Comedy "The Inspector General". Problematic

Problems of the comedy N. V. Gogol "The Inspector General"

Gogol went to The Inspector General for a long time, he was looking for a plot where he could unite people's personal and social life. In addition, he would like his comedy to be funnier than the devil. It is believed that the plot of "The Inspector General" was suggested to Gogol by A. S. Pushkin, and after that Gogol wrote a comedy very quickly: the number of other writers. Soon after it was written, the comedy was staged (the premiere took place on April 19 (May 1), 1836 at the Alexandrinsky Theater).

We can say that Gogol in The Inspector General is taking the next step after Griboyedov. The comedy becomes modern, depicting Russian life, the reader sees social problems (the conflict between the bureaucracy and the inhabitants of the city).

In comedy, a stylistic figure such as hyperbole (deliberate exaggeration) is quite common. Hyperbole is inherent in many dramatic works; Gogol is by no means an innovator here. Hyperbole is satirical and psychological. Satirical hyperbole can be called a depicted close-up vice in a character, and psychological hyperbole - a certain character trait of the hero shown in the same way. But sometimes, in order to understand Gogol's work, it is important to realize that sometimes it is very difficult for him to draw the line between hyperbole and grotesque. The grotesque is a combination of the real and the fantastic, the comic and the tragic. That is, the grotesque conveys literally what the metaphor conveys allegorically.

Literary critic Yuri Mann says that the comedy contains only "mirage intrigue", which showed the absurdity of human life in its striving for "mirage", that is, insignificant, unclear goals, when energy and strength are wasted in order to master emptiness. Mirage intrigue is included in the comedy with the news of the arrival of the inspector and grows throughout the play. In drama, intrigue is traditionally understood as a set of actions of the hero, which he takes to achieve a specific goal, that is, intrigue is inherent in a character who has some kind of intention and strives to realize it. In "The Inspector General" Khlestakov is not a swindler, he has no goal and no plan, he himself does not understand what position he occupies in this whole story, what he should do and how to behave. In The Inspector General, the hero does not shape the action, but is forced to adapt to it. This is the innovation of Gogol the playwright.

Mann writes that Gogol seems to be setting himself one task - to transfer the comic of everyday life to the stage. The comedy of the intrigue also lies in the fact that smart and cunning officials make a blunder, they are misled by the stupid, simple, empty Khlestakov, who ultimately takes over everyone. The image of Khlestakov was another discovery of Gogol. The accuracy of Gogol's comic lies in the way the plot is built. Officials are too perverted in their views on the world, and Khlestakov is too stupid, he can only impersonate whoever they want to see him as. Gogol drew an image of a person who does not represent anything as a person, flows like water from vessel to vessel, adjusting to the environment.

Khlestakov easily enters the role and easily begins to play it. He does not want to mislead anyone, on the contrary, he himself is more afraid of what is happening. His lies cannot be called a deliberate deception - rather, a fantasy, he builds himself in words a life better than the one he lives, and his dreams are a protest against his unenviable position in St. Petersburg. Khlestakov is a product of a society where personality means nothing, but rank means a lot. His dreams are rather primitive, but they are a collective image of all the desires that ordinary young people most often had at that time.

Gogol argued that it is impossible to build a comedy only on a love story: he believed that love no longer unites people and does not move them, but the desire to get an advantageous place, become taller than another, or it is beneficial to marry, prompts them to act. Griboyedov's love storyline is intertwined with a public one. Gogol, on the other hand, refuses to build the play on a love story, which plays a subordinate role in comedy - it is parodied. This is manifested in the speed with which Khlestakov declares his love to either his wife or the mayor's daughter, and at the same time, of course, the reader understands that no one loves anyone.

Gogol criticized Moliere (real name Jean Baptiste Poquelin is a French comedian of the classicism era, creator of classical comedy, author of a large number of theatrical plays that are considered standard, such as Tartuffe, Don Juan and Misanthrope). Gogol believed that the plots (plans) of Moliere's comedies are of the same type, thought out in the same way. Griboyedov, in turn, believed that Moliere wrote cartoons, not portraits. Moliere, indeed, took many plots from antique comedies, and Gogol considered his plays not reflecting the modern world and its problems.

In Russian theater, Gogol did not like the fact that mainly translated plays (for example, Molière's plays) were performed on the stage, and they contained worn-out comedy images. In 1836, Gogol said: “For God's sake, give us Russian characters, give us ourselves, our rogues, our eccentrics! To their stage, to everyone's laughter! " We can say that "The Inspector General" was the first step towards achieving this goal.

Comedy N.V. Gogol's "The Inspector General" is one of the best plays in the world. Gogol, possessing the gift of generalizing his observations and creating artistic types in which everyone can find the features of people they know, ridiculed the negative aspects of Russian reality in the best possible way. The plot of "The Inspector General" is taken from life, the characters, who almost remind everyone of someone, or even allow them to recognize themselves, make the comedy modern. The entire play is filled with hints that allow the reader to feel the relevance of the comedy.

Laughter is a great weapon. People, according to Belinsky, agree to be called evil and greedy, cruel and stupid, but not funny. Laughing at the negative phenomena of life, Gogol makes the reader think about their causes, understand all their evil and try to get rid of them.

But maybe the play is really out of date? Maybe the images of her characters have become incomprehensible to us, maybe we do not know what "Khlestakovism" is, what is "bribe", what is sycophancy? It is difficult to agree with this, although such an assumption sounds tempting. This comedy retains its relevance even today, none of the ridiculed vices has disappeared.

The meaning of the comedy "The Inspector General".

The comedy The Inspector General, written in 1836, dealt a crushing blow to the entire administrative-bureaucratic system of tsarist Russia in the 1830s. The author exposed not isolated isolated cases to general ridicule, but typical manifestations of the state apparatus. It would seem, what does the sleepy patriarchal life of a provincial county town have to do with the centralized bureaucratic system, which the mayor sincerely considers his home and disposes of it as the owner? From his hasty remarks to his subordinates about putting things in order in the institutions under their jurisdiction, we can easily draw a conclusion about how things are in the hospital, court, schools, at the post office. Lawlessness and arbitrariness reign everywhere.

But this obscure provincial town appears in the comedy as a miniature state, in which, like in a drop of water, all the abuses and vices of bureaucratic Russia are reflected. Here there is a social stratification of people, some of whom occupy important government posts and use their power to improve their own well-being. Officials are at the top of this social pyramid. Theft, bribery, embezzlement - these typical vices of bureaucracy are castigated by Gogol with his merciless laugh. The city elite is disgusting. But the people under their control do not evoke sympathy.

The vices of the bureaucracy are not invented by the author. They are taken by Gogol from life itself. It is known that the role of Gogol's postmaster was played by Emperor Nicholas I himself, who read Pushkin's letters to his wife. The scandalous story of the stealing commission for the construction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is very reminiscent of the act of the mayor, who appropriated the state money allocated for the construction of the church. These facts, taken from real life, emphasize the typical negative phenomena that the satirist denounces in his comedy. Gogol's play highlighted all the typical vices of the Russian bureaucracy, which were embodied in the individual images of the mayor and his entourage.

Speaking about the idea of \u200b\u200b"The Inspector General", Gogol noted that in this work he decided "... to collect all the bad things in Russia, which he knew then ... and laugh at everything at once ...". This is how the city of "The Inspector General" arose, which the author called "the prefabricated city of the entire dark side." N. V. Gogol does not know a way out of the contradictions that he reveals in his works, and therefore his laughter is laughter through tears. But he has a tremendous moral and aesthetic superiority over the world he depicts of wicks and grip. That is why bright laughter emanates from the soul of the artist and his readers.

