The meaning of the comedy auditor gogol. Gogol "The Inspector General" - analysis

At the beginning of 1936 the premiere of the play took place in Moscow and St. Petersburg. However, Gogol continued to make adjustments to the text of the work until 1842, when the final edition was completed.

The Inspector General is a completely innovative play. Gogol was the first to create a social comedy without a love line. Khlestakov's courtship of Anna Andreevna and Maria Antonovna is rather a parody of high feelings. There is also not a single positive character in the comedy. When the writer was reproached for this, he replied that the main positive hero of The Inspector General is laughter.

Unusual and composition the play, since there is no traditional exhibition in it. From the very first phrase of the Governor begins tie plot. The final silent scene also surprised theater critics a lot. Nobody has ever used such a technique in drama before.

The classic confusion with the main character takes on a completely different meaning in Gogol. Khlestakov was not going to pass himself off as an auditor, for some time he himself could not understand what was happening. I just thought that the district bosses were currying with him only because he was from the capital and dressed fashionably. The dandy Osip finally opens his eyes, persuading the master to leave before it's too late. Khlestakov does not seek to deceive anyone. Officials deceive themselves and involve an imaginary auditor in this action.

Plot comedy is built on a closed principle: the play begins with the news of the arrival of the auditor and ends with the same message. Gogol's innovation was also manifested in the fact that there are no secondary plot lines in the comedy. All the characters are tied up in one dynamic conflict.

An undoubted innovation was himself main character... For the first time, he was a stupid, empty and insignificant person. The writer describes Khlestakov as follows: "Without a king in the head". Character of the heromost fully manifested in scenes of lies. Khlestakov is so strongly inspired by his own imagination that he cannot stop. He piles up one absurdity after another, does not even doubt the "truthfulness" of his lies. A player, a freak, a lover of hitting on women and showing off, a "dummy" - this is the main character of the work.

In the play, Gogol touched upon a large-scale layer of Russian reality: state power, medicine, court, education, the postal department, the police, the merchants. The writer raises and ridicules many of the unsightly features of modern life in The Inspector General. Here there is universal bribery and neglect of one's duties, embezzlement and honor, vanity and passion for gossip, envy and trumpeting, boasting and stupidity, petty revenge and stupidity ... What is there! The Inspector General is a real mirror of Russian society.

Unusual for the play is the power of the plot, its spring. This is fear. In Russia in the 19th century, the audit was carried out by high-ranking officials. Therefore, the arrival of the "inspector" caused such a panic in the district town. An important person from the capital, and even with "Secret prescription", terrified the local officials. Khlestakov, who in no way looks like an inspector, is easily mistaken for an important person. Anyone passing from St. Petersburg is suspicious. And this one lives for two weeks and does not pay - this is exactly how, in the opinion of ordinary people, a person of high rank should behave.

The first act discusses "Sins" all gathered and orders are given for "Cosmetic" measures. It becomes clear that none of the officials considers themselves guilty and is not going to change anything. Only for a while will clean caps be given to the sick and the streets will be swept.

In the comedy, Gogol created collective image of bureaucracy... Civil servants of all ranks are perceived as a single organism, since they are close in their aspiration to money-grubbing, they are confident of impunity and the correctness of their actions. But each character leads his own party.

The chief here, of course, is the mayor. Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky in the service for thirty years. As a grasping person, he does not miss the benefit that floats into his hands. But the city is a complete mess. On the streets, dirt, prisoners and the sick are disgustingly fed, the police are always drunk and spread their hands. The mayor pulls merchants by the beards and celebrates name days twice a year in order to receive more gifts. The money allocated for the construction of the church disappeared.

The appearance of the auditor greatly frightens Anton Antonovich. What if the inspector does not take bribes? Seeing that Khlestakov was taking money, the mayor calms down, tries to please the important person by all means. The second time Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky is frightened when Khlestakov brags about his high position. Then he becomes afraid to fall out of favor. How much money to give?

Funny the image of judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin, who is passionate about hound hunting, takes bribes for greyhound puppies, sincerely believing that this "Quite another matter"... In the reception room of the court, a complete mess is going on: the watchmen brought geese, hung on the walls "All sorts of rubbish", the assessor is constantly drunk. And Lyapkin-Tyapkin himself cannot understand a simple memorandum. In the city the judge is considered "Freethinker", since he has read several books and always speaks pompously, although complete nonsense.

Postmaster sincerely wonders why it is impossible to read other people's letters. For him, his whole life is interesting stories from letters. The postmaster even keeps the correspondence that he especially liked and reread it.

