In this lesson you will look at the structure of the city created by N.V. Gogol in The Inspector General, analyze the characters of its inhabitants, find out in what ways the model of Russian social life is conveyed in The Inspector General, consider the role of off-stage characters in the play, find out what role Nicholas I played in the fate of The Inspector General.
The officials of this city personify all the most important aspects of Russian life:
court - judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin (Fig. 2);
Rice. 2. Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin ()
education - superintendent of schools Luka Lukich Khlopov (Fig. 3);
Rice. 3. Superintendent of schools Khlopov ()
social security - trustee of charitable institutions Zemlyanika (Fig. 4);
Rice. 4. Strawberry ()
healthcare - doctor Gibner;
mail - postmaster Shpekin (Fig. 5);
Rice. 5. Postmaster Shpekin ()
policeman - Derzhimorda (Fig. 6).
Rice. 6. Policeman Derzhimorda ()
This is not an entirely accurate, not entirely correct structure of a county town. Several decades after “The Inspector General” was published and staged, Maksheev, the son of the mayor of the district town of Ustyuzhna, pointed out some of Gogol’s mistakes in his note. He wrote:
“In a county town there cannot be a trustee of charitable institutions, since there were no charitable institutions themselves.”
But Gogol had absolutely no need (and Yuri Vladimirovich Mann writes very well about this in his book) to convey the real structure of the district city. For example, in a county town there must certainly be a bailiff, but Gogol does not have one. He doesn't need it, because there is already a judge. It was important for Gogol to create a model of the world, a model of Russian social life. Therefore, Gogol’s city is a prefabricated city.
“In The Inspector General, I decided to collect in one pile everything bad in Russia that I knew at that time. All the injustices that are done in those places and in those cases where justice is most required from a person. And laugh at everything at once.”
In the 18th century, a satirical work depicted some separate place where injustices were committed, some island of evil. Outside of it, everything was right, everything was fine. And good forces intervene and restore order. For example, how Pravdin in Fonvizin’s “Nedorosl” (Fig. 8) takes custody of Prostakova’s estate.
Rice. 8. D.I. Fonvizin ()
This is not the case in The Inspector General. Throughout the vast expanse that is located outside the district town, the order is still the same. Officials do not expect anything other than what they are used to expecting, what they are used to seeing.
Yu.V. Mann (Fig. 9) writes very convincingly about what the “Inspector General” situation is and how it was played out by Gogol.
The life of Russian society seemed to Gogol to be a fragmented life, in which everyone has their own small interests and nothing in common. To decide main task, you need to find a common feeling that can unite everyone. And Gogol found this common feeling - fear. Fear unites everyone. Fear of a completely unknown, secret auditor.
It has long been noted that there is no positive hero in Gogol's play. He himself will say this 6-7 years after the play was completed, in his other play “Theatrical Travel” after the presentation of a new comedy.” This is an excellent commentary on The Inspector General:
“Laughter is the only honest face of comedy.”
And about the city it says:
“From everywhere, from different corners of Russia, exceptions to the truth, errors and abuses flocked here.”
But the truth itself is not shown in The Inspector General.
Gogol wrote to Pogodin in May 1836:
“The capital is delicately offended by the fact that the morals of six provincial officials have been taken away. What would the capital say if its own morals were removed, even slightly?”
Satirical plays before The Inspector General could touch much higher spheres. But this does not mean that such higher realms mentioned in the plays meant a greater degree of satire, a greater degree of exposure. Gogol, without encroaching on the highest positions of the Russian bureaucracy, speaks of six provincial officials, and their tricks, in general, are not God knows how dangerous and terrible. The mayor (Fig. 10) is a bribe-taker, but is he really that dangerous?
Rice. 10. Mayor ()
The judge takes bribes with greyhound puppies. Strawberry, instead of feeding oatmeal soup to the sick, cooks cabbage for them. It's not about the scale, it's about the essence. And the essence is exactly this: this is a model of Russian life, there can be nothing else. This is important.
It is curious that in 1846, more than ten years after finishing work on the play, Gogol wrote the denouement of The Inspector General.
