What is the meaning of the name dead souls briefly. The meaning and internal content in the title of the poem N

Lyric-epic poem by N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls" is undoubtedly the main one in the writer's work. You can think for a long time about the genre of the work, about the image of the main character Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. But the first question that arises even before reading the work: why is the poem called “Dead Souls”?

True "Dead Souls"

The simplest answer to this question is related to the plot of the work: Chichikov buys the “dead” souls of peasants in order to pawn them and get money for it. But the further you read, the more clearly you understand that true dead souls– the heroes of the work are landowners, officials, and Chichikov himself.

The landowners described in the poem: Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdryov, Sobakevich and Plyushkin are soulless people. Someone lives by dreams, another thinks narrowly, the third wastes his fortune and spoils his loved ones, the fourth does everything only for himself, the fifth has generally become a “tear in the body of humanity”, has lost his human appearance.

City officials N

The officials of the city of N are even more “dead”. This is most clearly manifested in the scene at the ball, where there is not a single face, and only headdresses flash. They are unspiritual and have lost interest in anything other than hoarding money and bribes.

It is worth noting that, following the owners, the serfs begin to lose their souls: Chichikov’s coachman Selifan, the peasants Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyai, the yard girl Korobochka.

The main thing according to Gogol

Gogol considered the most important thing in a person to be the soul, which reflects the divine beginning of each of us. The soul in literature was the subject of auction, card games, losses. Left without a soul, a person can no longer be considered alive. He cannot be useful, the only thing to be expected from him is inhumane actions, because he does not feel anything.

The loss of the soul is not only terrible, but also dangerous, because the person who has lost the soul does evil, without experiencing embarrassment or remorse. Therefore N.V. Gogol warns the reader that each of us can become Manilov, Korobochka or Sobakevich if we allow ourselves to be carried away by some soulless trifle.

Introduction

Back in 1835, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol began work on one of his most famous and significant works - the poem “Dead Souls”. Almost 200 years have passed since the publication of the poem, but the work remains relevant to this day. Few people know that if the author had not made some concessions, the reader might not have seen the work at all. Gogol had to edit the text many times just so that the censor would approve the decision to publish it. The version of the title of the poem proposed by the author did not suit the censorship. Many chapters of “Dead Souls” were changed almost completely, lyrical digressions were added, and the story about Captain Kopeikin lost its harsh satire and some characters. The author, if you believe the stories of his contemporaries, even wanted to place on the title page of the publication an illustration of a chaise surrounded by human skulls. There are several meanings for the title of the poem “Dead Souls”.

Name ambiguity

The title of the work “Dead Souls” is ambiguous. Gogol, as you know, conceived a three-part work by analogy with Dante’s “Divine Comedy”. The first volume is Hell, that is, the abode of dead souls.

Secondly, the plot of the work is connected with this. In the 19th century, dead peasants were called “dead souls.” In the poem, Chichikov buys documents for deceased peasants, and then sells them to the guardianship council. Dead souls were listed as alive in the documents, and Chichikov received a considerable sum for this.

Thirdly, the name emphasizes the acute social problem. The fact is that at that time there were a great many sellers and buyers of dead souls; this was not controlled or punished by the authorities. The treasury was emptying, and enterprising swindlers were making a fortune for themselves. The censorship strongly recommended that Gogol change the title of the poem to “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls,” shifting the emphasis to Chichikov’s personality rather than to an acute social problem.

Perhaps Chichikov’s idea will seem strange to some, but it all comes down to the fact that there is no difference between the dead and the living. Both are for sale. Both dead peasants and landowners who agreed to sell documents for a certain reward. A person completely loses his human outline and becomes a commodity, and his entire essence is reduced to a piece of paper that indicates whether you are alive or not. It turns out that the soul turns out to be mortal, which contradicts the main postulate of Christianity. The world is becoming soulless, devoid of religion and any moral and ethical guidelines. Such a world is described epically. The lyrical component lies in the description of nature and the spiritual world.