The hospital of the trustee of the charitable institutions of Strawberry is also in disorder. Patients do not change their underwear, and the German doctor does not understand anything in Russian. Strawberries are sycophants and an informer, not averse to throw mud at his comrades.

Comic couple of urban gossips draws attention Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky... To enhance the effect, Gogol makes them similar in appearance and gives the same names, even the names of the characters differ by only one letter. They are completely empty and useless people. Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky are only busy collecting gossip. Thus, they manage to be in the spotlight and feel their importance.

Starting to write The Inspector General, Gogol promised Pushkin: "I swear it will be funnier than the devil." Nikolai Vasilyevich kept his promise. Nicholas I, having watched the comedy, remarked: “Everyone got it. And me most of all. "

If you are planning to write an essay on the comedy "The Inspector General", be sure to consider the background of this work. Nikolai Gogol took up the pen in 1835, marking the beginning of comedy. However, Gogol learned the plot of The Inspector General while communicating with Alexander Pushkin. It was he who gave a hint to the main idea. Although the premiere of "The Inspector General" was already held in 1836 - Moscow and St. Petersburg applauded the new creation of the famous Russian writer, Gogol corrected the text for a very long time. Only in 1942 was the work completely finished.

Let's make a brief analysis of the comedy "The Inspector General". This play became absolutely innovative, because Nikolai Gogol wrote a comedy for the first time, where there is no love story, but at the same time it was acutely social and topical. Of course, it is clear that Khlestakov is caring for women, which were Anna Andreevna and Maria Antonovna, but this is by no means a love line, but a parody of lofty feelings and romantic relationships. Be sure to take this into account when preparing an essay on "The Inspector General".

Problems of the comedy "The Inspector General"

In any serious work there is a problematic, that is, the author identifies the problems to which he wants to draw the attention of the reader, and induce thinking about their solution. The problematic is clearly visible in the classic works of Russian literature, such as in the comedy "The Inspector General", which we are now analyzing.

Three main aspects are worth emphasizing here:

• Honoring - officials, small and large, want recognition and respect. And people are ready to give them this tribute in return for personal gain.
• Bribes to officials - both giving and taking bribes are immoral.
• Moral decline of society - morality is a measure of the moral state of a person. What does the fall in morality in society entail?

Gogol reflects these problems especially vividly in his work. Include the problematic in the essay on the comedy "The Inspector General".

Main analysis

The theme of the play "The Inspector General" Gogol decided to choose such vices of humanity as: hypocrisy, duplicity, vulgarity, envy, ignorance and bribery. This whole set of qualities can be united by the theme of bureaucracy. Indeed, people in positions of power do little to set an appropriate example of behavior. They behave viciously and do not see anything wrong with it. Taking a bribe has become the order of the day. However, as soon as a high-ranking person appears, they try to cover up their sins.

Analyzing the comedy "The Inspector General", we understood the main theme, and what became the main idea of \u200b\u200bthe play? The idea is traced that sooner or later a person drags retribution for his crimes, and sometimes this retribution will be reflected in the spiritual sense, but this does not make it more merciful.

The writing on the comedy "The Inspector General" should reflect the terrible picture of society - most people are only interested in their own well-being and the opportunity to cash in on others. The meaning of life was lost, and vulgarity and greed became the foundations of society. For example, a mayor. He believes that it is possible to do such things, because then I will go to church and atone for my sins. What a moral downfall!

It can be seen that inside the officials understand their venality and that it is bad to do such things. But it's easier to persuade your conscience, hide behind so that you don't get caught, and continue to gorge on your already thick cheeks. Consider Lyapkin-Tyapkin. He doesn't want to take bribes as usual. He takes them in the form of greyhound puppies, and calms himself and others with the words that this, they say, is a different matter.

conclusions

The analysis of the comedy "The Inspector General" would be incomplete if we did not emphasize the idea of \u200b\u200bcheap replacement of true human values \u200b\u200bwith ideas about rank. What is meant? The superintendent of schools, Khlopov, has the following opinion: when I talk to someone with a higher rank, "there is no soul, the tongue gets stuck." He is not in awe of man, but of position, or "rank." And all this influences the fact that officials believe in Khlestakov's false words.

In his work, Gogol managed to reflect the life of the entire country. We read about the court, and about public education, and about hospitals, and about the post office with the police. Your essay on the comedy "The Inspector General" must certainly include conflicts. There are two conflicts in the play:

• The conflict is external - it is visible in relations, where on the one hand Khlestakov, on the other the officials.
• Internal conflict - the bureaucratic elite and the people.

