Biography of Chichikov - dead childhood years. Chichikov’s childhood (excerpt from “Dead Souls”)
The creation of the poem “Dead Souls” occurred precisely at a time when in Russia there was a change in the traditional, outdated foundations of society, reforms and changes in people’s thinking were brewing. Even then it was clear that the nobility, with its old traditions and views on life, was slowly dying out; it had to be replaced by a new type of person. Gogol's goal is to describe the hero of his time, declare him loudly, describe his positive qualities and explain what his activities will lead to, as well as how it will affect the destinies of other people.
The central character of the poem
Nikolai Vasilyevich made Chichikov the central character in the poem; he cannot be called the main character, but it is on him that the plot of the poem rests. Pavel Ivanovich's journey is the framework for the entire work. It’s not for nothing that the author placed the hero’s biography at the very end; the reader is not interested in Chichikov himself, he is curious about his actions, why he collects these dead souls and what this will lead to in the end. Gogol does not even try to reveal the character’s character, but he introduces the peculiarities of his thinking, thus giving a hint where to look for the essence of Chichikov’s given act. Childhood is where the roots come from; even at a tender age, the hero formed his own worldview, vision of the situation and search for ways to solve problems.
Description of Chichikov
The childhood and youth of Pavel Ivanovich are unknown to the reader at the beginning of the poem. Gogol portrayed his character as faceless and voiceless: against the background of bright, colorful images of landowners with their quirks, the figure of Chichikov is lost, becomes small and insignificant. He has neither his own face nor the right to vote; the hero resembles a chameleon, skillfully adapting to his interlocutor. This is an excellent actor and psychologist, he knows how to behave in a given situation, instantly determines a person’s character and does everything to win him over, says only what they want to hear from him. Chichikov skillfully plays the role, pretends, hides his true feelings, tries to be one of the strangers, but he does all this in order to achieve the main goal - his own well-being.
The childhood of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov
A person’s worldview is formed in at a young age, therefore, many of his actions in adulthood can be explained by carefully studying his biography. What guided him, why he collected dead souls, what he wanted to achieve with this - all these questions are answered by The hero’s childhood cannot be called happy, he was constantly haunted by boredom and loneliness. In his youth, Pavlush knew neither friends nor entertainment; he did monotonous, tedious and completely uninteresting work, listened to the reproaches of his sick father. The author did not even hint about maternal affection. One conclusion can be drawn from this - Pavel Ivanovich wanted to make up for lost time, to receive all the benefits that were not available to him in childhood.
But you shouldn’t think that Chichikov is a soulless cracker, thinking only about his own enrichment. He was a kind, active and sensitive child, sensitive to the world around us. The fact that he often ran away from his nanny in order to explore previously unseen places indicates Chichikov's curiosity. Childhood shaped his character and taught him to achieve everything on his own. His father taught Pavel Ivanovich to save money and please bosses and rich people, and he put these instructions into practice.
Chichikov's childhood and studies were gray and uninteresting; he tried in every possible way to become a popular person. At first he pleased the teacher in order to become a favorite student, then he promised the boss to marry his daughter in order to get a promotion, working at customs, he convinces everyone of his honesty and impartiality, and he makes a huge fortune for himself through smuggling. But Pavel Ivanovich does all this not with malicious intent, but with the sole purpose of making his childhood dream of a big and bright house, a caring and loving wife, and a bunch of cheerful children come true.
Chichikov's communication with landowners
Pavel Ivanovich could find an approach to everyone, from the first minutes of communication he could understand what a person was like. For example, he did not stand on ceremony with Korobochka and spoke in a patriarchal-pious and even slightly patronizing tone. With the landowner, Chichikov felt relaxed, used colloquial, rude expressions, completely adapting to the woman. With Manilov, Pavel Ivanovich is pompous and amiable to the point of cloying. He flatters the landowner and uses flowery phrases in his speech. By refusing the offered treat, even Plyushkin was pleased by Chichikov. “Dead Souls” very well demonstrates the changeable nature of man, because Pavel Ivanovich adapted to the morals of almost all landowners.
What does Chichikov look like in the eyes of other people?
The activities of Pavel Ivanovich greatly frightened city officials and landowners. At first they compared him with the romantic robber Rinald Rinaldin, then they began to look for similarities with Napoleon, thinking that he had escaped from the island of Helena. In the end, Chichikov was recognized as the real Antichrist. Of course, such comparisons are absurd and even comical to some extent; Gogol ironically describes the fear of the narrow-minded landowners, their speculation about why Chichikov is actually collecting dead souls. The character's characterization hints that the heroes are no longer the same as they used to be. The people could be proud, take an example from the great commanders and defenders, but now there are no such people, they have been replaced by selfish Chichikovs.