Metaphorical

The meaning of the title “Dead Souls” by Gogol is metaphorical. It becomes interesting to look at the problem of the disappearance of boundaries between the dead and the living in the description of the purchased peasants. Korobochka and Sobakevich describe the dead as if they were alive: one was kind, the other was a good plowman, the third had golden hands, but those two did not take a drop into their mouths. Of course, there is a comic element in this situation, but on the other hand, all these people who once worked for the benefit of the landowners are presented in the readers’ imagination as alive and still living.

The meaning of Gogol's work, of course, is not limited to this list. One of the most important interpretations lies in the characters described. After all, if you look, then everything characters, except for the dead souls themselves, turn out to be inanimate. Officials and landowners have been mired in routine, uselessness and aimlessness of existence for so long that the desire to live does not appear in them in principle. Plyushkin, Korobochka, Manilov, the mayor and the postmaster - they all represent a society of empty and senseless people. The landowners appear before the reader as a series of heroes, arranged according to the degree of moral degradation. Manilov, whose existence is devoid of everything worldly, Korobochka, whose stinginess and pickiness knows no bounds, the lost Plyushkin, ignoring obvious problems. The soul in these people died.

Officials

The meaning of the poem “Dead Souls” lies not only in the lifelessness of the landowners. Officials present a much more frightening picture. Corruption, bribery, nepotism. An ordinary person finds himself hostage to a bureaucratic machine. The piece of paper becomes the determining factor human life. This can be seen especially clearly in “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin.” A war disabled person is forced to go to the capital only to confirm his disability and apply for a pension. However, Kopeikin is unable to understand and break the management mechanisms, unable to come to terms with the constant postponement of meetings, Kopeikin commits a rather eccentric and risky act: he sneaks into the official’s office, threatening that he will not leave until his demands are heard. The official quickly agrees, and Kopeikin loses his vigilance from the abundance of flattering words. The story ends with Kopeikin being taken away by the civil servant's assistant. No one heard anything more about Captain Kopeikin.

Vices exposed

It is no coincidence that the poem is called “Dead Souls.” Spiritual poverty, inertia, lies, gluttony and greed kill a person’s desire to live. After all, anyone can turn into Sobakevich or Manilov, Nozdryov or the mayor - you just need to stop striving for something other than your own enrichment, come to terms with the current state of affairs and implement some of the seven deadly sins, continuing to pretend that nothing is happening.

The text of the poem contains wonderful words: “but centuries pass after centuries; Half a million Sidneys, bumpkins and boibaks sleep soundly, and rarely is a husband born in Rus' who knows how to pronounce it, this almighty word “forward.”

Work test

In May 1842, the first volume of Gogol’s “ Dead souls" The work was conceived by the author while he was working on The Inspector General. In Dead Souls, Gogol addresses the main theme of his work: the ruling classes of Russian society. The writer himself said: “My creation is huge and great, and its end will not come soon.” Indeed, “Dead Souls” is an outstanding phenomenon in the history of Russian and world satire.

"Dead Souls" - a satire on serfdom

“Dead Souls” - a work In this Gogol is a successor Pushkin's prose. He himself speaks about this on the pages of the poem in lyrical digression about two types of writers (Chapter VII).

Here the peculiarity of Gogol's realism is revealed: the ability to expose and show close up all the flaws human nature, which are not always obvious. “Dead Souls” reflected the basic principles of realism:

1. Historicism. The work is written about modern writer time - the turn of the 20-30s of the 19th century - then serfdom experienced a serious crisis.
2. Typical character and circumstances. Landowners and officials are depicted satirically with a clearly expressed critical focus, the main social types. Special attention Gogol pays attention to details.
3. Satirical typification. It is achieved author's description characters, comic situations, reference to the past of heroes, hyperbolization, use of proverbs in speech.

Meaning of the name: literal and metaphorical

Gogol planned to write a work in three volumes. He took Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy” as a basis. Likewise, Dead Souls was supposed to consist of three parts. Even the title of the poem refers the reader to Christian principles.

Why "Dead Souls"? The name itself is an oxymoron, a juxtaposition of the incomparable. The soul is a substance that is inherent in the living, but not in the dead. Using this technique, Gogol gives hope that not all is lost, that the positive principle in the crippled souls of landowners and officials can be reborn. This is what the second volume should have been about.