In 1846, Gogol was completely captured by the idea of spiritual salvation, and not only his own, but also his fellow citizens. It seems to him that he is called upon to tell his compatriots some very important truth. Don't laugh at them, but tell them something that can set them on the right path, on the straight road. And this is how he interprets his own play:
“The nameless city is the inner world of a person. Ugly officials are our passions, Khlestakov is our secular conscience. And the real auditor, about whom the gendarme reports, is our true conscience, which, in the face of inexorable death, puts everything in its place.”
This is what the city of Gogol's comedy looks like.
Petersburg theme in “The Inspector General”
Two people come from St. Petersburg to the district city - Khlestakov and his servant Osip. Each of them talks about the delights of St. Petersburg life.
Osip describes life in St. Petersburg like this:
“Life is subtle and political. Theaters, dogs dancing for you and everything you want. They all talk in subtle delicacy. Haberdashery, damn it, treatment. Everyone tells you: “You.” You get bored of walking - you take a cab and sit like a gentleman. If you don’t want to pay him, please, every house has a through gate. And you will sneak around so much that no devil will find you.”
Khlestakov (Fig. 11) says the following:
“You even wanted to make me a collegiate assessor. And the watchman followed me up the stairs with a brush: “Excuse me, Ivan Sanych, may I clean your boots?”
I know pretty actresses.
On the table, for example, there is a watermelon, a watermelon costs seven hundred rubles. Soup in a saucepan, arrived by ship straight from Paris.
I'm at balls every day. There we had our own whist: the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the French envoy, the German envoy and myself.
And sure enough, it happened that I was passing through the department - just an earthquake: everything was trembling, shaking like a leaf.”
Rice. 11. Khlestakov ()
“Everything is shaking, shaking like a leaf” - this is the same fear.
The mayor and his wife Anna Andreevna dream about St. Petersburg. The mayor admits that he is so seduced by life in St. Petersburg:
“They say there are two fish there - vendace and smelt.”
Anna Andreevna (Fig. 12), of course, all this seems rude. She says:
“I want our house to be the first in St. Petersburg. And so that in my bedroom there would be such an aroma that you could only enter by closing your eyes.”
Rice. 12. Wife and daughter of the mayor ()
Notice how Khlestakov shines through and peeks through in their dreams. It is no coincidence that Khlestakov says:
“I'm everywhere! Everywhere…".
In “Dead Souls,” Petersburg is presented as an alluring center. About Khlestakov it is said “a metropolitan thing.” St. Petersburg is a desirable and magical land. It is no coincidence that Bobchinsky (Fig. 13) will ask Khlestakov:
“Here, if you see some nobleman, and maybe even the sovereign himself, tell them that Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky lives in such and such a city, and nothing more.”
Rice. 13. Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky ()
This is another very interesting motive from Gogol: a person who wants to signify his existence, to leave his mark on the world. Khlestakov is also a small man. He dreams too. And his dreams take the form of unbridled fantasy.
This is how the St. Petersburg theme highlights the prefabricated city.
Off-stage characters
In every play, not only those characters who appear on stage are very important, but also those whom we call off-stage. That is, they are mentioned, but do not appear on stage.
Let's start with the two most important for the composition of this play: Andrei Ivanovich Chmykhov, whose letter is read by the mayor at the beginning of the play, and Tryapichkin, the letter to whom Khlestakov writes at the end of the fourth act.
Chmykhov's letter sets the stage for the play. Khlestakov’s letter to Tryapichkin unties the line of the imaginary auditor.
It is curious that Gogol, in addition to fictional characters, mentions very real persons, and living at that time: Smirdin - publisher and bookseller, Zagoskin - author of the novel "Yuri Miloslavsky", and Pushkin (Fig. 14). It's interesting to see how the first (draft) and second editions fit together.
In the Sovremennik Theater, the place mentioning Pushkin was taken from the first edition, where Khlestakov says:
“On friendly terms with Pushkin. I come to him, there is a bottle of the best rum in front of him. He slammed a glass, slammed another, and went to write.”
Rice. 14. A.S. Pushkin ()
This is not in the final version.
Andrei Mironov, who performed the role of Khlestakov in the satire theater, played this place like this:
“On friendly terms with Pushkin. I come to him and say: “Well, brother Pushkin, how are you? - Yes, that’s how it is somehow...”
