The meaning of the title of Gogol's work Dead Souls. The meaning of the title of the poem "Dead Souls". Meaning of the name: literal and metaphorical

21.09.2021 Hypertension

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 all the 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 meaningless 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. A piece of paper becomes the determining factor in 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 the civil servant's assistant taking Kopeikin away. 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

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 title emphasizes an 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 all the 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 meaningless 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. A piece of paper becomes the determining factor in 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 the civil servant's assistant taking Kopeikin away. 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

The name of this work by 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 travels all over Russia to buy more peasants for his new estate. 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 spends all his free time eating something. And such huge portion sizes that to an ordinary person they can't do it.

The box from which Chichikov bought the souls of 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. There is no spiritual development. 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 which social circle the character belongs to, 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 bustling, but in reality it is just a bustle.

A dead soul in the inner world of a poem is a common occurrence. 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.” 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 “The 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 the real picture of the life of the local nobility, a hopeless dead end, decline and spiritual decay using the example of the heroes of the work. The author in the first part " Dead souls” tries to convey the negative features of Russian life, he hints to people that their souls have become dead, and, pointing out vices, brings them back to life.

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The meaning of the title of the poem “Dead Souls”

The title “Dead Souls” is so ambiguous that it has given rise to a host of reader guesses, scientific disputes and special studies.

The phrase “dead souls” sounded strange in the 1840s and seemed incomprehensible. F. I. Buslaev said in his memoirs that when he “first heard the mysterious title of the book, he first imagined that it was some kind of science fiction novel or story like “Viy.” Smirnova-Chikina E.S. Poem by N.V. Gogol “Dead Souls” - literary commentary - M., “Enlightenment”, 1964. - With. 21. Indeed, the name was unusual: the human soul was considered immortal, and suddenly there were dead souls!

“Dead souls,” wrote A. I. Herzen, “this title carries something terrifying in itself.” Herzen A.I., vol. II, p. 220. The impression of the name was strengthened by the fact that this expression itself was not used in literature before Gogol and was generally little known. Even experts in the Russian language, for example, Moscow University professor M.P. Pogodin, did not know it. He wrote indignantly to Gogol: “There are no dead souls in the Russian language. There are revision souls, assigned souls, departed souls, and arrived souls.” The letter is kept in the Manuscripts Department of the Library. IN AND. Lenin in Moscow. Pogodin, a collector of ancient manuscripts, an expert in historical documents and the Russian language, wrote to Gogol with complete knowledge of the matter. Indeed, this expression was not found either in government acts, or in laws and other official documents, or in scientific, reference, memoirs, and fiction literature. M. I. Mikhelson, in a collection of catchphrases of the Russian language that was reprinted many times at the end of the 19th century, cites the phrase “dead souls” and makes reference only to Gogol’s poem! Mikhelson did not find any other examples in the enormous literary and dictionary material he reviewed.

Whatever the origins, the main meanings of the title can only be found in the poem itself; here, and in general, every well-known word acquires its own, purely Gogolian connotation.

There is a direct and obvious meaning of the name, arising from the history of the work itself. The plot of “Dead Souls,” like the plot of “The Inspector General,” was given to him, according to Gogol, by Pushkin: he told the story of how a cunning businessman bought dead souls, that is, dead peasants, from landowners. The fact is that since Peter’s time in Russia, every 12-18 years, audits (checks) of the number of serfs were carried out, since the landowner was obliged to pay the government a “poll tax” for a male peasant. Based on the results of the audit, “revision tales” (lists) were compiled. If during the period from revision to revision a peasant died, he was still listed on the lists and the landowner paid taxes for him - until new lists were compiled.

It was these dead people who were considered alive that the rogue businessman decided to buy up on the cheap. What was the benefit here? It turns out that the peasants could be pledged to the Guardian Council, that is, they could receive money for each “dead soul.”

The highest price that Chichikov had to pay for the “dead soul” of Sobakevich was two and a half. And in the Guardianship Council he could receive 200 rubles for each “soul”, i.e. 80 times more.