It is interesting to note the following fact about the comedy: when Gogol started working on it, he swore to Pushkin that it would turn out to be "funnier than the devil", and so it happened. Emperor Nicholas I also watched the staged play. He expressed his opinion about her with the words: "Everyone got it. And I got the most." You can also read the summary of the "Inspector" on our website.

You have read the analysis of the comedy "The Inspector General" by Nikolai Gogol, let's hope that he will help you in preparing the essay or just thinking after reading the work.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, loving Russia with all his heart, could not stand aside, seeing that she was mired in a swamp of corrupt officials, and therefore creates two works reflecting the entire reality of the state of the country.

One of these works is the comedy "The Inspector General", in which Gogol decided to laugh at what "is really worthy of the universal ridicule." Gogol admitted that he was in The Inspector General. decided to "collect in one heap all the bad things in Russia, all the injustices." In 1836, the comedy was staged on the St. Petersburg stage and was a huge success. Gogol's comedy, which touched upon all the vital issues of our time, caused the most controversial responses. Reactionary circles feared the impact of comedy on public opinion. It made political sense. The advanced circles perceived "The Inspector General" as a formidable accusation of Nikolayev's Russia. Gogol created a deeply truthful comedy, imbued with sharp humor, exposing the bureaucratic system of integral Russia. A small, provincial town, where arbitrariness reigns and there is not even a police order, where the authorities form a corporation of swindlers and robbers, is perceived as a symbol of the entire Nikolaev system. The epigraph - "There is no reason to blame the mirror, if the face is crooked" - is the generalizing, accusatory meaning of "The Inspector General". The entire system of the play made it clear that this is a provincial town, from which, as the mayor said, "if you jump for three years, you won't reach any state," there is only a part of a huge bureaucratic whole. The reactionaries shouted that the plot was implausible, considering it unrealistic that such a grated loaf like the mayor could mistake a squandered tavern dandy, an "icicle", a "rag" for an inspector. But such cases were not uncommon. Pushkin was also mistaken for an auditor in Nizhny Novgorod. The development of the plot is based on the frightened psychology of officials. Khlestakov is mistaken for a high rank because he "does not pay and does not go." The governor gives Khlestakov and is glad that he managed to slip a bribe, which means that Khlestakov is "his own", that is, he is the same bribe-taker. The picture of general fraud, bribery and arbitrariness is visible through the remarks of officials (the sick are starved to death, the soldiers under their uniforms have not only underwear, but even shirts, the money collected for the church was drunk and eaten away. They decided to announce that the church was built, but it burned out). All officials are a product of the age-old bureaucratic system, none of them feels their civic duty, each is busy with his own insignificant interests, their spiritual and moral level is extremely low. Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin does not look into the papers, because he cannot make out where is the truth and where is untrue. Years of red tape and bribes - this is the court in this city. Rogue and rogue Strawberry is also an informer, he informs the imaginary auditor of his colleagues. Denunciations under Nicholas 1 were in great demand. The superintendent of schools Khlopov is a frightened creature, he believed that stupid teachers are more useful, because they are harmless and will not allow free thoughts. In the background you can see merchants, artisans, policemen - all of district Russia. The typical character of Gogol's characters is that the governors and derzhimords will be in any regime. In describing the characters, Gogol develops the traditions of Griboyedov and Pushkin. "The Inspector General" is still on the stage of our theaters.

1. Introduction... NV Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" is rightfully considered one of the highest achievements of Russian literature. Since the first performance on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater in 1836, she has not left the Russian and foreign theatrical stages.

Comedy belongs to a special direction that can be described as "laughter through tears." In one of the first reviews about "The Inspector General" it is said: "Yes, she is ridiculous ... but inside it is a grief-grief".

2. History of creation... It is widely known that the plot of the comedy was "presented" to Gogol by Pushkin. Gogol had already worked on Dead Souls, but, experiencing a certain creative crisis, he turned to the poet with a request to suggest some "purely Russian anecdote."

Pushkin's plot captivated the writer so much that the comedy was created in two months (October-December 1835). However, Gogol continued to correct and make changes to The Inspector General. Significant corrections were made by him for the reprint of the comedy in 1841. The final version of The Inspector General was published in 1842.

3. The meaning of the name... "The Inspector General" is not just the name of the main character of a comedy. For the heads of a provincial town, this state position becomes a symbol of inevitable punishment, innumerable troubles and misfortunes. The governor and his "accomplices" are so mired in various machinations that they experience real horror before a serious check of their affairs. The auditor personifies the distant supreme power, which is likely to punish, not pardon.