Thus, in his comedy, the writer denounces all the main vices of the ruling bureaucracy in Russia: dishonesty, dishonest attitude to service, bribery, embezzlement, arbitrariness, lawlessness, sycophancy, lack of culture. But the satirist also condemned such negative features of the oppressed estates as greed, lack of self-esteem, vulgarity, ignorance. Gogol's comedy retains its relevance today, forcing one to think about the causes of many negative phenomena of modern life.

The artistic features of the comedy.

The social character was in the highest degree inherent in Gogol's drama. His comedy "The Inspector General" was of great political significance. Gogol brought to the stage and struck with the weapon of satire the bureaucracy, which was the main support of the estate-monarchical state. The typical images drawn by Gogol expressed the historical essence of bureaucracy as a social force. In the comedy "The Inspector General", there are actually no positive characters. They are not even outside the stage and outside the plot.

The relief image of the city officials and, above all, the mayor, complements the satirical meaning of the comedy. The tradition of bribery and deception of an official is completely natural and inevitable. Both the lower strata and the top of the bureaucratic class of the city do not think of any other outcome but to bribe the inspector with a bribe. The county nameless town becomes a generalization of the whole of Russia, which, under the threat of revision, reveals the true side of the character of the main characters.

The role of non-stage characters in the play is great. So Andrei Ivanovich Chmykhov is mentioned in the play only once, but his role is very important. From Chmykhov's letter, the mayor learns about the visit of the inspector, and the city officials begin to act to prevent the danger that threatens them. From his letter we learn that for the mayor, "as for everyone, there are sins." Fear of exposure of these sins pushes officials to “cover their tracks” and “throw dust in their eyes”. The pangs of conscience are unfamiliar to these people. It is not the expectation of just retribution, but the fear of exposure that drives the plot. Tryapichkin, Khlestakov's friend, as well as Chmykhov, never appears before the audience, but Khlestakov's letter to him is the beginning of the comedy's denouement. In this letter the truth is revealed, and everyone understands that they have been deceived. Now it becomes clear that Khlestakov is not an auditor, but his characteristics of officials amuse everyone, except those to whom they are addressed.

Critics also noted the features of Khlestakov's image. An upstart and dummy, a young man easily deceives an experienced mayor. The famous writer Merezhkovsky traced the mystical principle in comedy. The inspector, like an otherworldly figure, comes for the soul of the mayor, repaying for sins. “The main strength of the devil is the ability to seem not what he is,” this explains the ability of Khlestakov to mislead about his true origin.

Directions play a special role in the comedy "The Inspector General". In "Notes for Messrs. Actors" the author ironically characterizes the characters - openly expressing his attitude ("He is smarter than his master ... and silently a cheat") or hiding it in portrait descriptions ("... a very fat, clumsy and awkward person ").

Gogol, creating a portrait of society and showing the imperfection of man, finds a new type of dramatic conflict. It would be natural to expect that the playwright would follow the path of introducing into the conflict a hero-ideologist, a true auditor, serving “the cause, not the persons,” capable of exposing the officials of the district town. However, he abandons the high-hero comedy genre. In the comedy there is neither an ideological hero, nor a conscious deceiver who leads everyone by the nose. Anyone who is mistaken for an auditor is not even aware of this and does not make any deliberate attempts to fool the officials. The peculiarity of the comedy is that officials are fighting against a ghost created by their bad conscience and fear of retribution.

The portrait of each character helps us to compose their speaking surnames. Having opened the very first page of the comedy and learned that, for example, the name of the private bailiff is Ukhovert, and the county doctor is Gibner, we get, in general, a fairly complete picture of these characters and the author's attitude towards them. These portraits are revealed even deeper in the speech characteristics of the characters. The respectable governor and the conversation is sedate and measured: "so this is the circumstance", "full, full of you!" The provincial coquette Anna Andreevna is fussy and unrestrained; her speech is abrupt and expressive: “Who is this? This, however, is annoying! Who would that be? " Khlestakov, by the way, is somewhat similar to Anna Andreevna in the manner of speaking. The same abundance of exclamations, chaotic, abrupt speech: “I, brother, are not of that kind! I do not advise you ... "

The main literary device used by Gogol in the comic depiction of officials is the grotesque. In The Inspector General, much is built on exaggeration: Khlestakov's stupidity is fantastically exaggerated, brought to the “ideal”, the situation of delusion is comically exaggerated, but the main thing is a mirage intrigue that highlights the absurdity of human life.

The role of the silent scene in the play is great. She is the last, final chord of the piece. The shocked officials froze in horror in anticipation of imminent reprisals.

Gogol gave a silent scene as an allusion to the triumph of justice, the establishment of harmony. As a result, the feeling of anxiety, fear only intensified. Indeed, the fear that arose at the beginning of the scene, and then happily melted away when the officials bought off the "inspector" and calmed down, returned. But now the feeling of anxiety increases many times over - the officials find themselves in an even worse situation than at the beginning of the play. After all, having thrown all their strength into pleasing Khlestakov, they never bothered to establish at least external order in their affairs.

The skill of Gogol the playwright is new and original, and it is no coincidence that "The Inspector General" is one of the treasures of the Russian theater.

The struggle of the authorities against the satirical orientation of the play.

The play was not officially banned. But Nicholas I decided to deal with comedy in his own way. Immediately after the premiere of Gogol's "The Inspector General", on the imperial initiative, a play was ordered to be written on the same plot but with a different ending: all government embezzlers should be punished, which would undoubtedly weaken the satirical sound of "The Inspector General." Who was chosen for the authorship of the new "real" "Inspector" was not advertised for a long time. Already on July 14, 1836 in St. Petersburg and on August 27 in Moscow (as early as the opening of the 1836/1837 season!), The premiere performances of the comedy "The Real Inspector" took place. The name of the author did not appear either on the posters or in the printed edition that was published in the same 1836. After a while, mentions appeared that the author was "a certain prince Tsitsianov." Only in 1985 was the book by R. S. Akhverdyan published, in which, on the basis of archival documents, the authorship of D. I. Tsitsianov was proved. In addition to these, no more mentions of the staging of Tsitsianov's play are known.

The appearance of the comedy "The Inspector General" in 1836 caused an uplifting and exciting feeling in the society. This spring gave the audience a meeting with a real masterpiece. Probably, we can say that for the district officials such a terrible event as the arrival of the inspector from the capital looked like a kind of holiday: eerie, but interesting. Khlestakov is terrifying to them and arouses their admiration for the fact that he does not look at all like a person capable of cruelly punishing those responsible.

The comedy presents all aspects of Russian reality. N.V. Gogol depicts the most diverse strata of the urban population. As you know, the world of bureaucracy is a strictly hierarchical structure, living according to the principles "Every cricket know your six" and "You are the boss - I am a fool, I am a boss - you are a fool." An official is by no means an egocentric person. He understands that the world is complex enough, and in order to move from its lower point to the upper one, it takes a lot of effort and a lot of patience. He is ready to stock up on this patience and make these efforts. But for each step of the hierarchical ladder reached, the official demands a reward, which consists in access to the benefits and privileges assigned to this step. Unlike a lumpen, an official has a sense of social responsibility. In the picture of the world he offers, the degree of this responsibility increases as we approach the highest point. However, in practice this is not entirely true, and very often it is not at all. Often, as an official approaches the highest point, only the volume of his powers and benefits and privileges increases, while responsibility is skillfully distributed among his subordinates. So in the comedy the chief representative of the bureaucracy is the mayor, Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky. City landowners are represented by Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, merchants - by Abdulin, philistinism - by Shlepkina. The choice of characters is due to the desire to cover as widely as possible all aspects of public life and public administration. Each sphere of life is represented by one person, and the author is primarily important not the social function of the character, but the scale of his spiritual or moral values.