Yuri Vladimirovich Mann, in his wonderful book about Gogol, called “Works and Days” (a very detailed and intelligent biography of Gogol), devotes several very important pages to the relationship between Gogol and Pushkin.
The off-stage characters of The Inspector General are no different from those we see on stage. For example, Andrei Ivanovich Chmykhov, whose letter the mayor reads at the beginning of the first act, calls him a kind godfather, friend and benefactor, an intelligent man, that is, one who does not like to miss what is right in his hands.
Mention is made of an assessor who smells as if he just came out of a distillery. True, the assessor has an explanation for why he smells like that. It turns out that his mother hurt him as a child.
Teachers, one of whom cannot do without making a grimace when he ascends to the pulpit, and the other explains himself with such fervor that he does not remember himself and breaks chairs.
NikolayIin the fate of "The Inspector General"
“If it were not for the high intercession of the sovereign, my play would never have been on stage, and there were already people trying to ban it.”
Rice. 15. Nicholas I ()
From this they sometimes conclude that the play “The Inspector General” was initially banned. But that's not true. There are no traces of censorship prohibition in the documents. Moreover, the tsar generally did not like to cancel the decisions of his officials, official bodies, and did not like to make exceptions to the laws. Therefore, it was much more difficult to lift the ban than to prevent it.
The Emperor (Fig. 15) not only attended the premiere, but also ordered the ministers to watch “The Inspector General.” The memoirs of contemporaries noted the presence of certain ministers at the performance. The Tsar was there twice - at the first and third performances. During the performance he laughed a lot, applauded, and leaving the box he said:
“Well, a play! Everyone got it, and I got it more than anyone else.”
At first, fears of censorship were very serious. And then Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky, Vielgorsky began to petition the sovereign for this play, of course, at Gogol’s request. “The Inspector General” was requested to the Winter Palace, and Count Mikhail Yuryevich Vielgorsky (Fig. 16), who was a member of the committee of the imperial theaters, read this play in the presence of the sovereign.
Rice. 16. M.Yu. Vielgorsky ()
The Tsar really liked the stories of Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky and the scene of the officials being presented to Khlestakov. After the reading was completed, the highest permission to play a comedy followed.
This meant that the play was sent to the censor, but everyone already knew that the Tsar liked the play. This is what decided the fate of “The Inspector General”.
It is curious that Gogol asked for payment not per performance, but one-time payment. He received two and a half thousand rubles for his play. And subsequently the tsar granted more gifts: rings to some actors and Gogol too.
Why did the tsar so clearly stand up for Gogol’s comedy? There is no point in suggesting that he did not understand the play. The king loved the theater very much. Perhaps he did not want to repeat history with the play “Woe from Wit,” which was banned. The Tsar was very fond of comedies, loved jokes. The following episode is connected with The Inspector General: the Tsar sometimes came backstage during intermission. He saw the actor Petrov, who played the role of Bobchinsky (who speaks in the play “tell the sovereign that there is Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky”), and told him: “Ah, Bobchinsky. Well, okay, we'll know.". That is, in this way he supported the text of the play.
Of course, the tsar did not read the deep implications of Gogol’s play, and did not need to. When “Dead Souls” appeared, he told someone close to him that he had already forgotten “The Inspector General”.
In addition, the king is always more merciful and tolerant than his subjects. Not only Nicholas I loved this game, the same thing happened with Moliere and Louis, right up to Bulgakov and Stalin.
According to some researchers, based on the opinion of contemporaries, the tsar was also quite contemptuous of many of his officials. Having given Russia into the hands of bureaucrats, he himself treated these bureaucrats with contempt. Therefore, the king most likely liked the criticism of officials. If for Nicholas I this was just one of many episodes, then for Gogol it was a very important thing. And he addressed this many times, because for Gogol this is a model of the true relationship between power and the artist: power protects the artist, power listens to the artist, listens to him.
Immediately after Gogol’s “The Inspector General,” a play called “The Real Inspector General” appeared without a signature, but everyone knew that it was Prince Tsitsianov. Everything there followed Gogol. One character with the last name Rulev was a real auditor and brought everyone to clean water. The mayor was removed from city management for five years. The mayor's daughter fell in love with him, and a wedding was planned. The mayor becomes the image of the father-in-law of a real auditor. But, as the history of literature shows us many times, one cannot be saved by the discoveries of others. The play was a disastrous failure and was canceled after three performances.