4. Genre... Comedy

5. Topic... The main theme of the work is the social and administrative structure of the entire immense Russian Empire. In a deep sense, the "unpleasant news" does not consist in the arrival of the auditor, but in the fact that the entire system of provincial government has long been rotten and does not meet the requirements of the time. Outwardly, everything looks quite well.

Official documents confirm the mayor's vigilant concern for the welfare of his city. However, when looking from the inside, you can experience a real shock. The crimes of officials are innumerable: from bribery and theft to outright petty meanness - the opening of other people's letters by the postmaster. Gogol did strike at the most sore spot.

The fairness of his criticism was confirmed, on the one hand, by the frenzied popularity of "The Inspector General", on the other, by the furious abuse of those people who were brought out in the comedy. Officials and merchants accused the writer of all mortal sins, asserted that he had nothing sacred. Official FF Vigel called the comedy "slander in five acts."

6. Problems... The main problem posed in The Inspector General is the imperfection of the Russian provincial government. Local leaders feel like real petty princes who do not give an account of their actions to anyone. A close circle of persons closes around the mayor and together with him constitutes the ruling elite. All the concerns of the bosses are aimed solely at meeting their own needs. State money is not spent on the improvement of the city and the improvement of the life of its inhabitants, but is lost in the pockets of "benefactors".

The mayor has a feeling of complete impunity. He knows that he holds the whole city tightly in his fist. The rumor about the visit of the auditor reveals another side of this problem - the ability of officials to "cover up the tracks" of their crimes. The mayor hastily assembles officials and gives instructions on how to create the appearance of improvement. In this regard, one seemingly insignificant detail is important. All officials have the idea of \u200b\u200bbribing the auditor.

Probably in the past the problem was solved in this way. Thus, bribery embraces not only the provinces, but the entire Russian bureaucratic apparatus. The comic situation with Khlestakov confirms the eternal Russian problem of unquestioning obedience to the higher authorities, which resembles worship of God. Khlestakov was simply taken "on faith." He was not asked to show the required documents. The rumor given by Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky was enough.

7. Heroes... Petty official Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov, mayor AA Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, judge AF Lyapkin-Tyapkin, trustee of charitable institutions AF Strawberry, superintendent of schools AA Khlopov, wife and daughter of the mayor, Khlestakov's servant Osip.

8. Plot and composition... The comedy begins with the news of the visit of the auditor. The petty official Khlestakov is mistaken for him. Ivan Alexandrovich quickly enters the role. He complements a high opinion of himself with unbridled bragging and lies. After collecting a fair amount of money from the officials and wooing the mayor's daughter, Khlestakov leaves on time. The effect of an exploding bomb produces the postmaster's opening of Khlestakov's letter. The next blow for the mayor is the news of the arrival of a real auditor.

9. What does the author teach? Gogol does not quote any moralizing. Its purpose is to show the general public the true face of a Russian official. Judging by the significant public response, this goal of the writer has been achieved.

Kemerovo State University of Culture and Arts

Theater Institute

Department of Directing Theatrical Performances and Holidays

Analysis of the play by N. V. Gogol "The Inspector General".

Completed:

1st year student

RTPP-121 groups

Zolotilina Alena

Checked:

Lecturer at the Department of the RCCI:

Anuleva Olga Vladimirovna

Kemerovo 2013

The younger contemporary of A.S. Pushkin and his great successor, N.V. Gogol created his works in the historical conditions that developed in Russia after the failure of the first revolutionary action against absolutism and serfdom. Turning to the most important social problems of his time, Gogol went further along the path of realism, which was open for Russian literature by A.S. Pushkin and A.S. Griboyedov. Gogol became one of the greatest critical realists in Russian and world literature. The childhood and adolescence of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, born on March 20 (April 1), 1809, were spent in Ukraine, far from both capitals with their ebullient literary life, with their lively ideological struggle. But it would be wrong to think that Gogol remained aloof from the ideological and literary movement of his time. He early begins to experience certain literary and social influences and over time becomes, in the words of V. G. Belinsky, "the first writer of modern Russia." For the ideological development of Gogol, his education (1821-1828) at the Nizhyn gymnasium of higher sciences was of great importance. The years of Gogol's stay at the gymnasium coincided with the great upheavals experienced by Russia. He was in his seventeenth year when revolutionary demonstrations took place on Senate Square in St. Petersburg and in Bila Tserkva in Ukraine. Very early N.V. Gogol begins to prepare himself for high civil service, decides to devote his life to the struggle for the public good. He wanted to introduce into the Russian legal order the principles of higher justice, natural and fundamental laws for all. Disappointment befell Gogol in the "service of the state." In St. Petersburg, Gogol got the opportunity to get an idea of \u200b\u200bthe work of an official. He became convinced that a petty official has no opportunities for high service to the state, for implementing the ideals of justice and natural law. But Gogol saw that this was hardly accessible to an official even at a higher level of the career ladder. Gogol is depressed by the general spirit of bureaucratic Petersburg. Petersburg impressions lead Gogol to deeper reflections. He is struck by the social contrasts of a high and an insignificant position in society, the contradictions between wealth and poverty. Back in early 1831, Gogol, unable to withstand the monotony and senselessness of clerical work, entered the Patriotic Institute as a junior history teacher, where he served for more than four years. At St. Petersburg University, Gogol read the history of the Middle Ages and the ancient world. At the end of 1835 Gogol left the university. After Gogol leaves the university, he writes the play "The Inspector General".