Strawberries are the head of charitable institutions. His people are dying "like flies," but this does not bother him at all, because "a man is simple: if he dies, then he will die anyway; if he recovers, then he will get well." The court is headed by Lyapkin-Tyapkin, a man who "read five or six books." Drunkenness and rudeness flourish in the police. People are starved in prisons. The policeman of Derzhimord, without any embarrassment, enters the merchants' shops as if into his storeroom. Postmaster Shpekin out of curiosity opens other people's letters ... All the officials in the city have one thing in common: each of them considers his public office as an excellent way to live without worries, without spending any effort. The concept of public good does not exist in the city, atrocities are happening everywhere and injustice flourishes. Surprisingly, no one even seeks to hide their criminal attitude to their duties, their own idleness and idleness. Bribery is generally considered a normal thing, even, more likely, all officials would consider it abnormal if a person suddenly appeared who considered taking bribes a very shameful activity. It is no coincidence that all officials, deep in their hearts, are sure that they will not offend the inspector when they go to him with gifts. “And it’s strange to say. There is no person who does not have any sins behind him,” the Governor says competently.

In his play, Nikolai Gogol creates a truly innovative situation: torn apart by internal contradictions, the city becomes a single organism due to the general crisis. The only sad thing is that the general misfortune is the arrival of the auditor. The city is united by a feeling of fear, it is fear that makes city officials almost brothers.

Some researchers of N.V. Gogol's work believe that the city in "The Inspector General" is an allegorical image of St. Petersburg and that Gogol, only for censorship reasons, could not say that the action takes place in the northern capital. Rather, we can say that the city in the play is any Russian city, so to speak, a collective image of Russian cities. Gogol writes that from this city to the capital "if you ride for three years" - you won't get there. But this does not make us perceive the city in the play as a separate island of vice. No, N.V. Gogol does everything to make the reader understand that nowhere is there such a place where life would proceed according to other laws. Of course, it could have happened that the auditor would not take bribes. But there is no doubt that if this happened to any of the characters in the play, he would have regarded this incident as his personal bad luck, and not at all as a victory of the law. All the officials in the play know, they are simply sure: their norms and customs will be close and understandable to others, like the language they speak. In "Theatrical passing" Nikolai Gogol himself wrote that if he had portrayed the city differently, readers would have thought that there was another, bright world, and this one was just an exception. No, it is not, unfortunately. The city in "The Inspector General" is striking in its monstrosity. We see a picture of the disunity of people, their remoteness from the true meaning of life, their blindness, ignorance of the true path. People have lost their natural ability to think, see, hear. Their behavior is predetermined by a single passion to acquire: position in society, ranks in the service, wealth. Man is gradually losing his human appearance. And such a fate awaits everyone who is far from morality and spiritual values. And yet there is a positive character in comedy. This hero is laughter, "that laughter that all flies out of the light nature of man ... without the penetrating power of which the trifle and emptiness of life would not frighten man so much."

The psychological mechanism of comedic laughter, oddly enough, is akin to the mechanism of fright, amazement. These different manifestations of spiritual activity have in common the fact that these are experiences that were not prepared by previous events. The person tuned in to the perception of the significant, the essential, and suddenly the insignificant, an empty thing appeared before him; he expected to see the beautiful, human, and before him - an ugly, soulless mannequin, a living doll. Laughter is always a joyous "fright", a joyful "disappointment - amazement", which is exactly the opposite of delight and admiration. Perceiving Nikolai Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General", it turns out that we are deceived into thinking that the mayor correctly takes Khlestakov for an inspector, and we are mistaken in assuming that the person who is taken for an inspector must be, if not the least bit solid and positive , then at least a person who is really worth fearing. It turns out that we have a trick. ... There is a huge, screaming discrepancy between who Khlestakov really is and who he is mistaken for, between what a government official should be and what he really is. The most important thing is to grasp this contradiction: to see the inner behind the external, for the particular - the general, for the phenomenon - the essence. It is joyful to realize that everything that is dangerous to society is not only formidable, but also internally untenable and comical. The world of wicks and dead souls is terrible, but it is also comical: it is below perfection, it does not correspond to high ideals. Realizing this, we rise above danger. Even the most formidable danger will not defeat us. It can bring us death, but the tragedy can be survived, but our ideals must be higher and therefore stronger, and therefore invincible, and therefore we laugh at dead souls, at mayors, at the reality that gave birth to them.

Relevance of the problems of the comedy "The Inspector General" in our time.

In the comedy "The Inspector General" NV Gogol reveals the vices of society in the times of tsarist Russia with great revealing power. Officials are in the center of his attention. The ability not to miss what itself floats into the hands is, in their opinion, a manifestation of intelligence and enterprise.

Having read this work, you will involuntarily try it on to the present time and, unfortunately, no cardinal changes have occurred over such a large number of years. There is not a single honest hero in the comedy, from any class. Several vices dominate each of the characters, but some of them are more pronounced. Everything that Gogol ridiculed in his immortal comedy has been present for many years to the present day ...

Ivan Alexandrovich Khlestakov.

Gogol's contemporary Apollon Grigoriev gave a characterization of this character: "Khlestakov, like a soap bubble, inflates under the influence of favorable circumstances, grows in his own eyes and the eyes of officials, becomes bolder and bolder in bragging ..." He swears so much that he himself begins to believe in its significance. Gogol noted that Khlestakov is the most difficult character in the play. In each of the situations that arise, he behaves like a genius actor. Khlestakov should not be regarded as an evil or cruel person. By itself, he is completely harmless, and those around him can make anything out of him: even incognito from St. Petersburg, and even with a secret prescription, even an insignificant metropolitan official. The peculiarity of Khlestakov's character, or rather the lack of character, lies in the fact that he has practically no memory of the past and thinking about the future. Khlestakov is focused on the present minute, and within this minute is able to achieve the highest artistry.

The role of lies in modern life is enormous. The world is full of lies. Not only people who are deceitful by nature lie, but also people who are truthful. They lie not only consciously, but also unconsciously. People live in fear, and lies are a weapon of defense. The structure of consciousness changes by the function of the lie generated by fear. What matters most is the lie that is claimed as debt. It fills the life of states and societies, supports civilization, it is proud of it as a protection against decay and anarchy. The lie of the modern world is not a lie in the sense of sin, but a lie as an expression of a deep rebirth of consciousness. Personal conscience is disappearing from the world more and more and its voice is heard less and less. But this does not mean that conscience disappears altogether, it changes its character. Simply, a person, having lied, shifts this responsibility onto society, forced circumstances, life difficulties.

Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky.

The main man in the city is the mayor Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, an elderly man with rough and hard features. "Speaks neither loudly, nor softly, neither more nor less." Although he is a bribe-taker, he behaves very respectably. Merchants "stand still, even get into the noose." However, Anton Antonovich admits such behavior only in relation to the bourgeoisie, in front of his superiors he acts as a zealous campaigner, benefactor, sycophant and sycophant: "I dare ask you ... but no, I am not worthy ..."

His image is relevant in our time. Quite often we hear calls for the fight against bribery, at least we often face it directly. Taking a bribe is one of the most dangerous and widespread types of malfeasance. Meanwhile, in the modern world, bribery is becoming more and more sophisticated, acquiring an unprecedented scale, causing colossal damage to society and the state.

The assessment of the concept of "bribe-taker" is very interesting. According to opinion polls, it is assessed weakly negatively, which indicates a very condescending attitude towards the named figure in modern society. A person who fills his pockets with bribes is not a public scarecrow. This is partly negative, but absolutely normal element of modern life.

It is characteristic that the students are the worst of all to the "bribe-taker", and the state officials are the most relaxed.

The sycophancy inherent in the mayor is no less common nowadays. A sneak is a low flatterer, a lackey person, ready for meanness in order to achieve his goals, personal gain. Anyone who pleases, fawns, fawns upon someone, trying to win over, achieve something.