Character's Real Self
One would think that Pavel Ivanovich is an excellent psychologist and actor, since he easily adapts to the people he needs and instantly guesses their character, but is this really so? The hero was never able to adapt to Nozdryov, because impudence, arrogance, and familiarity are alien to him. But even here he is trying to adapt, because the landowner is incredibly rich, hence the address to “you”, Chichikov’s boorish tone. Childhood taught Pavlusha to please to the right people, so he is ready to step over himself, forget about his principles.
At the same time, Pavel Ivanovich practically does not pretend to be with Sobakevich, because they are united by serving the “kopek”. And Chichikov has some similarities with Plyushkin. The character tore the poster from the pole, read it at home, folded it neatly and put it in a small chest in which all sorts of unnecessary things were stored. This behavior is very reminiscent of Plyushkin, who is prone to hoarding various rubbish. That is, Pavel Ivanovich himself was not so far removed from the same landowners.
The main goal in the hero's life
And once again, money - this is precisely why Chichikov collected dead souls. The character's characteristics indicate that he invents various frauds not just for the sake of profit; there is no stinginess or miserliness in him. Pavel Ivanovich dreams that the time will come when he can finally use his savings, live a calm, prosperous life, without thinking about tomorrow.
The author's attitude towards the hero
There is an assumption that in subsequent volumes Gogol planned to re-educate Chichikov and make him repent of his actions. In the poem, Pavel Ivanovich is not opposed to landowners or officials; he is the hero of the capitalist formation, the “first accumulator” who replaced the nobility. Chichikov is a skilled businessman, an entrepreneur who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals. The scam with dead souls was not a success, but Pavel Ivanovich did not suffer any punishment. The author hints that there are a huge number of such Chichikovs in the country, and no one wants to stop them.
Education. A) Father's order. He received his education in the classes of the city school, where his father took him and gave him the following instructions: “Look, Pavlusha, study, don’t be stupid and don’t hang around, but most of all please your teachers and bosses. If you please your boss, then even though you won’t have time in science and God hasn’t given you talent, you’ll still use everything and get ahead of everyone else. Don’t hang out with your comrades, they won’t teach you any good; and if it comes to that, then hang out with those who are richer, so that on occasion they can be useful to you. Don’t treat or treat anyone, but behave better so that you will be treated, and most of all, take care and save a penny: this thing is more reliable than anything in the world. A comrade or friend will deceive you and in trouble will be the first to betray you, but a penny will not betray you, no matter what trouble you are in. You will do everything, you will ruin everything in the world with a penny.”
B) Finding own experience. He managed to build relationships with his classmates in such a way that they treated him; managed to collect money, adding it to the half ruble left by his father. He used every opportunity to accumulate money: he made a bullfinch out of wax, painted it and sold it; I bought food at the market and offered it to my hungry classmates who were richer; trained a mouse, taught it to stand on its hind legs and sold it; was the most diligent and disciplined student, able to prevent any desire of the teacher.
Service. A) Start of service. “He got an insignificant place, a salary of thirty or forty rubles a year...” Thanks to his iron will, the ability to deny himself everything, while maintaining neatness and pleasant appearance, he managed to stand out among the same “nondescript” employees. “...Chichikov represented the complete opposite in everything, both with his elegance of face, and the friendliness of his voice, and his complete non-drinking of any strong drinks.”
B) Continuing your career. To advance in my career, I used an already tried and tested method - pleasing my boss by finding him " weak point" - the daughter whom he “fell in love with” himself. From that moment on, he became a “noticeable person.” Service in the commission “for the construction of some state-owned capital structure.” He began to allow himself “some excesses”: a good cook, good shirts, expensive fabric for suits, purchasing a couple of horses... Soon he lost his “warm” place again. I had to change two or three places. “I got to customs.” He carried out a risky operation, in which he first got rich, and then “got broke” and lost almost everything.