Pushkin shared with Gogol one of his plots - an anecdote about a passing ordinary official who was taken in the provinces for an important person. After that work on the conceived comedy went very successfully, and at the beginning of December 1835 The Inspector General was finished. In 1836 the comedy was staged (the first performance took place in St. Petersburg on the stage of the Alexandria Theater on April 19). As usual, Gogol continued to work on comedy even after that, eliminating the features of vaudeville, external comic, achieving compositional harmony of the work, completeness of images, and ever greater ideological and artistic power of laughter. "The Inspector General" fully satisfies the requirements of "truth" and "spite" that Gogol made for comedy.

In 1836 the first edition of the work was completed, and in 1842 - the sixth edition. But already the first edition was staged on stage. "Theater is a great school, its purpose is great: ... It reads a useful lesson to a whole crowd of people at once, encourages goodness and arouses disgust for evil," Gogol wrote. Condemning the isolation of the theater from national life, Gogol wrote: "For God's sake, give Russian characters there, give us ourselves: our fools, ... on their stage, for the laughter of everyone."

The comedy "The Inspector General" became the embodiment of these ideas. Gogol wrote about her idea in The Author's Confession (1847): “In The Inspector General, I decided to put together everything bad in Russia that I knew and saw then ... and laugh at everything at once. The social orientation of the comedy is immediately indicated, and not the traditional one - love. Gogol continues the traditions of A.S. Griboyedov and N.G. Fonvizin. But Gogol introduced something new, peculiar with his comedy The Inspector General.

The characters of the "Inspector General" represent "a corporation of various service thieves and robbers" (an expression from a letter from V. G. Belinsky to Gogol). The governor shamelessly steals state money and plunders the population. Gogol shows that extortion from the population was viewed as a kind of right of local authorities, limited only by the official position of the taker. “Look! you take it out of order! " - sneaks the Governor of the quarter.

The dramatic conflict of The Inspector General testified to the further development of Russian comedy. In "Woe from Wit" by A. S. Griboyedov, we saw a conflict between the progressive noble youth and the reactionary serf majority of the noble-landowner class. The ideological basis here was noble revolutionism. In the conflict of the "Inspector", deeper contradictions are revealed: between the bureaucratic apparatus of the monarchist-serf state and the broad democratic strata. This corresponded to the emerging movement of Russian literature after 1825 along the path of democratization.

The social nature of the conflict in The Inspector General also determined the construction of the plot. Before Gogol, comedy usually centered on a love conflict. There is a love affair in The Inspector General. But it is given an insignificant place, it appears shortly before the comedy's denouement and unfolds with lightning speed. Khlestakov, unexpectedly and at an incredible pace, declares his love to the daughter of the Governor, then to his wife, then again to his daughter, and without hesitation makes an offer to his daughter. In this parodic form of love affair with its "twists and turns," Gogol deliberately violated tradition based on the conditions of the time. He wrote in the "Theatrical passing after the presentation of a new comedy": "Everything has changed long ago in the world. Now the striving to get a profitable place, to shine and overshadow, at all costs, another, to celebrate for neglect, for ridicule, is more intensely tying up the drama. Do not now have electricity more rank, money capital, profitable marriage, than love? " The very plot of the play thus acquired a social character. This became a tradition for subsequent Russian drama, which learned to combine the personal and the public in the plot. Such, for example, are the plays of A. N. Ostrovsky.

Gogol's comedy was also of great importance for the development of the dramatic language. The task of social and psychological differentiation of dialogical speech was inextricably linked with the realistic tendencies that developed in Russian literature. The speech of each of his characters in The Inspector General is a complete stylistic system in which, as in focus, the corresponding character is reflected. Let us recall how the Governor talks with officials, with the "inspector", with merchants. It is amazing Gogol's ability to show that in all these cases the speech of the same Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky sounds with different shades! After Gogol, the social and psychological character of the characters' speech became the law of Russian drama.