The meaning of the title of the poem “Dead Souls” lies on several levels. On the very surface there is a literal meaning, because it is dead souls dead peasants were named in bureaucratic documents. Actually, this is the essence of Chichikov’s fraud: to buy dead serfs and take money as collateral. The main characters are shown in the circumstances of the sale of peasants. “Dead souls” are the landowners and officials themselves that Chichikov encounters, because there is nothing human or living left in them. They are ruled by the thirst for profit (officials), feeble-mindedness (Korobochka), cruelty (Nozdryov) and rudeness (Sobakevich).

The deep meaning of the name

All new aspects are revealed as you read the poem “Dead Souls”. The meaning of the title, hidden in the depths of the work, makes us think that any person, a simple layman, can eventually turn into Manilov or Nozdryov. It is enough for one small passion to settle in his heart. And he will not notice how vice will grow there. To this end, in Chapter XI, Gogol calls on the reader to look deep into his soul and check: “Is there some part of Chichikov in me too?”

Gogol laid down in the poem “Dead Souls” a multifaceted meaning of the title, which is revealed to the reader not immediately, but in the process of comprehending the work.

Genre originality

When analyzing “Dead Souls,” another question arises: “Why does Gogol position the work as a poem?” Really, genre originality creations are unique. In the process of working on the work, Gogol shared his creative discoveries with friends in letters, calling “Dead Souls” both a poem and a novel.

About the second volume of "Dead Souls"

In a state of deep creative crisis Over the course of ten years, Gogol wrote the second volume of Dead Souls. In correspondence, he often complains to friends that things are going very slowly and are not particularly satisfying.

Gogol turns to the harmonious, positive image landowner Kostanzhoglo: judicious, responsible, using scientific knowledge in the structure of the estate. Under its influence, Chichikov reconsiders his attitude to reality and changes for the better.

Seeing “life’s lies” in the poem, Gogol burned the second volume of “Dead Souls.”

Name of this work Gogol, is primarily associated with the main character Chichikov, who bought up dead peasants. To start your own business. But in fact, he wanted to sell these dead souls and get rich.

But this is not the only meaning of the title of this work, the author wanted to show the true souls of society that they have long since hardened and died. This is evident from the fact that each character in this work has no spiritual development.

Chichikov in order to buy more peasants for his new estate travels all over Russia. But he sees that most rich people see almost nothing around them except their base desires. The landowner Manilov does not do anything and does not do any useful things. He spends all his time talking and talking, or indulging in daydreams.

The landowner Sobakevich is like an animal, he is all his own free time, is eating something. And such huge portion sizes that to an ordinary person they can't do it.

The box from which Chichikov bought souls dead peasants. She loves nothing in life except trading, and you can only talk to her on this topic or on the topic of food. Because she loves to eat and treats everyone to all kinds of dishes.

Plyushkin is generally a separate character who is not only dead in soul, but also does not fit into any framework normal person. Collect so much goodness and all sorts of things, but do not use them and do not sell them or give them to poor people.

This is blatant greed, in the work it is written in detail that Plyushkin has mountains of moldy bread, could it really not have been given to other people?

All landowners like Korobochka, Sobakevich, Nozdryov do not live a spiritual life, but are busy filling their pockets and bellies, eating all kinds of dishes.

Officials are also not at all interested in anything other than their work, in order to receive profit and bribes from all the visitors who come to them. The landowners overeat and rejoice at the new dishes. Plyushkin is not even interested in new and tasty dishes; he is busy accumulating his unprecedented wealth. He has reached the end of his rope in this matter, he collects all his wealth, but eats food worse than the beggars. This is the highest level of stinginess.

Initially, Gogol wanted to write the poem “Dead Souls” in three parts, raising the souls of the entire society, from the very bottom, from hell then to purgatory, and then when these sick souls are cured, they go to heaven.

Hence the meaning of the work: society is in a terrible dead-end development. Spiritual development No. But the author still hopes that people will come to their senses and their souls will go to heaven. And peace, high spirituality will reign in the world and high moral principles will be valued.

