The district town and its inhabitants The Inspector Gogol N.V. Essay on the topic: The district city and its inhabitants in Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General”

The plot of N. V. Gogol’s comedy is quite simple: before us is the boring world of a provincial provincial town, from which “...even if you ride for three years, you won’t reach any state.” The description of this town evokes sadness: “There is a tavern on the streets, uncleanliness!” Near the old fence, “near the shoemaker, ... all kinds of rubbish were piled on forty carts.” A church at a charitable institution, “for which a sum was allocated five years ago... began to be built, but burned down”... And this is not only a sketch of a provincial town, it is a picture of all of Russia at that time.

The usual course of life is suddenly disrupted by the “unpleasant news” about the arrival of an incognito auditor, which is what the mayor informs the town officials at the beginning of the play. By chance, a passing young man is mistaken for an auditor and is given all the necessary honors. This plot has a real background: A. S. Pushkin was once received by the governor Nizhny Novgorod for a secret auditor, which he told Gogol about, advising him to take this story as the basis of a comedy. Such a situation was theoretically possible in any provincial city in Russia in those years.

But the simplicity of the plot only emphasizes the skill of the satirist, who, on the basis of a simple plot, managed to ridicule the entire bureaucratic Rus' and reflect all the pressing problems of that time.

Of course, not only government officials are involved in comedy. We see here the landed nobility, the merchants, and the peasants. But at the center of the story are the officials who embody the shortcomings of the entire Russian bureaucracy: bribery, servility, careerism, embezzlement.

The talented satirist creates a whole galaxy of Russian types, emphasizing in each of them one or another character trait that, according to Gogol, requires ridicule and denunciation.

The most complete characterization in the comedy was given to the careerist mayor, who never misses his profit, greedily grabbing everything that floats into his hands. We can judge this person based on the author's comments, statements characters, according to the actions and words of the hero himself. Before us appears the unattractive image of an embezzler, a bribe-taker and a tyrant, confident in his impunity: “There is no person who does not have some sins behind him.” There are no laws for the mayor: he robs merchants, spends government money on personal needs. He is not stupid, but his mind is focused on dishonest deeds.

Other officials differ from their leader only in having more limited power.

The surname of the city judge - Lyapkin-Tyapkin - is indicative; by it one can judge his attitude towards his official duties. This, in Gogol’s words, is a “freethinker,” just like the mayor, he is confident in his own infallibility: “Sins are different from sins. I tell everyone openly that I take bribes, but with what bribes? Greyhound puppies. This is a completely different matter."

The trustee of charitable institutions, Strawberry, is shown with caustic satire - an informer, a cunning and a sycophant. He does not burden himself with excessive care for his charges, guided by the principle: “a simple man: if he dies, he will die anyway; if he recovers, then he will recover.”

The superintendent of district schools, Khlopov, an extremely intimidated person, also finds opportunities to abuse his official position; and the postmaster Shpekin, who reads other people's letters, is a stupid and limited subject.

Despite the differences in character, behavior, and official position, the bureaucracy, as depicted by Gogol, personifies the typical features of the state administration of Nikolaev Russia. The cultural level of officials, both in comedy and throughout the country, was extremely low, a conclusion about this can be drawn from the descriptions of the traditional amusements of the “pillars of the city of N”: drinking parties, card games, gossip. They have absolutely no idea of ​​duty, honor, and dignity.

The play “The Inspector General” tells us that officials in Russia do not serve at all to worry about the good of the country and people. They use their official position exclusively for personal, selfish purposes, curry favor with their superiors, humiliate their subordinates, and ruin Russia with all their efforts.

By choosing the form of comedy for his work, Gogol achieved his goal “to gather in one pile everything bad in Russia... and laugh at everything at once.” Moreover, you can laugh at this to this day, since Russian bureaucrats in our time have not gone far from the lovers of bribes and beautiful life represented by Gogol.

In his works A. N. Ostrovsky revealed various topics: merchants, bureaucrats, nobility, etc. In "The Thunderstorm" the playwright turned to the consideration of the provincial town of Kalinov and its inhabitants, which was very unusual for the theater of that time, because usually the focus was more big cities, like Moscow or St. Petersburg.

"The Thunderstorm", written in 1859, is a work of the pre-reform era. The destinies of the heroes reflected the “pre-storm” state Russian society. Indeed, two years after the release of the drama, serfdom was abolished, radically changing the fate of people.