References
1. Literature. 8th grade. Textbook at 2 o'clock. Korovina V.Ya. and others - 8th ed. - M.: Education, 2009.
2. Merkin G.S. Literature. 8th grade. Textbook in 2 parts. - 9th ed. - M.: 2013.
3. Kritarova Zh.N. Analysis of works of Russian literature. 8th grade. - 2nd ed., rev. - M.: 2014.
1. Website sobolev.franklang.ru ()
Homework
1. Tell us about the images of provincial officials depicted in the comedy “The Inspector General”.
2. What model of Russian social life does Gogol present to us in the play?
3. What perception of his play did Gogol arrive at in 1846, when he wrote the denouement to The Inspector General? What spiritual values did he talk about, in your opinion?
The events of N.V. Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General” take place in 1831 in a certain provincial town. As the mayor said about him, “Yes, from here, even if you gallop for three years, you won’t reach any state.” This is an ordinary city, no different from other cities.
There is no order in this city: in hospitals, doctors walk dirty, the sick “look like blacksmiths” and smoke strong tobacco, and the doctors don’t even care about them: “if he dies, he will die like that, if he recovers, then he will recover anyway,” in in the courthouse, the watchmen raise geese and dry clothes, the assessor is always drunk, “he smells as if he had just come out of a distillery,” and the judge writes a memorandum in such a way that “Solomon himself will not decide what is true in it and what is not.” not true." In educational institutions, when explaining material, teachers either make grimaces or talk very emotionally, that is, they set a bad example for students. And the streets are dirty, “I forgot that near that fence there were forty carts of all sorts of rubbish piled up.”
But life is not easy for people in this city. Especially merchants, whom officials rob in every possible way. The mayors take everything they see. And he also “completely killed the merchants by standing around.” But not only the mayor was unfair to the merchants, but also to many others. For example, the mayor ordered to surrender as a soldier married man(and this is not according to the law) and deprive the wife of her husband. Although this man should have taken the tailor’s son instead, his (the tailor’s) parents bribed the mayor. Or a completely innocent person, namely a non-commissioned officer, was flogged, and, moreover, for a mistake they were also forced to pay a fine. This is the image of a county town.
And the top of this city, which should be an example to follow, consists of bribe takers. For example, the mayor. He is the most important among the officials. Mayor bribe taker and swindler. And also a stupid, low, arrogant and vain person. He has only one desire to clean up everything that his eyes see. By the end of the comedy, he has become more susceptible to deception, and he, who was previously not easy to deceive, becomes possible.
Judge Lyapkin - Tyapkin is also a bribe-taker, but he takes bribes with greyhounds. He is a freethinker, very significant, a rogue and an atheist.
In N.V. Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General,” the district town is the prototype of any other city. Gogol was dissatisfied with the authorities for their injustice towards the people and non-compliance with the laws, as well as their endless bribes, and created a parody of a modern county town.
Therefore, N.V. Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General” is a parody of a modern provincial town.
28. Topic: THE IMAGE OF THE CITY AND THE THEME OF OFFICIALS IN N. V. GOGOL’S COMEDY “THE AUDITOR”
Lesson objectives:
· educational: analyze how the district town of Russia in the first half of the 19th century, its inhabitants and officials were seen, determine the role of the district town in the history of Russia, correlate the vital basis of the play “The Inspector General” and its general meaning in the depiction of officials;
· developing: practice the skill of analyzing a dramatic work, develop the ability to select quotes, develop communicative competence students to develop the ability to independently work with historical material and literary texts;
· educational: to educate a thoughtful viewer, reader, to form a stable moral position, to form aesthetic perception through the means of literature.
Lesson type: lesson on analysis of a work of art.
Lesson format: lesson-travel.
Methods and techniques: partially search (teacher’s word, heuristic conversation with subsequent conclusion, work on the text - selection of quotes illustrating statements, vocabulary work).
Forms of work: frontal, group, individual.
Equipment: presentation “District town in the comedy “The Inspector General”
In “The Inspector General” I decided to put together everything bad in Russia that I knew then...