You can recognize a real sneak by the way he looks at his boss. And he does it reverently, with trepidation, attention, breathing every other time. A sneak will never miss an opportunity to compliment a boss. He praises absolutely everything: the method of leadership, appearance, talented and beautiful children, a purchased car ... At the same time, the toady is very attentive and, unlike most employees (who are busy with business or themselves), notices the slightest changes in the boss's appearance. Flattery and sycophancy is perhaps the most intractable disease that creates many problems in the corporate culture. Because of toadies, the psychological situation in the team deteriorates, the system in which the most capable and hardworking grows begins to rapidly collapse, and happy leaders completely lose their ability to self-criticize.

Moreover, some of those who are mesmerized by subordinates-sycophants often do not even suspect that they are simply being manipulated, and in the meantime, flattering characters successfully and without unnecessary delays move up the career ladder.

Policeman Derzhimord.

The Derzhimord policeman is a rude, oppressive person. He, without any embarrassment, enters the merchants' shops as if into his pantry. Drunkenness and rudeness flourish in the police. People are starved in prisons.

His name has become a household name for a stupid, executive-zealous and shameless administrator who does not disdain police methods. The transcendental level of corruption, arbitrariness, unmotivated aggression, disregard for the law, incompetence - all these are characteristic features of the modern law enforcement system of our country.

Crimes committed by police officers have become the norm. Literally every week, the media report on new murders, robberies, beatings, in which people in uniform become defendants.

It's no secret that Russian citizens are often more afraid of police than bandits. Interior Ministry employees have become a privileged class, in fact, living by their own laws. A police officer's certificate actually allows one not to comply with the laws, which gives rise to impunity, corruption and arbitrariness.

Artemy Filippovich Strawberries.

No less colorful is the trustee of charitable institutions, Strawberry. Artemy Filippovich - "a weasel and a rogue", embezzler and informer. Artemy Strawberry serves in a small district town and leads a life "in accordance with his rank and position", does not care about the state interest, while his own well-being is above all for him, mercy is in the hands of a swindler. God-pleasing institutions for Strawberries are a feeder. In treating patients, his credo is: "The closer to nature, the better." He quite calmly says that expensive medicines are not used in the hospital: “A simple man: if he dies, he will die anyway; if he recovers, he will get well. ” It is no accident that later Artemy Filippovich will make a reservation that his "patients, like flies, are recovering." Of course, the reader understands that it would be more appropriate to say “die like flies,” this would be closer to the truth. Upon learning of the inspector's arrival, Strawberry is ready to "take cosmetic measures": to put on clean caps on the sick, to inscribe the name of the disease on a plaque over the beds, and to reduce the number of sick people so that their excess is not attributed to bad eye or to the non-art of the doctor. Gogol gives him the following characterization: “Weasel and rogue. Very helpful and fussy. "

Unfortunately, the embezzlement and indifference of Strawberry also take place in the modern world. Nobody has yet assessed the losses of the state from embezzlement. We can only say that they cannot exceed the size of the state and local budgets combined.

As reported in the press, instead of expensive freon, a cheaper poisonous intermediate product of its production - tetrachlorethylene - was pumped into the fire extinguishing system. The press is silent on who has benefited from this substitution. The Defense Ministry, of course, is also silent. This example, alas, is not an isolated and not the most egregious, just very characteristic: nothing is sacred when it comes to the personal gain of those involved, accomplices in embezzlement and corruption.

But this is only in terms of volume, and if we count direct damage. The indirect damage from embezzlement is much higher: here and malfunctioning, or even not working at all state mechanisms, and destroyed morale, and ultimately this damage is measured in human lives. A simple example: the nuclear submarine (nuclear submarine) "Nerpa", on which during sea trials in the Sea of \u200b\u200bJapan an accident with the death of people occurred. The fire extinguishing system of the Project 971 K-152 "Nerpa" nuclear submarine worked abnormally, as a result of which 20 people died, more than forty people were poisoned.

Pyotr Ivanovich Dobchinsky and Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky.

The similarity between Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky is manifested even in the consonance of their names. Not only do they have the same name, they think and speak almost the same way. Their stories, with a huge amount of unnecessary details, each time claim that they are just gossips and commoners.

From the point of view of psychology, the position of the man in the street is freedom from responsibility, and, above all, from the inner one, which would appear if he really took to resolve certain significant issues. Instead, the man in the street finds satisfaction in the fact that arbitrarily and momentarily chooses what is most beneficial and simple for him.

The main feature of the townsfolk, which unites them all, is a fundamentally chosen approach for themselves in life, which is expressed in the unwillingness to bother with anything, to take any position for oneself, to decide the correctness or incorrectness of some things that fall out of the circle of its extremely narrow and direct personal interests. However, with all this, ordinary people assign themselves the right to judge and speak out about everything. Moreover, they see their right to do so even as a higher priority in relation to those who are really trying to understand these things. In the very word "gossip" there is a sense of the weaving of false events with their participants for someone's plans, slander and slanderers, perhaps to hide their actions, actions and immorality.

Gossipers are usually someone's tool and used for some negative purpose. In modern society, rumors do not give up their positions and remain a powerful tool for influencing people

The likelihood of rumors increases in a situation of absence of events, monotony and boredom. No wonder: gossip is fun. Once upon a time, before the advent of the media, rumors were the only way to inform people. And in modern society, gossip occurs, as a rule, where there is a lack of information.

Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin.

A local judge, Lyapkin-Tyapkin, awards Gogol with a wonderful "speaking" surname. It immediately becomes clear how he does business. Ammos Fedorovich is interested only in hunting and, taking bribes with greyhound puppies, considers himself a highly moral person. His indifference to official affairs and duties is so great that the county court is gradually turning into a kind of farm - right in the front of the watchman they keep domestic geese.

In the everyday life of society, indifference is manifested: in enterprises, in schools, in business, etc. Indifference in relationships occurs quite often, and in the modern world there are reasons for it. Indifference is a state of complete indifference, disinterest. “I've been sitting in the judge's chair for fifteen years now, but when I look into the memo - ah! I just wave my hand, ”says Ammos Fedorovich. Most people today are so preoccupied with their everyday difficulties, personal and business problems that they often do not have enough time to pay due attention, establish and maintain good human relations with others outside the narrow family or business circle.

Indifference and indifference manifests itself in everything and penetrates everywhere. They are the reason for low self-esteem, mistrust of people, inability and unwillingness to properly arrange their future. Selfishness, cynicism, arrogance, superficiality - qualities generated by indifference.

At the same time, the spiritual culture of people remains at a low level, the line between the noble, the truly valuable and the vulgar is gradually blurring. No wonder they say that indifference is poison to the heart. Only by letting in this darkness a little, a person does not notice how it absorbs him completely.

Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin.

Postmaster Shpekin is not only a fool, but also a scoundrel. He openly opens and reads other people's letters, and leaves the most interesting for his collection. Whether he does it out of curiosity or just out of boredom - it doesn't matter, but he does not hide it and, moreover, he has permission from the mayor for this: “... can you, for our common benefit, every letter that comes to you in post office, incoming and outgoing, you know, just print and read a little ... "

It's not a secret for anyone that Shpekin's actions are an infringement on the secrecy of correspondence, a criminal offense. In the modern world, this is considered a crime, but the number of Shpekins is growing. New means of communication appear, and people appear who are ready to read other people's correspondence. Perhaps because of the lack of personal communication, perhaps just out of idle curiosity, but the fact remains. Electronic mailboxes are hacked, telephone conversations are tapped. As a result, deeply personal, secret becomes public domain.

The lower class.