Chichikov's idea is ordinary and fantastic at the same time. It is common because the purchase of peasants was an everyday matter, and fantastic because those from whom, according to Chichikov, “only one sound, intangible by the senses, are sold and bought.”

No one is outraged by this deal; the most distrustful are only slightly surprised. In reality, a person becomes a commodity, where paper replaces people.

So, the first, most obvious meaning of the name: “dead soul” is a peasant who has died, but exists in a paper, bureaucratic “guise”, and who has become the subject of speculation. Some of these “souls” have their own names and characters in the poem, different stories are told about them, so that even if it is reported how death happened to them, they come to life before our eyes and look, perhaps, more alive than other “characters” .

“Milushkin, brickmaker! He could install a stove in any house.

Maxim Telyatnikov, shoemaker: whatever pricks with an awl, then the boots, whatever the boots, then thank you, and even if it’s a drunken mouth...

Carriage maker Mikheev! After all, I never made any other carriages other than spring ones...

And Cork Stepan, the carpenter? After all, what kind of power was that! If he had served in the guard, God knows what they would have given him, three arshins and an inch tall!” Gogol N.V. Dead souls - M., "Eksmo", 2010 - vol. 1, chapter 5, p. 29.

Secondly, Gogol meant by “ dead souls“feudal landowners who oppressed the peasants and interfered with the economic and cultural development of the country.

But “dead souls” are not only landowners and officials: they are “unresponsive dead inhabitants”, terrible “with the motionless coldness of their souls and the barren desert of their hearts.” Any person can turn into Manilov and Sobakevich if “an insignificant passion for something small” grows in him, forcing him to “forget great and holy duties and see great and holy things in insignificant trinkets.”

It is no coincidence that the portrait of each landowner is accompanied by a psychological commentary that reveals its universal meaning. In the eleventh chapter, Gogol invites the reader not just to laugh at Chichikov and other characters, but to “deepen this difficult question inside one’s own soul: “Isn’t there some part of Chichikov in me too?” Thus, Herzen wrote in his diary in 1842: “... not the revisionist dead souls, but all these Nozdryovs, Manilovs and all the others - these are the dead souls, and we meet them at every step.” Herzen A.I., vol. II, p. 220. Thus, the title of the poem turns out to be very capacious and multifaceted.

The artistic fabric of the poem consists of two worlds, which can be conventionally designated as the “real” world and the “ideal” world. The author shows the real world by recreating contemporary reality. For the “ideal” world, the soul is immortal, for it is the embodiment of the divine principle in man. And in the “real” world there may well be a “dead soul”, because for ordinary people the soul is only what distinguishes a living person from a dead person.

The title given by Gogol to his poem was “Dead Souls,” but on the first page of the manuscript submitted to the censor, censor A.V. Nikitenko added: “The Adventures of Chichikov, or... Dead Souls.” That’s what Gogol’s poem was called for about a hundred years.

This cunning postscript muffled the social meaning of the poem, distracted readers from thinking about the terrible title “Dead Souls,” and emphasized the significance of Chichikov’s speculations. A.V. Nikitenko reduced the original, unprecedented name given by Gogol to the level of the names of numerous novels of sentimental, romantic, protective directions, which lured readers with amazing, ornate titles. The censor's naive trick did not reduce the significance of Gogol's brilliant creation. Currently, Gogol's poem is published under the title given by the author - “Dead Souls”.