Gogol's innovation in the comedy "The Inspector General" was reflected in the following:

1. He refuses to introduce the traditional image of a positive hero, which was the mouthpiece of the author's ideas.

2. The aesthetic ideal of the writer is expressed in a peculiar way, and Gogol emphasized this: “It is strange: I am sorry that no one noticed the honest face of the one who was in my play. Yes, there was one honest, noble person who acted in her throughout her entire continuation. This acting noble face was laughter. "

3. The special nature of laughter. It contains not only denial, but also hidden sadness, drama combined with comic situations. "This is laughter visible to the world, through invisible, unknown tears." The transition from the comic to the serious and even tragic, laughter, combined with the author's bitter reflections on life, is a characteristic feature of the comedy "The Inspector General".

4. The originality of the conflict. Gogol talks about the abuses of (typical) officials, everything is in complete collapse, everything is rotten. Residents of the prefabricated city of N suffer from the abuse of officials. The main conflict in the comedy "The Inspector General" is the conflict between the officials' world of the city, personifying the state system of Russia and the deprived people. But, since the people are deprived of a voice, suppressed by the entire system of Russia, this conflict is not shown directly, and therefore Gogol introduces an otherworldly conflict, the essence of which is the anecdotal story of the relationship between city officials, headed by the mayor with an imaginary auditor. Here the contradictions are imaginary, because the mayor and Khlestakov are united in their aspirations. The development of this conflict allowed Gogol to show the anti-people essence of both local and St. Petersburg authorities.

Let's trace the development of an imaginary conflict. First, there is a message in a letter that an inspector is going incognito to the city. The mayor tells his strange dream, "a dream in hand": two huge black rats came, sniffed and left, that is, nothing has changed. Gogol's characteristic trick, generalization, officials will receive bribes, leave and nothing will change. A company of thieves and bribe-takers tries to hide their sins, and the mayor tells them to put everything in order. The chatter of Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky fell into fertile soil. “Everything scolds and pays nothing,” is their conclusion about a new person whom they take for an auditor. This is the beginning of a comedy.

The district environment imagines that the official will behave accordingly, that is, rise above them. Gogol predicted that they were acting ad hoc, and the officials and Khlestakov. They have situational behavior. Khlestakov's recklessness helps him in this, he gets away with everything. Officials immediately fall into respect for the rank and humiliation before him. And Khlestakov is at first shy, and then, seeing that he is being mistaken for the wrong person, begins to play along with them. Fear, according to V.G. Belinsky, for his malfeasance is the internal engine of behavior of the mayor and Khlestakov: fear of rank and striving for rank, and the ability to reincarnate (scene at the mayor's dinner).

The inner unity of Khlestakov and the mayor gives rise to the tragicomic grotesque of the play, makes it natural that it is unlikely that a "trick" was mistaken for an important state rank. Gogol uses the method of error, the paradoxicality of the situation is the basis of the comic in The Inspector General.

Gogol's characters are small, but they yearn to ascend even in dreams. After all, what Khlestakov says is a sore dream of a failed rank, but not only a rank, Gogol believes, but also a person, for the erosion of personal qualities. “I was never accepted like that anywhere,” exclaims Khlestakov. Khlestakov's lies meet the inner aspirations of the Governor and officials. They frankly envy him. Gogol emphasizes the comic situation by the fact that they combine envy, cowardice, sycophancy and inner impenitence. These are state criminals, Gogol emphasizes, and not people who have accidentally sinned.

Gogol uses the technique of self-exposure in comedy: officials expose the system of mutual responsibility, fraud and deceit, officials themselves talk about themselves and others. They whipped a non-commissioned officer's wife, the sick are dying, the jailers are not fed - we learn about this from the scenes of complaints from the people, this is a breakthrough of the conflict, clearly revealing the contradictions, the illusory nature of the state structure. Everything is bought. The lack of repentance of the officials and the Governor is revealed in the penultimate scene: Khlestakov leaves, making an offer to the Governor's daughter. And this played a cruel joke with the Governor. Khlestakov did not even think about it. The governor allowed this to convey in dreams to the rank of general, to the luxurious life of St. Petersburg.

The scene of the Mayor's triumph is the culminating scene in the development of the conflict. But the triumph of the Governor is also the triumph of Khlestakovism. The essence of Khlestakovism is the claim of a petty, insignificant person to a significant role in life. This claim is claimed to be realized often in life. This is the absurdity of the state system; true values \u200b\u200bare substituted with imaginary ones. The author makes the officials and the governor understand the absurdity of the situation by opening Khlestakov's letter. Khlestakov's letter and the scene of his reading are the denouement of the comedy plot. The Governor's remark "Who are you laughing at, laughing at yourself" echoes the epigraph "There is no need to blame the mirror, if the face is crooked."