LESSON PROGRESS:
1. Organizational moment
2. Teacher's opening speech. Introducing the topic and objectives of the lesson
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So, let's go!
3. Lexical meaning of the phrase “county town”
Gogol city N is a district town. First, let's find out what a “county town” is.
(County- the lowest administrative, judicial and financial unit in Russian Empire, as well as in the RSFSR in the first years after the October Revolution. As a result of administrative reform in 1927, counties were transformed into districts. Included the city and the volosts attached to it. It was governed by a princely governor, and from the beginning of the 17th century by a voivode, who performed military, administrative and judicial functions).
4. Geographical location
We found out what the county town is to which we are about to travel. Now we need to determine where this city is located. Russia is so big, where exactly should we go?
(The town is located far from the capital, in the depths of Russia. Khlestakov travels from St. Petersburg to the Saratov province through Penza, the second month from St. Petersburg).
The city has no name. Why?
(An unnamed city in some imaginary, symbolic center of the state. The location is “everywhere - nowhere.” “Yes, even if you jump for 3 years ... you won’t get to any state,” says Gorodnichy. The city is conventional, faceless. But the social model of the city life is given in detail).
5. Hotel and tavern
So we arrived in the city. Where will we stay? That's right, at the hotel. Let's see how the city hotel looks like.
(Room under the stairs, bedbugs and a two-course meal).
6. City streets
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So the first institution is
CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS (Hospital) ,
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– Strawberry, using the sayings of Strawberry himself.
Artemy Filippovich Strawberry- trustee of charitable institutions. He, speaking modern language, responsible for hospitals, shelters. Funds are stolen, he himself admits: “They ordered to give habersup to the sick, but I have such cabbage running through all the corridors that you just have to take care of your nose.” His patients “all get better like flies.” Hospitals are dirty. “Make sure everything is decent: the caps are clean, and the sick don’t look like blacksmiths,” “they smoke such strong tobacco that you always sneeze when you walk in.” Dr. Gibner “doesn’t know a word of Russian, but he “heals” people. Strawberry admits: “We don’t use expensive medicines. The man is simple: if he dies, he will die anyway; If he gets well, he’ll get well.” Strawberry is given instructions to put clean caps on the sick, “to write over each bed in Latin or some other language... any illness, when someone got sick, what day or date.”
Fine. Important government agency- This
PUBLIC PLACES (Court).
Let's go there.
– Who runs the court? (Ammos Fedorovich Tyapkin-Lyapkin). Let's characterize it.
Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin- judge. The mayor calls him a smart man because he has read five or six books. The mayor’s remarks about the public places: “In your front hall, where petitioners usually come, the guards have kept domestic geese with little goslings that are scurrying around under your feet.” “You have all sorts of rubbish being dried in your very presence, and right next to the cupboard with papers there is a hunting rag... He (the assessor) smells as if he had just come out of a distillery.” Confession of Ammos Fedorovich “I tell everyone openly that I take bribes, but with what bribes? Greyhound puppies” suggests that a bribe is the norm for city officials, only everyone takes what they need. The judge doesn’t understand anything about his work: “I’ve been sitting on the judge’s chair for fifteen years, but when I look at the memorandum - ah! I’ll just wave my hand. Solomon himself will not decide what is true and what is not true in it.” Strawberry informs on Lyapkin-Tyapkin: “The judge... only goes after hares...” The assessor “smells as if he just came out of a distillery.”
One of the tasks of the state is to provide the population with education. Let's go to
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION (District School).
https://pandia.ru/text/77/494/images/image009_4.gif" alt=" Signature: Slide 8" align="left" width="80" height="32 src=">Кто заведует почтой города N? () Как он выполняет свои обязанности.!}
- postmaster. He “does absolutely nothing: everything is in great disrepair: parcels are delayed...”. The postmaster does not even hide the fact that he opens and reads letters; he does not see this as a crime. He does this “out of curiosity: I love death to find out what’s new in the world. Let me tell you, this is a very interesting read. You will read another letter with pleasure...” He keeps interesting letters for himself. This is not only a pleasant pastime, it is also the fulfillment of the instructions of the mayor, who advises reading the letters. “Listen, Ivan Kuzmich, could you, for our common benefit, print out every letter that arrives at your post office, incoming and outgoing, you know, a little bit and read it: does it contain some kind of report or just correspondence... "
What other government agency in the city of N have we not described? That's right, that's
POLICE DEPARTMENT.