What is the meaning of the name?

In 1842, the first volume of one of the most famous and sensational works of N.V. was released. Gogol’s prose poem “Dead Souls,” the title of which illustrates the dominant idea of ​​the work. As N. Berdyaev said about Gogol: “The most mysterious figure in Russian literature". So what is the author hiding under such a mystical name for his brainchild?

The main motive of the prose poem “The Adventures of Chichikov, or Dead Souls” is multifaceted and multifaceted. The idea for the plot was taken on the friendly advice of Pushkin and on the basis of the plot suggested by him. This entire work is a medical history, an awareness of the horror and shame that a person experiences when he sees his real face in the mirror. Under the veil of the false, the author shows us the real truth. Gogol in his poem increasingly notes the callousness and cowardice of his heroes.

If we think straightforwardly, then a dead soul is a person’s lack of rational ideology, the passivity of his activities and the primitiveness of his activities and aspirations. In this case, it no longer matters to which social circle the character belongs, because the dead soul is society as a whole. On the one hand, this is the designation of a deceased serf, a “revision soul”, which according to documents is listed as alive. Many characters, starting with Chichikov, are already defined by the very act of buying and selling non-existent people. Completely perverted relationships are formed, turned upside down. At first it appears that city ​​life is seething, but in reality it is just ordinary fuss.

Dead soul in inner world poems are common. Here, for people, the soul is only what distinguishes a dead person from a living one. This is what A.I. wrote about the poem. Herzen: ““Dead Souls” - this title itself carries something terrifying in itself.” Indeed, hidden behind all this is another, completely different, deeper meaning: to reveal the entire plan in three parts, like Dante’s three-part poem “ Divine Comedy" It is assumed that Gogol intended to create three volumes corresponding to the chapters “Hell”, “Purgatory” and “Paradise”, where in the first part he wanted to reveal the terrifying Russian reality, the “hell” of the modern way of life, and in the second and third parts of the three-volume set - the spiritual the rise of Russia.

From this we can conclude that N.V. Gogol tried to reveal real picture life landed nobility, a hopeless dead end, decline and spiritual decay using the example of the heroes of the work. The author in the first part of “Dead Souls” tries to convey negative traits Russian life, he hints to people that their souls have become dead, and, pointing out their vices, brings them back to life.

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WHAT'S THE POINT?
GOGOL'S POEM "DEAD SOULS".

Poem "The Dead"
souls" was written at a time when
Russia was dominated by serfdom.
The landowners controlled their peasants,
like things or livestock, they could buy and
sell them. Landowner's wealth
determined by the number of peasants who
belonged to him. In about 10
For years, the state carried out a census of “souls.”
According to the census lists, landowners paid
taxes for peasants. If in between
two revisions the peasant died, the landowner
still paid for him as if he were alive, until
new census.

One day A.S.
Pushkin told Gogol about one rogue official,
who bought for next to nothing from landowners
dead souls listed as living.
After this, the official became very rich.
The plot greatly interested Gogol. He
decided to draw a picture of a serf
Russia, show what was happening in it
the process of disintegration of the landowner economy.
Gogol decided to write his poem in three
volumes in which it would be necessary to show all
Rus' is not “on one side”, but comprehensively.
He sought to portray not only
negative feudal landowners, but
find positive ones among them. But because V
Russia at that time had no positive
landowners, the second volume of the poem was not published.

Box -
housewife, but with a narrow mental
outlook. She sees nothing but
kopecks and two-kopecks. Ruined
landowner-spendthrift Nozdryov, capable of "Lower"
the whole farm in a few days.

Shown and
Sobakevich is a kulak landowner who is very
far from enlightenment, from advanced ideas
society. For the sake of profit he is capable of
trickery, forgery, deception. He even
manages to sell Chichikov instead of a man
woman.

The limit is
moral failure is Plyushkin - "the hole
on humanity." He is sorry to waste his
good not only for others, but also for yourself. He
does not have lunch, dresses in torn clothes. TO
he harbors distrust and hostility towards people,
shows cruelty and injustice towards
peasants. His fatherly feelings died out in him,
things for him more expensive than people. "And before