The structure of city life in some respects coincides with the structure modern society. For example, some mothers often destroy their children with their care. These children grow up to be dependent and unprepared for life, just like Tikhon Ivanovich Kabanov.

Returning to the city of Kalinov, it is necessary to say about unspoken laws full of injustice. Life is built according to Domostroy, “he who has money has power”...

These laws were established by the “dark kingdom,” namely Dikoy and Kabanikha. Enemies of everything new, they personify oppressive, unjust power.

Dikoy, Savel Prokofich - merchant, significant person in the city. Dikoy appears as an arrogant, domineering and vile person. He ruins people's lives not only with his speech, which is impossible to imagine without curses, but also with his desire to find material gain in everything, without thinking about the lives of other people.

Marfa Ignatievna Kabanova, Kabanikha - a rich merchant's wife, widow. He ruins his son’s life by telling him how to act and live in general. Prude for daughter-in-law. Unlike the Wild One, Kabanikha does not express her thoughts and feelings in front of all people.

All other heroes are victims of the “dark kingdom”. People are oppressed, without the right to live freely.

Tikhon Ivanovich Kabanov, son of Kabanikha. Slave, flexible. He obeys his mother in everything.

Boris Grigorievich, nephew of Dikiy. He ended up in the city because of an inheritance left by his grandmother, which Dikoy must pay. Boris, like Tikhon, is depressed by the life of the city.

Varvara, Tikhon’s sister, and Kudryash, Dikiy’s clerk, are people who have adapted to city life. “Do whatever you want, as long as it’s safe and covered,” says Varvara.

But not all the heroes finally “gave up” and succumbed to the flow of city life. One Kuligin, a tradesman, a self-taught watchmaker, is trying to fix and improve the life of the city. He sees injustice in the life of the city and is not afraid to speak out about it. “And whoever has money, sir, tries to enslave the poor, so that his labors are still free more money make money."

And, perhaps, the most controversial and original hero of the drama is Katerina. "Beam of light" or "defeat of darkness"? It is worth noting that feelings arose between Boris and Katerina. But one thing hampered the development of their relationship - Katerina was married to Tikhon. They met only once, but the heroine’s morality haunted her. She found no other way out but to rush into the Volga. Katerina can in no way be called a “defeat of darkness,” because she destroyed outdated moral principles. Not “a ray of light”, but a “ray of freedom” - this is the best way to describe Katerina. Having lost her life, albeit in Ostrovsky’s drama, she gave people hope for the opportunity to be free. Let people at first not know what to do with this freedom, but later they will begin to realize that each of them is capable of much and should not put up with unjust laws hometown or obey your mother's every word.

City N and its inhabitants.

One of the most expressive, impressive images of Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General” is, of course, 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 put 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...

“The Inspector General” belongs to those works that capture the reader and viewer instantly and as if by surprise. Gogol wrote about his work: “I decided to collect everything bad that I knew and laugh at it at once - this is the origin of “The Inspector General.”
The author paints us an unattractive picture of the district town and its “fathers” - bribe-takers and slackers, busy only with satisfying their desires and whims.
The mayor does not care about the townspeople subordinate to his authority, robs merchants, and spends government money on his own needs. He himself is a swindler and in every boss he sees a swindler waiting for bribes. Mistaking Khlestakov for an important official, Anton Antonovich pleases him in every possible way, hoping that he will remain in his position. Other officials behave in the same way: judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin, trustee of charitable institutions Zemlyanika, postmaster Shpekin. These officials have no idea that they can honestly fulfill their duties, live in the interests of society, and work for the benefit of people. They don’t even know such words.
The discovery of a deception with a false auditor and the arrival of a genuine official from St. Petersburg leaves them confused. And most likely not for long.
The author makes it clear that everything will happen again with several nuances. Maybe there will be more bribes, there will be fear, but everything will work out,” dress rehearsal“They “played with Khlestakov” perfectly.
Gogol was an honest artist, he showed the true life of Russia, harsh and dramatic, and this is his merit.