Each county town had a police department. It was supposed to ensure order in the city. What did the N city police do?
Police. We learn that policeman Prokhorov is dead drunk and sleeping at the station. The playbill gives the names of three police officers: Derzhimorda, Svistunov, Pugovitsyn. The very names themselves tell how they restore order in the city. The mayor gives orders regarding Pugovitsyn: “Quarterly Pugovitsyn...he is tall, so let him stand on the bridge for improvement.” Regarding Derzhimorda, he remarks to the private bailiff: “Yes, tell Derzhimorda not to give too much free rein to his fists; For the sake of order, he puts lights under everyone’s eyes: both the right and the wrong.” Next, Derzhimorda stands at the door of the “auditor” Khlestakov and does not let the townspeople in to see him. The town police are completely subordinate to the mayor and, it seems, act not according to the laws of the state, but at the whim of the main official of the city.
The soldiers are also subordinate to the mayor and the police. What do they look like? “Don’t let the soldiers go without everything: this crappy garnish will only put on a uniform over the shirt, and nothing underneath.” So, it was as if we had visited many corners of the city N and met the officials of this city - the people who are responsible for the improvement of the city and the smooth functioning of all organizations.
All these institutions were subordinate to the head of the city, as they said in the 19th century, the mayor. Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky is an interesting personality. But we'll talk about it in the next lesson.
https://pandia.ru/text/77/494/images/image012_4.gif" alt=" Signature: Slide 11" align="left" width="85" height="33 src=">– Какие еще стороны российской действительности представлены в комедии? (Помещики, купцы, мещане).!}
Even merchants have a hard life, let alone the poor people. Merchants and citizenship “We tolerate insults completely in vain...”. The merchants complain about the mayor, although together with him they steal the city treasury. “We’re completely tired of standing here, even if we get into a noose” “we always follow the order: what should be worn on the dresses of his wife and daughter.”
“He ordered my husband to shave his forehead as a soldier... According to the law, it’s impossible: he’s married.” Non-commissioned officer “Vysek” “couldn’t sit for two days”
How do people live in the county town?
9. Evidence from contemporaries (student message)
If you carefully read the comedy, you probably noticed that both Khlestakov and Gorodnichy used the same epithet in describing the city. Which? (bad). What does it mean? Choose synonyms (ugly, disgusting, disgusting, disgusting...).
How can a city exist with such blatant disgrace?
Maybe Wigel is right in his letter to Zagoskin: “The author invented some kind of Russia and some kind of city in it, into which he dumped all the abominations that are occasionally found on the surface of real Russia...”
Contemporary Nikitenko provides information about the life of district towns in his Diary. For example, he talks about the city of Ostrogozhsk, where there were more dogs than people on the streets and which “was literally drowning in the mud. Its unpaved streets became impassable: pedestrians floundered among them, as if in a mess, and ox carts got stuck.”
In the district cities of the Ryazan province, bribery and arbitrariness flourished. The authorities knew how to cleverly throw dust in the eyes of higher officials. Just as Gogol’s mayor did. The appearance of construction was immediately created in the city: vacant lots “were surrounded by beautiful fences indicating the numbers of houses that were supposedly under construction, which there was no one and no money to build... It turned out, for example, the news that then, on such and such a road, a high-ranking person was going to pass . The bridge barely held there. Entire villages flocked to repair it. The bridge was erected to perfection. A person passed by and praised him, and the bridge, following the honor bestowed upon him, immediately collapsed.”
Kazan police chief Paul tortured completely innocent people. Not only common people, but even minor officials were subjected to this fate.
The inspector, who arrived in Penza unexpectedly in the evening, ordered himself to be taken to the embankment. “Which embankment?” asked the cab driver. “Which one? Do you have a lot of them? After all, there is only one,” answered the auditor. “Yes, there is none!” - exclaimed the cabman. It turned out that on paper the embankment had been under construction for two years already and that several tens of thousands of rubles had been spent on it, but it had never even begun.