The meaning of the name. It is a known fact that the plot of the poem suggested
Gogol Pushkin, but it is also known that when reading Gogol
In the first chapter, Pushkin became gloomier and gloomier.
And as has long been noted in criticism, the title “Dead Souls” has
dual meaning. Main character According to the plot, he buys up the dead
peasants who are listed as alive according to the revision tale (register
shower). And the second meaning of the name is the death of the human soul,
turning her into a dead soul. And in the name itself it is connected
incompatible (the soul is eternally alive). The poem also has two plans,
two levels: physical (Chichikov’s adventure, landowners’ galleries
and officials) and spiritual. The spiritual plan is revealed in the dying
Gogol’s note: “Be not dead, but living souls.” problem
vulgarity, the main problem of the poem, Gogol considered
as religious, he wrote about it in “Selected Places...”:
“This property came out with great force in Dead Souls.
“Dead Souls” is not why they scared Russia so much and produced such
noise inside her so that they would reveal some of her wounds or internal
illnesses, and not because they presented amazing
pictures of triumphant evil and suffering innocence. Not at all
it happened. My heroes are not villains at all; I'll just add a good trait
any of them, the reader would make peace with them all. But vulgarity
all together scared the readers. What frightened them was that one after another
My heroes follow, one more vulgar than the other, that there is not a single comforting
the phenomenon that there is nowhere to even rest or translate
spirit to the poor reader and that after reading the entire book it seems like
I would definitely have come out of some stuffy cellar into God’s light. To me
they would sooner forgive me if I exposed known monsters; But
vulgarity was not forgiven me. The Russian man was frightened by his insignificance
more than his vices and shortcomings."
Gogol's poem caused a scandal. Tolstoy the American suggested
even send Gogol to Siberia, in chains. But there were also ardent enthusiastic
praise from critics (V. Belinsky, K. Aksakov, Pletnev,
Shevyrev, Herzen).
The idea of ​​the work. Why did Gogol reveal the Kunstkamera to the world?
freaks? The goal was the same as that of the “Inspector General”: to draw attention
each person on himself, as Gogol himself did, admitting that
that every human trait, taken to the point of absurdity, he took
at home. He wanted to eradicate his vices in this way.
The scope of Gogol's poem is enormous. Russia is represented with
on all sides, she appeared to the reader “through visible tears and laughter.”
Gogol laughed at everything vulgar and ugly that is in a person
and throughout Russia, but this laughter made him sad and heavy.
Three volumes were planned. The first volume shows us all the “mud of little things”
", the main character Chichikov, a man of average skill, and the author himself.
The second and third volumes were supposed to show the “rebirth” of the hero.
There are only a few chapters left from the second volume, and there is no third volume at all.
Art space "Dead Souls"
Before you start reading each chapter, and there are 11 in total,
you need to take a look from above, see with panoramic vision the whole
picture, that is, it is necessary to see the entire poem as a whole. Exists
such a concept as the “artistic space” of a work.
There is a living space that fits as a private
life, and the life of a country or even the whole world, and there is space,
created by the artist's imagination, on which are placed
artistic images, their inner world, as well as those places where
brings the writer's imagination necessary to realize a particular
another idea, in other words, the idea of ​​a work organizes artistic
space.
The idea of ​​“Dead Souls” is to show all of Russia from at least one side.
It was this idea that organized the artistic space of the poem.
According to Yu. M. Lotman, the road becomes a universal form
organization of artistic space in “Dead Souls”.
And with the appearance of the image of the road, the idea of ​​the path appears as a goal for
a specific person and for the whole of humanity. The image of the road suggests
linear space, but in an artistic structure
works also contain images of heroes, readers and the author, which
make up different spaces.
The heroes are very down-to-earth people, they live on the earth and are very
limited in their vision, because they are busy with their small affairs,
turning them into “dead souls”.
The reader's point of view is somewhere above: he can do anything
know about the heroes, their past and future, observe at the same time
several characters at once. He can walk around in this
space thanks to the author’s words: “let’s be transported to...”
“let's see what he does...” And Gogol defines the differences between
reader and characters: “It is easy for readers to judge by looking from their
quiet corner and top, from where the entire horizon is open, to everything,
what is happening below, where a person can only see a close object.”
The author is a man of the path, that is, he knows the moral outcome, he is a prophet,
therefore, everything that exists in Rus' “turned” to him “full expectations
eyes." He preaches the glory of Russia in the endless future, having invented
the image of a three-bird that will take him onto the wide road - the path.
The plot of “Dead Souls” is a road plot. Rolling, rolling
along the roads of endless Russia Chichikov's chaise, and every stop
on the way - this is an acquisition, buying up “dead souls”.