Khlestakov's letter does not contain a real sharp fuse. Therefore, after the gendarmes were informed about the arrival of the real inspector, Gogol introduces a silent scene, which is the true denouement of the comedy, its final chord. The silent scene concentrates the philosophical meaning of the comedy. A dumb scene is the highest punishment, it is the court of state power. The author carries out this judgment, forcing his heroes to freeze in unnatural, caricatured poses, fixing attention on their faces. That's who is standing over us! These crooked faces. This power curve is absurd.

This comedy showed Gogol's skill in an unusual phenomenon. Association of the situation in the county town with the entire state. And the impression of a vicious circle is created, in the center of which the supreme ruler is the king.

The composition of the comedy is characterized by the method of mirror reflection: two letters, the ratio of the true and imaginary conflict (the imaginary reflects the true one), the county city and the state, the roll call of the epigraph and the mute scene, the effect of a crooked mirror based on the effects of the comic.

Gogol uses the following comic effects in his comedy:

1. Acceptance of errors, inconsistencies.

2. Alogism, i.e. lack of logic in characters.

3. Reception of self-exposure.

5. Cues aside.

Gogol the satirist measures the state of the world by the measure of laughter. But this laughter is more bitter than cheerful, because Gogol saw less and less grounds for fun in his life.

The governor believes that it is "strange to talk" about "sins": every person has them "this is already arranged by God himself." The judge, who is reputed to be a freethinker, believes that "sins are different to sins" and bribes by greyhound puppies are quite acceptable. Strawberry explains to the officials, frightened by the high position of the "inspector", how it is customary to hand over bribes "in a well-ordered state":

“You need to introduce yourself one by one, but between four eyes and that ... as it should be there - so that the ears do not hear. This is how it is done in a comfortable society. " The mayor has already managed to apply this rule: he handed a bribe to Khlestakov while still at the hotel, noting with satisfaction that "things seem to go well now." In the opinion of the Governor, the auditor and the audited understood each other. A bribe is a lever with which you can turn any business in the state, you just need to observe a specious form.

Equally straightforward and boldly, The Inspector General denounces the shameless arbitrariness of the local authorities. Gogol collected many eloquent facts of this kind related to various spheres of city government. And here the Governor considers it possible to speak only about the restriction of the right to lawlessness: he orders that Derzhimorda not give too much freedom to his fists.

In a conversation between officials preparing for the auditor's meeting, Gogol gives a description of such institutions as a court, a hospital, a post office, and a school. The picture is very expressive. But maybe this picture is true only in relation to a distant, remote province? Maybe the characters of "The Inspector General" were not typical for the Russian state as a whole, especially for the capital? Attempts to weaken the critical power of Gogol's comedy by denying its generalized significance began on the day of the first performance of The Inspector General.

Meanwhile, in the play, the theme of the capital of a bureaucratic state and the state as a whole appears repeatedly. Let us recall the words of Strawberry about a "well-ordered state": here the irony worthy of a great satirist extends to the entire state machine. Far beyond the boundaries of the county town, the confession of the Governor leads the Gogol satire: “... he deceived swindlers over swindlers, scoundrels and rogues such that they were ready to rob the whole world, he cheated. He deceived three governors! .. What governors! (waved his hand) there is nothing to say about the governors ... ”The system of fraud and deceit, which the Governor so skillfully knew how to use, is not limited to either the county town or even the provincial town. And therefore, Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky quite naturally gets annoyed: why is he worse than others and why exactly should he suffer? With good reason, the actor who played the Governor, addressing the audience, threw into the audience: “Why are you laughing? You are laughing at yourself! .. Oh, you! .. ”(a remark that appeared in the 1842 edition).