Such traits of people of the lower class as greed, vulgarity, ignorance, did not go unnoticed by N.V. Gogol. Oppressed, offended people with no rights, such as locksmith, serf Osip, tavern sex, non-commissioned officer's widow, "whipped herself", completely lacks self-esteem, the ability to indignant at her slave position. These characters are brought out in the play in order to emphasize the consequences of the unseemly actions of the ruling officials, to show how those who are lower in rank suffer from their arbitrariness.

In a modern, rather aggressive world, it is rather difficult to maintain self-esteem. Self-esteem is a person's personal inner judge. This value is so often unstable: it will ascend to heaven, in case of some kind of victory, success, then it will rush into the maelstrom of self-flagellation, eating away from the inside with a viscous whip for the mistakes made.

Low self-esteem is often present in the lives of people who are engaged in an unloved business, live with unloved people. Internally, they understand this perfectly, but they cannot do anything, quietly hating themselves for their powerlessness, which generates anger towards everyone around them. As a result, an irresistible craving for money appears as an indicator of dignity, nobility and significance.

People are trying in every way to prove to themselves, and first of all to those around them, that they are above the rest, despite the minor shortcomings of their personal life. This is probably the scariest one. A person who exalts public opinion over his own loses his self-esteem, that is, loses himself in the modern world.

Conclusion.

More than a century and a half have passed since the comedy was published, and its heroes, no, no, and we will meet here and there. This means that these are not just the characters of the play, but human types that still exist. The work of N.V. Gogol, in my opinion, is not so much comical as full of tragedy, because reading it, you begin to understand: a society in which there are so many degraded leaders, corrupted by idleness and impunity, has no future. The relief image of the city officials and, above all, the mayor, complements the satirical meaning of the comedy. The tradition of bribery and deception of an official is completely natural and inevitable. Both the lower strata and the top of the bureaucratic class of the city do not think of any other outcome but to bribe the inspector with a bribe. The county nameless town becomes a generalization of the whole of Russia, which, under the threat of revision, reveals the true side of the character of the main characters, which is characteristic of any time.

The influence of the comedy "The Inspector General" on Russian society was enormous. The surname Khlestakov began to be used as a common noun. And they began to call Khlestakovism any unrestrained phrase-mongering, lies, shameless boasting combined with extreme frivolity. Gogol managed to penetrate into the very depths of the Russian national character, having fished out the image of a false auditor Khlestakov. According to the author of the immortal comedy, every Russian person becomes Khlestakov at least for a minute, regardless of his social status, age, education, and so on. In my opinion, overcoming Khlestakovism in oneself can be considered one of the main ways of self-improvement for each of us. All modern productions of the comedy "The Inspector General" emphasize its relevance to the new time. A lot of time has passed since the composition of the play, but everything suggests that this Gogolian work about an ordinary incident in a Russian county town will not leave the stage of Russian theaters for a long time. We still have everything that Gogol noticed: embezzlement, bribery, honor, indifference, ruthlessness, filth, provincial boredom and increasing centralization - a pyramid of power, a vertical, - when any passing metropolitan rogue is perceived as an almighty big boss. And the very image of Khlestakov always corresponds to the spirit of the times.

And yet, more often we meet kind and sympathetic people who, by their actions, strive to change the world for the better. They are not like either Khlestakov or the mayor: they have different ideals. Thanks to such strong and selfless personalities, our country was able to withstand difficult times and maintain its dignity to this day.

Reading The Inspector General, we are convinced every time that the great work has not lost its accusatory power today, that decisively each of us has something to learn from Gogol.

List of references.

Fiction

N.V. Gogol. Auditor. - Moscow: State Publishing House of Children's Literature, Ministry of Education of the RSFSR, 1952.

Yu.V. Mann. N.V. Gogol. Life and art. - M .: Children's literature, 1985.

Yu. V. Mann. Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General". - M .: Fiction, 1976.

Popular science literature

N.A. Berdyaev. Philosophy of Inequality. - M.: AST, 2006.

N.A. Berdyaev. Self-knowledge. - M.: Vagrius, 2004.

Periodic printing

V.R. Spiridonov. The mythology of a bribe. // Psychological newspaper: We and the World, No. 3, 2000.

N.Ya. Chuksin. On corruption // Samizdat, 2009, №7.

Vasily Buslaev. Nuclear submarine "Nerpa" // Rossiyskaya Gazeta, 13.11.2008, №234

Reference editions

Dmitry Ushakov. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language by Ushakov. - M .: State. publishing house foreign. and nat. words, 2007.

About the Inspector "Nikolai Vasilyevich himself said:" In the "Inspector" I decided to collect in one heap everything bad in Russia, which I knew then, all the injustices that are done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required of a person , and at one time laugh at everything. ”There are several key words and phrases in the writer's statement: everything is bad, injustice, WHERE MORE IT IS REQUIRED, to laugh at everything.

Where, then, do we need justice most of all? Of course, where there is a problem of power. We already talked about her in the analysis of The Captain's Daughter, but Gogol wants to show a little different. What - read on.

Plot, conflict and comedy issues

The comedy takes place in a small provincial town. “It's high up to God, far from the king,” is the principle of life in this city, especially for those in power. The governor and his officials run the city in accordance with their ideas about governance.

And suddenly, like a bolt from the blue - the news: "An auditor is coming to us." The end of a quiet life and quiet joys in the form of distributing public funds to their pockets. Out of fear, they mistake Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov for the inspector, a petty official who lost at cards and had to stay in the town.

They try to shove a bribe to Khlestakov, then they cordially receive, watered, fed, Khlestakov takes care of both ladies at once in the house of the Governor, makes an offer to his daughter, so he leaves. The obscenely curious postmaster opens Khlestakov's letter, from where everyone finds out what this person really is, they are indignant, and then the news comes that the real inspector has arrived and is waiting for everyone at the hotel.

A dumb scene.

Conflict.In drama as a kind of literature, conflict plays a fundamental role. There seems to be no conflict in The Inspector General: both Khlestakov and the officials want the same thing. Therefore, the conflict is imaginary, based on the fear of officials and Khlestakov's desire to get out of the situation (this is not very correct, but I will explain it later).

Comedy problems.

Amazing writer Gogol! He is never limited to purely social problems, which in fact is the problem of power, or the problem of serfdom (which, it would seem, should have been in Dead Souls). He always looks FOR the society, FOR the obvious. As in "Dead Souls" the problem of the moral, spiritual in man, so in "The Inspector General" come to the fore socio-psychological and moral issues... Socio-psychological are associated with the image of officials and Khlestakov, moral and psychological - with "Khlestakovism", which will be discussed below. And everyone in the comedy is not only Power "product"but also a certain socio-psychological type.

Governor and Co

In "Instructions for Messrs. Actors," Gogol clearly described the essence of this honest company, and each separately. We will follow the author.

Governor. The smartest of them all. He believes that the power is given to fulfill his desires and maintain the state. With his knowledge, embezzlement, honor, indifference, injustice flourish in the city. All his efforts before the arrival of the inspector are reduced to disguise the existing situation in the city.

At first he feels fear of Khlestakov, then quickly realizes that there is no need to be afraid of him, because he is the same as him. The governor manages to arrange the marriage of his daughter with Khlestakov, he begins to dream of a career in St. Petersburg, of the future generals ...

Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin... Gogol notes that he has read 5-6 books, therefore he considers himself to be an intelligent person (consider: 5-6 books - and an intelligent person!). In court he has "geese with goslings" walking around, and a strong spirit of fumes emanates from the assessors. He takes bribes with greyhound puppies and sees nothing special in that. The type is an aggressive fool.

Superintendent of schools Khlopov... This gentleman in education understands like a pig in oranges. he cannot take any measures to improve the situation, and he hires teachers "in number, maybe at a lower price." The type is a coward.

Trustee of charitable institutions Strawberry... God-pleasing institutions - hospitals and shelters. It always smells of sauerkraut (the cheapest food), there is no medicine, since Strawberry believes that if destined, the patient will die, and if not, he will recover himself. Type - informer, swindler, cynic.