The comedy "The Inspector General" has been topical for more than 150 years. Tsarist Russia, Soviet Russia, democratic Russia.. But people do not change, the old orders, relationships between superiors and subordinates, city and village, are preserved, so when we read “The Inspector General” today, we recognize a modern provincial city and its inhabitants. Gogol wrote a comedy in which he ridiculed the ignorance of provincials, for example, judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin read five or six books and is therefore a freethinker, attaches great weight to his words, his speech, like many other officials, is incoherent and abrupt. The trustee of charitable institutions, Zemlyanika, treats his wards without understanding anything about medicine, and the doctor Gibner does not know a word of Russian, that is, he is hardly capable of healing. A local teacher makes such grimaces that those around him are simply horrified, and his colleague explains with such fervor that he breaks chairs. It is unlikely that after such an upbringing, students receive the proper knowledge. When students grow up, they switch to state education. service. And here everything is the same: drunkenness, bribery, abuse of one’s position, veneration of rank. It is enough to recall just some of the heroes of the comedy and their habits: the assessor who is always drunk; Lyapkin-Tyapkin, confident that if he takes bribes with greyhound puppies, then this is not a crime; money embezzled by officials for the construction of a church that allegedly burned down; complaints from merchants that the mayor could have taken any fabric or other goods from them; Dobchinsky’s phrase that “when a nobleman speaks, you feel fear.” The wives of these provincial inhabitants were brought up on magazines subscribed to from the capital and local gossip. It is not surprising that the arrival of an official from St. Petersburg caused such a stir among the people - provincial suitors were up for grabs, and the young gallant man managed to court both the mayor's wife and daughter. However, Khlestakov embodied the ideal of life not only in the eyes of the ladies, but also of all other inhabitants of the district town. They believed his fantastic tales because their content corresponded to the dreams of every provincial: the first house in St. Petersburg, thousands of couriers, friends - foreign ambassadors and the like, soup straight from Paris. It is not surprising that the mayor immediately believed that Khlestakov promised to marry Marya Antonovna. When other inhabitants of the district town found out about this, their envy of former friends. And how they gloated when they found out that the auditor was not real! Thus, he describes all the vices of the inhabitants of the district town, of which there were hundreds throughout Russia. This is hypocrisy, duplicity, vulgarity, envy, bribery, ignorance. And yet I would like to believe that reading and staging The Inspector General today will help change the moral image of Russia, and its inhabitants will become aware of their own vices.

County town and its inhabitants
The comedy "The Inspector General" has been topical for more than 150 years. Tsarist Russia, Soviet Russia, Democratic Russia. But people do not change, the old order, the relationship between superiors and subordinates, city and countryside, is preserved, so when we read “The Inspector General” today, we recognize a modern provincial city and its inhabitants. Gogol wrote a comedy in which he ridiculed the ignorance of provincials, for example, judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin read five or six books and is therefore a freethinker, attaches great weight to his words, his speech, like many other officials, is incoherent and abrupt. The trustee of charitable institutions, Zemlyanika, treats his wards without understanding anything about medicine, and the doctor Gibner does not know a word of Russian, that is, he is hardly capable of healing. A local teacher makes such grimaces that those around him are simply horrified, and his colleague explains with such fervor that he breaks chairs. It is unlikely that after such an upbringing, students receive the proper knowledge. When students grow up, they switch to public service. And here everything is the same: drunkenness, bribery, abuse of one’s position, veneration of rank. It is enough to recall just some of the heroes of the comedy and their habits: the assessor who is always drunk; Lyapkin-Tyapkin, confident that if he takes bribes with greyhound puppies, then this is not a crime; money embezzled by officials for the construction of a church that allegedly burned down; complaints from merchants that the mayor could have taken any fabric or other goods from them; Dobchinsky’s phrase that “when a nobleman speaks, you feel fear.” The wives of these provincial inhabitants were brought up on magazines subscribed to from the capital and local gossip. It is not surprising that the arrival of an official from St. Petersburg caused such a stir among them - provincial suitors were up for grabs, and the young gallant man managed to court both the mayor’s wife and daughter. However, Khlestakov embodied the ideal of life not only in the eyes of the ladies, but also of all other inhabitants of the district town. They believed his fantastic stories because their content corresponded to the dreams of every provincial: the first house in St. Petersburg, thousands of couriers, friends - foreign ambassadors and the like, soup straight from Paris... It is not surprising that the mayor did not immediately believe what Khlestakov promised marry Marya Antonovna. When other inhabitants of the district town found out about this, their envy of their former friends clearly manifested itself. And how they gloated when they found out that the auditor was not real! Thus, he describes all the vices of the inhabitants of the district town, of which there were hundreds throughout Russia. This is hypocrisy, duplicity, vulgarity, envy, bribery, ignorance. And yet I would like to believe that reading and staging “The Inspector General” today will help change the moral image of Russia, and its inhabitants will help to realize their own vices.