But the most significant reflection of the “Petersburg theme” in The Inspector General is the brilliant image of Khlestakov. The petty official selflessly, in the ecstasy of imaginary greatness, showing "extraordinary lightness in thought," ascribes to himself everything he could and could not even dream of. In his advice to the actor playing the role of Khlestakov, Gogol pointed out: “The actor should not especially lose sight of this desire to show himself,” or, as he wrote to the actor I. I. Sosnitsky on November 2, 1844, “the desire to play a role higher than his own ". Gogol warned against interpreting the image of Khlestakov as a simple liar. "... He himself forgets that he is lying, and already he himself almost believes what he says" - this is how, in combination with extraordinary frivolity, he manifests an irrepressible desire to seem a significant person. In the image of a Petersburg official and a dandy, the comedian embodied Khlestakovism as one of the natural products of the estate-bureaucratic system, as one of the most important vices inherent in a person brought up by this system. This is careerism that has taken extreme forms: when a person pretends to be who he wants to be, but who he is not, when an official, exceeding his rights and powers, tries to pose as an important person. Khlestakov is a common noun that has become indispensable in denoting a certain social phenomenon. The author was well aware of the generalizing power of the artistic image he created. It reflects the contradiction between imaginary significance and real insignificance, characteristic of many characters of the satirical writer, which becomes the source of the comic.

The plot of The Inspector General also conceals deep social meaning. This is not a plot that even the quarterly could not take offense at. In The Inspector General, Gogol retained the political theme of the unwritten comedy Vladimir of the Third Degree, although he transferred the action to a distant province. The plot conflict of the play consists in the failed attempt of the district officials to hide their official crimes from the inspector sent from the capital. This is what constitutes the essence of the dramatic struggle in the play. Having made every effort to deceive the alleged auditor, the criminals were defenseless against the real prosecutor, who demanded that they be held accountable. The denouement of The Inspector General is often viewed as an "external appendage" to the comedy plot, which allegedly ended with the reading of Khlestakov's letter, from which it became clear that he was mistaken for an inspector. But the action of the comedy could not end there. With the discovery of the officials' mistake, the plot of the "Inspector" has not yet been resolved. Readers and viewers of the comedy needed to find out whether the real inspector, which was reported in the letter received by the Governor, had arrived, and whether the officials would be able to deceive this inspector. The last scene gives a clear answer: the real auditor has arrived and cannot be fooled. This is the meaning of the appearance at the end of the play of the gendarme and the next silent scene, to which Gogol attached great importance. The words of the gendarme "amaze everyone like thunder," and the entire group, according to Gogol's remark, "remains petrified" for almost a minute and a half. The final scene of the comedy contains an irreconcilable denial of the world of the passive-Dmukhanovskys and the deity, a just sentence to this world.

However, the denouement of The Inspector General also reflected the weaknesses of Gogol's socio-political views. The governor knew how to "get around" very high standing people. But now the auditor has arrived "by personal command", that is, by order of the tsar himself, and the criminals cannot escape responsibility. Gogol does not subject the supreme power to any criticism or doubt. Whatever high spheres vice strikes, the monarch, called to observe the highest justice, is not subject to vice. The restoration of the violated justice and the deserved punishment of vice should come from him.

But in the "Inspector" there is another social force that threatens the well-being of the uncontrolled bearers of the district government. Fearing the upcoming revision, the Governor is forced to admit: “The merchants and citizenship confuses me. They say that I was good for them. " The Governor's fears were justified: “merchants and citizenship,” that is, the main population of the city, hearing about the arrival of a major official from St. Petersburg, rise up against the Governor. The scene of complaints against the Governor deepens the conflict of the play and its ideological meaning. A catastrophe hangs over the head of the owner of the city, and it comes from where it should have been expected: from citizens, from ordinary people, from the people. The author's remark is expressive: "Hands are sticking out the window with requests." The protest against the district government is taking on a massive character. The author brings the reader and viewer to the idea of \u200b\u200bthe anti-nationality of the police-bureaucratic apparatus and the need for serious reforms.

One of the important motives in the comedy "The Inspector General", as, indeed, in all the work of N.V. Gogol, is the motive of food. Gogol's heroes have always had a tendency to eat a lot, just remember his story "Old World Officials", which can be called a "gastronomic" work. In "The Inspector General" this motive is not expressed so clearly, but it is also present and carries a certain semantic load. The food motif in comedy is associated with archetypal schemas. In the plot of The Inspector General, one can single out the reflex of the genre nature of the ancient comedy - its parody-sacred organization, where Khlestakov claims to be a deity in relation to both pagan mythology (the parody orientation of Aristophanes comedies to cosmogonic myths) and the biblical legend of the creation as well as the gospel. An important aspect of the plot organization of The Inspector General is also the presence in its plot of the ancient archetypal ritual scheme of substitution of the tsar and the slave ("slave" - \u200b\u200bKhlestakov, "tsar" - the real Russian Tsar Nicholas I; inspector and the word "inspector"; laughter in a comedy ). The food motif in the comedy associated with the metaphorical death and resurrection in a new capacity of Khlestakov, a petty official, taken for an auditor, a tsar and even God, has not only a descriptive, but also a magical, ritual meaning.