Postmaster Shpekin... He loves to open and read other people's letters. What for? Just because. And that's enough to make up his portrait.

These are the people who are in power. Their main goal is to keep everything that is intact.

Idea: Gogol's power is perverse by definition. People who get to her, not only take advantage of the current situation, but also change themselves, acquiring a whole bunch of human vices. And it is not power that works for people, but people exist for power (a number of minor characters, like Poshlepkina or the non-commissioned officer's widow, who whipped herself).

Attention, Unified State Exam! Material about officials can be used in essays about power (and any, even psychological) over a person. Power corrupts people, along with a sense of superiority over others, there is a feeling of permissiveness and impunity.

Khlestakov and Khlestakovshchina

Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov is a petty official, a man from the wilderness. His servant Osip gives him an exhaustive description: he is a spender, a fool, a dummy. He wastes money that his father sends him, playing it at cards.

And such a friend finds himself without money in a strange city, but he really wants to be fed, watered and not driven from the hotel. When officials come running to the hotel, frightened to death by the inspector, Khlestakov is also frightened, but soon learns that they just give him money, first he promises to return it, and then he starts to taste. And the unfortunate thought does not flicker that all this is not for nothing!

In the third act, Khlestakov, after eating and drinking heavily, goes into a rage, and tells sequentially that he was the head of the department, then the minister, and then the field marshal, and that he had thirty-five thousand couriers, and he wrote all the famous works, and with Pushkin on a friendly footing ("Well, brother Pushkin?"). he lies, and he believes it himself! The governor and officials are horrified.

But the cunning Governor, noticing Khlestakov's interest in his ladies, is not against the inspector's marriage to his daughter, and so Khlestakov, with full pockets of money and parental blessing, is leaving home.

Why did Gogol show us this man? For the sake of "Khlestakovism"

What it is? This is a socio-psychological phenomenon common to many people. Remember which of us has not dreamed of a better life? So Khlestakov also dreams. Only unlike us, he has no right to this life, because he does not represent anything of himself, does not want to work for this, he wants as it appears in the scene of lies: I have everything, but I did not put any effort into it ... This quality of a person to pretend for more, but not to put effort into it, is called Khlestakovism.

This is the psychological side of this phenomenon. There is also a social one.

The governor (see above) dreams of a generalship, a career in St. Petersburg, and so on thanks to what? Yes, the wedding of the daughter and the auditor, a clever bribe, in time flattery. And that's all. After all, this is also Khlestakovism! Absolutely all officials suffer from it. And if we take into account that we have in front of us in the play an average city of central Russia, and the scene of action is everywhere, then the generalization will no longer seem funny, but scary.

So, Gogol not only laughed at everything bad in Russia, but also highlighted one of the most disgusting qualities of a person and power, Khlestakovism, which, it turns out, is characteristic, if not all, then very many representatives of power, and very many people. This is the idea behind the play. Yes, this is all that is bad in Russia!

Attention, Unified State Exam! The arguments from "The Inspector General" can be used in the essay as an illustration to the problems of personality psychology. I mean the following: empty dreams, fantasies, deviations from the truth lead to an inevitable distortion not only of reality, but also a distortion of personality. The second problem is lying in a person's life. When a person lies, he, firstly, does not represent the consequences of deception, and secondly, he risks losing, if not all, then a lot.

The material was prepared by Larisa Vladislavovna Karelina, a teacher of the Russian language of the highest category, an honorary worker of general education of the Russian Federation

Comedy N.V. Gogol's "The Inspector General" is one of the best plays in the world. Gogol, possessing the gift of generalizing his observations and creating artistic types in which everyone can find the features of people they know, ridiculed the denier, N.V. Gogol, the best aspects of Russian reality. The plot of "The Inspector General" is taken from life, the characters, who almost remind everyone of someone, make the comedy modern. The entire play is filled with hints that allow the reader to feel the relevance of the comedy.

Laughter is a great weapon. Laughing at the negative phenomena of life, Gogol makes the reader think about their causes, understand all their malignity and try to get rid of them. But maybe the play is really out of date? Maybe the images of her heroes have become incomprehensible to us, we do not know what "Khlestakovism" is, what is "bribe", what is sycophancy? It is difficult to agree with this, although such an assumption sounds tempting. This comedy retains its relevance even today, none of the ridiculed vices has disappeared.

The realization of this goal is possible through the solution of the following tasks: 1. Study of educational and methodological literature on this topic. 2. Analysis of the problems of the play "The Inspector General". 3. Characteristics of the types of characters in the play "The Inspector General". 4. Assessment of the relevance of the problems of comedy in our time.

The comedy The Inspector General, written in 1836, dealt a crushing blow to the entire administrative-bureaucratic system of tsarist Russia in the 1830s. The author exposed not isolated isolated cases to general ridicule, but typical manifestations of the state apparatus.

A dumb scene, speaking surnames, a relief image of the image of officials, extra-stage characters, remarks, a special type of dramatic conflict complement the satirist meaning of the comedy. The Inspector General is called one of the treasures of the Russian theater. A dumb scene. Figure N.V. Gogol. Gogol is an excellent playwright.

The lie inherent in Khlestakov and other heroes of the comedy is currently only acquiring a different look. Personal conscience is disappearing from the world more and more and its voice is heard less and less. But this does not mean that conscience disappears altogether, it changes its character. Ivan Alexandrovich Khlestakov.

Toadiness, bribery, which are more characteristic of the mayor, are no less common in our time. In the modern world, bribery is becoming more and more sophisticated, causing colossal damage to society and the state. And sycophancy is becoming an intractable disease that creates many problems in the corporate culture. It is not so much harmful to society as it is disgusting. Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky.

In the modern law enforcement system of our country, police officers are often found. This is probably why the citizens of Russia are often more afraid of the police than of the bandits. Interior Ministry officials have essentially become a privileged class, living by their own laws. Policeman Derzhimord.

The embezzlement and indifference of Strawberries are inherent in the modern world. No one has yet assessed the losses of the state from treasury - theft. We can only say that they cannot exceed the size of the state and local budgets combined. But this is only direct damage. The indirect damage from embezzlement is much higher: government mechanisms not working, morale destroyed, and ultimately this damage is measured in human lives. Artemy Filippovich Strawberries.

The philistinism and gossip of these heroes are one of the vices of modern society. Gossip in our time is just entertainment in the conditions of monotony and boredom. And everyday life is the life approach of many people who do not want to solve problems that fall outside the narrow circle of their personal interests. Pyotr Ivanovich Dobchinsky, Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky.

In our time, the indifference of this hero is not uncommon. Most people are so preoccupied with their everyday difficulties that they often do not have enough time to establish and maintain good human relationships with others outside of their close family or business circles. Indifference is poison to the heart. Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin.

The immoral actions of Shpekin are considered a crime in the modern world, but the number of Shpekins is growing. New means of communication appear, and people appear who are ready to read other people's correspondence. Electronic mailboxes are hacked, telephone conversations are tapped. The deeply personal becomes the public domain. Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin.

In oppressed people with no rights, such as a locksmith, a serf Osip, a non-commissioned officer's widow, there is completely no self-esteem, the ability to rebel against their slave position. Such traits are simply destructive for modern man. If a person does not respect himself, no one takes him seriously, he is lost in this aggressive world. The lower class.

Comedy N.V. Gogol's "The Inspector General" has not lost its incriminating power today, absolutely each of us has something to learn from the author. But along with modern whipping, derzhimorda and strawberries, we meet kind and responsive people who, by their actions, strive to change the world for the better. Conclusion.

The Inspector General is an immortal comedy by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. From the moment of its writing, they did not stop reading and staging it on stage, because the problems that the author revealed in the work will never lose their relevance and will find a response in the hearts of viewers and readers at all times.