10. Generalization
For what purpose did Gogol depict such a nasty town in his comedy?
We call the city in which we live and were born our home. It is with this place that we pin our hopes for the future, so we want our city to be beautiful, clean, and cozy.
But when talking about our love for the city, we should notice not only beauty and cleanliness. They often talk about negative phenomena. And for what? (By portraying this, they want the situation to change for the better).
Only by noticing the strengths and weaknesses of our city can we make it better. That is why famous writers raised problems related to the life of small towns scattered throughout our vast homeland, explored the morals prevailing in these towns, and examined the people living there.
They say that Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" is immortal. Is it possible to agree with such a statement? Don't we meet in modern Russia phenomena similar to those described by Gogol? Aren't you participating in environmental landings, cleaning up hometown from garbage? Have all the people who were negligent in their duties disappeared? Do you always complete the assigned tasks yourself?
11. Final word.
But dusk had already fallen on the city. Where to go in the provinces at a time like this?
Let's follow the example of Khlestakov, who agreed to the proposal of the faithful Osip to leave here as quickly as possible, say goodbye to the town and its inhabitants, take a courier troika, straighten out the road...
Hey, you strays! - the coachman will shout and in one minute he will leave behind the pavement, and the barrier, and the nasty little town, so similar to any district town in N.
12. Homework
Characterize the Mayor according to plan:
1) Appearance (“Notes for gentlemen actors”)
3) History of the mayor (biographical facts)
4) Attitude towards service
5) Meeting with the “auditor”
7) Speech characteristics
Gentlemen tourists! Today you will have an interesting excursion, during which we will learn how a typical district town of the 19th century lived in Russia. To do this, we will move to the comedy by N.V. Gogol "The Inspector General".
Let me remind you that a district town is a small provincial town located “in the middle of nowhere.” It’s not for nothing that Gogol’s mayor says about him: “Yes, from here, even if you gallop for three years, you won’t reach any state.”
However, people live here too, there are institutions that “ensure” this life. The city has a court, charitable and educational institutions, a post office, a police station, hotels, and so on. Let's look at all these establishments in order.
First, let's look at the county court. Be careful, please, don’t stumble - in the front hall the guards “have geese with little goslings that are scurrying around under your feet.” Go straight into the presence, but don’t pay attention to the arapnik and all the rubbish laid out here. Now we will talk with the assessor, who will tell us about the work of the court. Although... no, it seems that he is not able to do this today - “he smells as if he had just come out of a distillery.” Well... well, the work of the court fully illustrates the name of Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin - everything here is done in a “sloppy manner”.
Let’s better turn to charitable institutions. Now we are entering the hospital of this glorious city and on the threshold we meet the district doctor Christian Ivanovich Gibner on the arm of Mr. Strawberry, the trustee of the city’s charitable institutions. Is it possible that here, too, the doctor’s name symbolizes the work of the hospital: patients are mercilessly “dying”, and the “sweet” and “naive” Strawberry does not want to notice anything?
Let's ask some of the ordinary patients. What? There is almost no treatment - “patients are dying like flies”?! Natural methods of healing - “a simple man: if he dies, he will die anyway; If he recovers, then he will recover too”?! The doctor “doesn’t know a word of Russian”?!
Hmm... let's visit educational institutions and quietly sneak into one of the classes. Oh, we were lucky, we got to take a history lesson! But what is this - God, is it really a fire? Oh, no, don’t worry, please, the teacher got so excited when talking about the exploits of Alexander the Great. Oh, what is it about his face - “he cut such a face as I have never seen before”! No wonder the caretaker educational institutions Khlopov (whose surname is derived from the word “khlop” - “serf”, slave) is afraid that here “free-thinking thoughts are instilled in the youth.”
Phew, so many shocks in one day! Let's go to the post office - here there should be "quiet, quiet, God's grace." Over there sitting at the table is the postmaster Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin. But...what does he do? Opens letters and reads them?! But I actually put one on my table! Why is he not going to send it to its destination? Well...it’s not for nothing that this official’s surname comes from the word “shpen” - “an obstinate person, crosses everyone, gets in the way, an evil mocker.” And if you remember what role this hero played in the finale of “The Inspector General,” then his telling name will sound even louder.
