “Comedy must knit by itself, with all its mass, into one big common knot. The tie should embrace all faces, and not just one or two, touch what worries more or less all actors ... "
In this regard, the plot of the comedy was chosen by Gogol extremely well: the news of the auditor, indeed, touches the nerves of all the people who have been brought out, produces a general shock, makes everyone involuntarily show their character.
The mere circumstance that they were so easily deceived sufficiently characterizes the deceived persons; this was reflected in the restless state of their conscience, the consciousness of their misdeeds, the fear of legal punishment, which, as it were, blinds them and makes, in the words of the mayor, "mistake an icicle, a rag for an important person."
The scene of action in The Inspector General is a provincial provincial town, from which, as one of the characters in the comedy says, even if you “jump for three years, you won’t reach any state.”
The time of action is easy to establish from the words of the judge (the character in the comedy). This is the beginning of the 30s.
The actors of the comedy are mostly officials who came from the ranks of the nobility, but next to them are other social groups: urban landowners, merchants, philistines, etc.
The author of the comedy was faced with the question of why the bureaucracy was working so ugly, criminally in different parts of Russia. Answering this question, Gogol unfolds his picture before us. He connects officials with merchants, with philistines, and, developing the action, takes the moment when “unpleasant news” about the impending arrival of the auditor “incognito”, “with a secret order” falls on the heads of officials.
As if struck by thunder, officials fuss, get lost, they are seized by boundless fear: after all, they were sure that no auditor's eye would look into such a wilderness as their town.
This moment of receiving the news, which created a movement in the ranks of officials, called them to a series of actions, is the beginning of a comedy. The plot is followed by a chain of events that draw before us a very interesting struggle. All of it is built on the self-deception of officials: in essence, they are fighting a ghost and thanks to this they find themselves in extremely comic situations. Nevertheless, the struggle continues, growing and growing in its tension.
The struggle reaches its highest point in the scene of Khlestakov's courtship. Officials are confident that the audit will end successfully, and triumph. However, the celebration is premature. Khlestakov's letter to his St. Petersburg friend, opened by the postmaster, opens the eyes of officials to everything that happened, and they feel "fools."
This moment we call the denouement. However, Gogol does not stop the comedy here: it is not enough for him to leave the officials “in the cold”, he wants to punish them for all the lies so that their repetition becomes impossible. Hence the last scene with the gendarme, leading the rogue officials into a complete stupor.
In the comedy The Inspector General, the action takes place not in the capital and not among the highest officials, but in the outback. The actors, on the other hand, belong to the provincial minority, who only in their sweet dreams dream of the rank of general. But here, too, Gogol achieves very great results thanks to the unusually artistic performance of the task.
The plot of the comedy lies in the fact that in a certain small county town, a young official from St. Petersburg who accidentally passes by is mistaken for an important person who has come to revise the county. Everything in the town was in turmoil. All officials vying with each other are trying to cover up sins and bring subordinate institutions into proper form, and most importantly, to appease an important person with bribes. This, of course, they succeed completely, and at the moment when they are already celebrating their victory, not a fictitious, but a real auditor appears.
At one time, Gogol was reproached for such a plot. They pointed to its artificiality and implausibility. But, firstly, it must be taken into account that such cases actually took place in those days. Secondly, such an exceptional circumstance made it possible for Gogol to bring to the stage, in a concise and small volume
work, the whole "inside story" of county life.