Work on the work began in 1835. According to legend, wanting to write a comedy, but not finding a story worthy of this genre, Gogol turned to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin for help in the hope that he would suggest a suitable plot. And so it happened, Pushkin shared an "anecdote" that happened either to him or to an official he knew: a person who came to a city on his own business was mistaken by the local authorities for an inspector who had arrived on a secret mission to track, find out, report. Admiring the talent of the writer, Pushkin was sure that Gogol would cope with the task even better than him, he was looking forward to the release of the comedy and in every possible way supported Nikolai Vasilyevich, especially when he was thinking of abandoning the work he had begun.

For the first time, the comedy was read by the author himself at an evening with Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky in the presence of several acquaintances and friends (including Pushkin). In the same year, The Inspector General was staged at the Alexandrinsky Theater. The play angered and alarmed with its "unreliability", it could be banned. It was only thanks to the petition and patronage of Zhukovsky that it was decided to leave the work alone.

At the same time, Gogol himself was dissatisfied with the first production. He decided that neither the actors nor the public had taken The Inspector General correctly. This was followed by several explanatory articles by the writer, giving important instructions to those who really want to grasp the essence of comedy, correctly understand the characters, and play them on stage.

Work on "The Inspector General" continued until 1842: after making numerous corrections, it acquired the form in which it has come down to us.

Genre and direction

The Inspector General is a comedy, where the subject of the story is the life of Russian officials. This is a satire on the mores and orders established among people belonging to this circle. The author skillfully uses elements of the comic in his work, supplying them with both plot twists and turns and a system of characters. He cruelly ridicules the current state of society, then openly ironic about events that illustrate reality, then covertly laughing at them.

Gogol worked in the direction of realism, the main principle of which was to show "a typical hero in typical circumstances." This, on the one hand, made it easier for the writer to choose the theme of the work: it was enough to think about what issues are burning for society at the moment. On the other hand, this posed a difficult task for him to describe reality in such a way that the reader would recognize it and himself in it, believe the author's word and himself, plunging into the atmosphere of disharmony of reality, realized the need for change.

About what?

The action takes place in a county town, which naturally has no name, thereby symbolizing any city, and hence Russia as a whole. Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky - the mayor - receives a letter, which says about an auditor who can come to the city incognito with a check at any moment. The news literally puts on the ears of all residents who have anything to do with the civil service. Without thinking twice, the frightened townspeople themselves find a contender for the role of an important official from St. Petersburg and in every possible way try to flatter him, to appease a high-ranking person, so that he will condescend to their sins. The comic nature of the situation is added by the fact that Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov, who made such an impression on others, until the last minute does not guess why everyone is behaving with him so courteously, and only at the very end begins to suspect that he was mistaken for someone else, throughout the appearance of an important person.

A love conflict is also woven into the canvas of the general narrative, also played out in a farcical manner and built on the fact that the young ladies participating in it, each pursuing their own benefit, try to prevent each other from reaching it, and the instigator at the same time cannot choose one of the two I will.

The main characters and their characteristics

Ivan Alexandrovich Khlestakov

This is a minor official from St. Petersburg, returning home to his parents and mired in debt. “The role of the one who is taken by the frightened city for the auditor is more difficult for everyone,” says Gogol about Khlestakov in one of the articles attached to the play. An empty and insignificant person by nature, Khlestakov turns around his finger a whole city of rogues and swindlers. The main assistant to him in this becomes the general fear that gripped the officials mired in official "sins". They themselves create an incredible image of an omnipotent auditor from St. Petersburg - a formidable person who decides other people's destinies, the first of the first in the whole country, as well as a metropolitan thing, a star of any circle. But such a legend must be able to support. Khlestakov brilliantly copes with this task, unrolling every passage thrown in his direction to an exciting story so impudently absurd that it is hard to believe that the cunning city N could not see through his deception. The secret of the "auditor" is that his lies are pure and naive to the extreme. The hero is incredibly sincere in his lies, he practically believes in what he is telling. This is probably the first time he has received such overwhelming attention. They really listen to him, listen to his every word, which makes Ivan absolutely delighted. He feels that this is the moment of his triumph: whatever he says now, everything will be received with admiration. His fantasy takes flight. He is not aware of what is really going on here. Stupidity and bragging do not allow him to objectively assess the real state of affairs and realize that these mutual enthusiasm cannot last long. He is ready to stay in the city, taking advantage of the imaginary benevolence and generosity of the townspeople, not realizing that the deception will soon be revealed, and then there will be no limit to the fury of the officials circled around the finger.

Being a loving young man, Khlestakov drags right after two attractive young ladies, not knowing whom to choose, whether the mayor's daughter or his wife, and rushes in front of one or the other on his knees, which wins the hearts of both.

In the end, gradually starting to guess that all those present take him for someone else, Khlestakov, surprised by this incident, but without losing courage, writes to his friend, the writer Tryapichkin, about what happened to him, and offers to ridicule his new acquaintances in the relevant article. He joyfully paints the vices of those who accepted him complacently, those whom he managed to rob (taking only loans), those who gloriously turned their heads with their stories.

Khlestakov is a "deceitful, personified deception" and at the same time this empty, insignificant character "contains a collection of many of those qualities that are found not behind insignificant people," which is why this role is more difficult than everyone else. You can find another description of the character and image of Khlestakov in the format of an essay.

Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, mayor

"Dodger of the first category" (Belinsky)

Anton Antonovich is not a stupid person and knows how to manage affairs. He could have been a good mayor if he hadn't taken care of his pocket first of all. Deftly settling in his seat, he carefully looks at every opportunity to grab something somewhere and never misses his chance. In the city he is considered a swindler and a bad manager, but it becomes clear to the reader that he earned such fame not because he is angry or ruthless by nature (he is not at all like that), but because he put his interests much higher than others. Moreover, if you find the right approach to him, you can enlist his support.

The governor is not mistaken about himself and does not hide in a private conversation that he himself knows everything about his sins. He considers himself a devout man, for he goes to church every Sunday. It can be assumed that some repentance is not alien to him, but he still puts his weaknesses above him. At the same time, he is anxious about his wife and daughter, he cannot be reproached with indifference.

In the arrival of the auditor, the mayor is rather frightened by the surprise than by the check itself. He suspects that if you properly prepare the city and the right people for the meeting of an important guest, as well as take the official from St. Petersburg into circulation, then you can successfully arrange the business and even win something for yourself here. Feeling that Khlestakov succumbs to influence and comes into a good mood, Anton Antonovich calms down, and, of course, there is no limit to his joy, pride and the flight of his imagination when the opportunity arises to intermarry with such a person. The governor dreams of a prominent position in St. Petersburg, of a successful game for his daughter, the situation is under his control and turns out as well as possible, when it suddenly turns out that Khlestakov is just an empty shell, and a real inspector has already appeared on the threshold. It is for him that this blow becomes the most difficult: he loses more than others, and will get him much more severely. You can find an essay describing the character and image of the mayor in The Inspector General.

Anna Andreevna and Maria Antonovna

The main female characters of the comedy. These ladies are the wife and daughter of the mayor. They are extremely curious, like all bored young ladies, hunters for all city gossip, as well as big coquettes, they love to be carried away by others.

Khlestakov, who appeared so unexpectedly, becomes a wonderful entertainment for them. He brings news from the high society of the capital, tells many amazing and amusing stories, and most importantly shows interest in each of them. Mother and daughter are trying in every possible way to achieve the location of an adorable dandy from St. Petersburg, and, in the end, he marries Maria Antonovna, which her parents are very happy about. Everyone is starting to make bright plans for the future. Women do not realize that the wedding is not included in his plans, and in the end both, as, indeed, all residents of the city, find themselves at a broken trough.