Well, no less telling are the names of the “servants of order” - the policemen of Derzhimorda, Uvertov, Svistunov, who do not hesitate to unjustly detain, beat up city residents, give false testimony, and so on. The work of the police station in this city once again indicates the “style” of work of all officials and institutions - illegal, unfair, based on theft, fraud, corruption, injustice.
Confirmation of this is the fate of ordinary residents of the city: an unfortunate non-commissioned officer who was publicly flogged for no reason, a locksmith whose husband was unfairly “shared” into the army, merchants who were mercilessly robbed by the mayor and other officials.
This is confirmed by the condition of the city streets (you can see for yourself how much dirt and devastation reigns here: the buildings have not been repaired for a long time, there is not a single new building in the city, and so on). I don’t risk inviting you to a hotel where, believe me, you will be offered such rooms and such a menu that “at least take away the saints.”
Well, gentlemen, tourists, I think our opinion is unanimous: life in a county town of the 19th century is like hell for ordinary residents and like heaven for officials. After all, they live according to the principle of maximum benefit for their personal pocket, without thinking at all about fulfilling their true responsibilities - taking care of the improvement of the city and its citizens. It is especially important that there were a great many such cities in Russia, which is why Gogol did not give the name to “his” district city. And it is also important that the laws of existence of Gogol’s officials have been preserved in our time, you noticed this yourself, didn’t you?
City N and its inhabitants.
One of the most expressive, impressive images of Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General” is certainly the image of the city N.
The reader gets acquainted with him almost from the first pages of the famous work. From the dialogue of those frightened by the imminent arrival of an official, a small provincial town appears in all its glory: Ivan Kuzmich Shpekin, the local postmaster, who opens other people’s correspondence without any remorse and reads it with pleasure, seems to blow up the city authorities with his news.
We can safely say that in a small work, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol manages to brilliantly show all layers of society: the people, the merchants, the bureaucrats. “The Inspector General” reflects the main areas of life: trade, social, spiritual.
From the very first pages of the play we learn about the dirt that has not been removed from the city streets for many years. Particular attention is paid to the huge puddle in the central square, which is impossible to pass through in bad weather. However, the Mayor is convinced that the deplorable state of the city is not his fault, but that the same townspeople are to blame. “What a nasty city this is! Just put up some kind of monument somewhere or just a fence - God knows where they’ll come from and they’ll do all sorts of crap!”
It turns out that officials had previously highlighted these shortcomings, but did not consider it necessary to put everything listed above in order. They suddenly begin to care about the comfort of the townspeople only after the news of the arrival of the auditor.
And what morals reign in this amazing town! People. who represent the state, turn the lives of city residents into survival rather.
The reader learns with horror about the order in the local hospital. Here, sick people walk around in scary gray caps, and few people actually think about curing them. As Strawberry puts it, “...the closer to nature, the better - we don’t use expensive medicines. The man is simple: if he dies, he will die anyway; if he recovers, then he will recover.”
The teaching also amazes with the “flight of imagination”. One of the teachers “makes scary faces”, another talks with such inspiration about the affairs of “bygone days” that the students are simply afraid of him: “He is a learned head - it’s obvious, and he’s picked up a ton of information, but he only explains with such fervor that he doesn’t remembers himself. I listened to him once: well, for now I talked about the Assyrians and Babylonians - nothing yet, but when I got to Alexander the Great, I cannot tell you what happened to him. I thought it was a fire, by God! He ran away from the pulpit and slammed his chair on the floor with all his might. Of course, Alexander the Great is a hero, but why break the chairs? This is a loss to the treasury."
What is justice like? Law and order certainly reign here! However, from the wishes expressed by the Governor, the reader can learn that here, too, the picture is far from being the best. Bribery, condoning illegal actions - all this does not decorate the city of N.
I even feel sorry for the inhabitants of this town, but they, in my opinion, are so accustomed to this way of life that they cannot imagine their existence without such wonderful “little things” as bribery, flattery, laziness, stupidity of the commanding officials...
Gogol wrote this work in the first half of the 19th century, but how recognizable some of its scenes are now! Russia is certainly changing for the better, but some features of city life, it seems to me, are far from being corrected...