Osip

Khlestakov's servant is not stupid and cunning. He understands the situation much faster than his master and, realizing that things are not going well, advises the owner to leave the city as soon as possible.

Osip understands well what his owner needs to always take care of his well-being. Khlestakov himself clearly does not know how to do this, which means that without his servant he will disappear. Osip also understands this, so sometimes he allows himself to behave familiarly with the owner, is rude to him, behaves independently.

Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky

They are city landowners. Both are short, round, "extremely similar to each other." These two friends are talkers and liars, the two main city gossips. It is they who take Khlestakov for an auditor, than they mislead all the other officials.

Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky give the impression of funny and good-natured gentlemen, but in reality they are stupid and, in essence, just windbag.

Other officials

Each official of the city N is remarkable in some way, but nevertheless, they first of all make up the general picture of the bureaucratic world and are of interest in the aggregate. They, as we will see later, have all the vices of people in important positions. Moreover, they do not hide it, and sometimes they are even proud of their actions. Having in the person of the mayor's ally, the judge, the trustee of charitable institutions, the superintendent of schools and others freely do any arbitrariness that comes to their mind, without fear of reprisals.

The announcement of the visit of the inspector terrifies everyone, but such "sharks" of the bureaucratic world quickly recover from the first shock and easily come to the simplest solution to their problem - bribing a terrible, but probably the same dishonest inspector. Overjoyed by the success of their plan, officials lose their vigilance and composure and find themselves crushed on their heads at the moment when it turns out that Khlestakov, whom they care about, is no one, and a real high-ranking official from St. Petersburg is already in the city. The image of the city N is described.

Themes

1. Political themes: arbitrariness, nepotism and embezzlement in the government... A provincial town N falls into the author's field of vision. The absence of a name and any territorial indications immediately suggests that this is a collective image. The reader immediately gets acquainted with a number of officials living there, since it is they who are of interest in this work. These are all people who completely abuse power and use their official duties only in their own interests. The life of the officials of the city of N has developed for a long time, everything goes on as usual, nothing violates the order they created, the foundation of which was laid by the mayor himself, until there is a real threat of court and punishment for their arbitrariness, which is about to fall on them represented by the auditor. we talked about this topic in more detail.
2. Social topics... Along the way, the comedy touched on the topic of universal stupidity, which manifests itself in different ways in different representatives of the human race. So, the reader sees how this vice leads some of the characters of the play into various curious situations: Khlestakov, inspired by the opportunity to become what he would like to be once in his life, does not notice that his legend has been written with a pitchfork in the water and he is about to be exposed ; the mayor, at first frightened to the core, and then faced with the temptation to go out to the people in Petersburg itself, is lost in the world of fantasies about a new life and turns out to be unprepared for the denouement of this extraordinary story.

Problems

The comedy aims to ridicule the specific vices of people who have a high position in the service. Residents of the city do not disdain either bribery or embezzlement, they deceive ordinary inhabitants, rob them. Self-interest and arbitrariness are the eternal problems of officials, therefore "The Inspector General" at all times remains a relevant and topical play.

Gogol touches on not only the problems of a particular class. He finds vices in every inhabitant of the city. For example, in noble women, we clearly see greed, hypocrisy, deceit, vulgarity and a tendency to betrayal. In ordinary townspeople, the author finds slavish dependence on masters, plebeian narrow-mindedness, a willingness to grovel and fawn for the sake of momentary gain. The reader can discern all sides of the coin: where tyranny reigns, there is no less shameful slavery. People accept this attitude towards themselves, they are satisfied with such a life. This is where unjust power draws its strength.

Meaning

The meaning of the comedy is laid down by Gogol in the folk proverb he chose as an epigraph: "There is no reason to blame the mirror if the face is crooked." In his work, the writer talks about the pressing problems of his country of his contemporary period, although more and more new readers (each in his own era) find them topical and relevant. Not everyone meets the comedy with understanding, not everyone is ready to admit the existence of a problem, but is inclined to blame the imperfection of the world around people, circumstances, life as such - just not himself. The author sees this pattern in his compatriots and, wishing to fight it with the methods available to him, writes The Inspector General in the hope that those who have read it will try to change something in themselves (and, perhaps, in the world around them) in order to avoid trouble and excesses on their own, but by all possible means to stop the triumphant path of dishonor in the professional environment.

There are no positive characters in the play, which can be interpreted as a literal expression of the main author's thought: everyone is to blame for everyone. There are no people who would not take a humiliating part in atrocities and riots. Everyone is doing their bit for injustice. Not only officials are to blame, but also merchants who give bribes and rob the people, and ordinary people who are always drunk and live in bestial conditions on their own initiative. Not only greedy, ignorant and hypocritical men are vicious, but deceitful, vulgar and stupid ladies. Before criticizing someone, you need to start with yourself, reducing the vicious circle by at least one link. This is the main idea of \u200b\u200bthe "Inspector".

Criticism

The writing of The Inspector General attracted a wide public response. The audience perceived the comedy ambiguously: the reviews were both enthusiastic and outraged. Criticism took opposite positions in assessing the work.

Many of Gogol's contemporaries strove to analyze comedy and draw any conclusion regarding its value for Russian and world literature. Some found it rude and harmful to read. So, F.V. Bulgarin, a representative of the official press and personal enemy of Pushkin, wrote that The Inspector General is a slander on Russian reality, that if there are such customs, it is not in our country, that Gogol portrayed a Little Russian or Belarusian city and so ugly that it is not clear how he can stay on the globe.

O.I. Senkovsky noted the talent of the writer, believed that Gogol had finally found his own genre and should improve in it, but the comedy itself was not so complacently received by the critic. Senkovsky considered it an author's mistake to mix something good and pleasant in his work with the amount of dirt and meanness that the reader eventually encounters. The critic also noted that the plot on which the whole conflict rests is unconvincing: such hardened scoundrels as officials of the city of N could not be so gullible and let themselves be led into this fateful delusion.

There was a different opinion regarding Gogol's comedy. K.S. Aksakov stated that those who scold "The Inspector General" did not understand his poetics and should read the text more carefully. As a true artist, Gogol hid his real feelings behind ridicule and satire, in reality, his soul was rooting for Russia, in which there is actually a place for all the characters of the comedy.

It is interesting that in his article "The Inspector General" a comedy, Op. N. Gogol "P.A. Vyazemsky, in turn, noted the complete success of the stage production. Remembering the accusations of implausibility against the comedy, he wrote about the psychological causes of the phenomena described by the author as more significant, but he was also ready to admit that what happened was possible from all other points of view. An important note in the article is an episode about attacks towards the characters: “They say that in Gogol's comedy not a single smart person is visible; not true: the author is clever. "

V.G. Belinsky praised the "Inspector". Oddly enough, he wrote a lot about Gogol's comedy in the article "Woe from Wit." The critic carefully considered both the plot and some of the characters in the comedy, and its essence. Talking about the genius of the author and praising his work, he admitted that everything in the "Inspector General" is excellent.

It is impossible not to mention the critical articles about the comedy of the author himself. Gogol wrote five explanatory articles to his work, as he considered that it was misunderstood by actors, spectators, and readers. He really wanted the audience to see in The Inspector General exactly what he showed, so that they perceive it in a certain way. In his articles, the writer gave instructions to the actors on how to play roles, revealed the essence of some episodes and scenes, as well as the general one - the entire work. He paid special attention to the silent scene, because he considered it incredibly important, the most important. Separately, I would like to mention "Theatrical patrol after the presentation of a new comedy." This article is unusual in its form: it is written in the form of a play. The audience who has just watched the show, as well as the author of the comedy, are talking among themselves. It contains some clarifications regarding the meaning of the work, but the main thing is Gogol's answers to criticism of his work.

Ultimately, the play became an important and integral part of Russian literature and culture.

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