The appearance of Chichikov in the provincial town. Using practical intelligence, courtesy and resourcefulness, Chichikov managed to charm both the provincial city and the estates. Having quickly figured out a person, he knows how to find an approach to everyone. One can only be amazed at the inexhaustible variety of all the “shades and subtleties of his appeal”
Literature. 1) y.ru/school/ucheb/literatura/elektronnye- nagljadnye-posobija-s-prilozheniem/ y.ru/school/ucheb/literatura/elektronnye- nagljadnye-posobija-s-prilozheniem/ y.ru/school/ucheb/ literatura/elektronnye- nagljadnye-posobija-s-prilozheniem/ 2) Literature in tables and diagrams/auth.- comp. Mironova Yu.S. – St. Petersburg: Trigon, – 128 p.
Chichikov’s childhood from “Dead Souls” cannot be called the best period in his life. He did not have serene games, fun activities, joyful memories of family holidays.
Childhood memories
In fact, little Pavlusha didn’t even have a real family: all he remembered was his always sick, dissatisfied father, who forced his son to practice literacy and penmanship, often scolding and punishing the boy. Nothing is known about Pavlusha’s mother from the narrative, and the father was unable or unwilling to show feelings towards his son and rarely spoke to him. Deprived of affection and love, the child grew up unsociable and withdrawn.
Being already quite an adult, Chichikov will never learn to feel affection for people, because he did not see this in his own family. The miserable situation in a simple house, owned by an impoverished nobleman - Pavlusha's father - contributed to the formation of the same limited inner world boy. Pavlushi’s memories remain of an uncomfortable house, squalid furnishings and the alienation of the only loved one- father. Briefly, Chichikov’s childhood years can be described as a difficult and joyless time, which had a serious impact on his character.
Departure for the city and father's order
One day, the father took the boy to the city to enroll him in school. They stopped at distant relative, which allowed my father to save significantly on housing, which was necessary while receiving his education. Before leaving home, he gave his son instructions for his future life. It is in it that the philosophy of life of the “Chichikovs” is revealed.
It should be noted that the father did not particularly believe in the intelligence and talent of his child, so he directly ordered his son at school to please the authorities, and then even without any special talent in the sciences, he would always be the first. Instead of tears when parting, the parent dryly outlined the basic laws of life in modern society: be friends with those who are richer, do not treat others, but behave in such a way that you yourself are offered the treat. Important point– save money, it opens all doors. After that, he left and never saw his son again. He died when Pavlusha was finishing college.
Years at school
The boy did well in his studies, although he did not achieve much success, but he understood exactly what he needed to do to get excellent grades. The teacher demanded silence, discipline and the ability to sit straight without moving. Pavlusha quickly learned this skill, even when the children pinched him, he remained calm. His notebooks were neat, his things were neat and clean, and all his thoughts were aimed at increasing the “capital” that his father left him.
In order to spend time usefully on long evenings, Pavlusha trained a mouse he caught in the house in such a way that it followed certain commands. He sold it at school for very good money. Such ingenuity of the boy is due to his desire to earn money at any cost. He tried his hand at creativity - he sculpted a figurine of a bullfinch from wax, painted it and earned a decent amount of money for such a craft for a child. The boy sewed his savings into bags and hid them so as not to spend them. Distinguished by his powers of observation and enterprise, Pavlusha also made money by noticing those classmates who were very hungry and offering them to buy a pie from him. Friends happily agreed.
The hero's childhood taught him very unchildish things: saving, refusing delicacies, finding ways to earn money, the ability to please, flatter, and be insincere. Chichikov never learned to make friends; openness and kindness were not part of his habits; rather, they even got in the way. Having no relatives, without support and friendships, the boy was guided by his own principles, which became the basis of his life in adulthood. This period ended with his studies and the news of his father’s death; his small inheritance became the starting capital at the beginning adult life Pavel Ivanovich.
Work test
N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” was written in the late 40s of the 19th century. In this work, Gogol depicts the Russian society of that time, all the shortcomings of autocratic-serf Russia. The main character of the poem is the nobleman Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. Whether he came from the pillars or personal nobles - we do not know. He received a modest education, but due to his “excellent” abilities he was promoted, although he did not stay in one place for long.
Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov's parents belonged to a bankrupt
The nobility and lived far from the city on their abandoned estate. Chichikov spent his entire childhood at home - “he didn’t go anywhere or go anywhere.” His life went very dimly and unnoticed. His father, a sick man, always told him: “Don’t lie, obey your elders and carry virtue in your heart.”
So nine years passed. One spring morning, on an old nag, Pavlusha’s father takes Pavlusha to the city to study. This is where it begins independent life our hero.
Before leaving, Pavel Ivanovich's father gave him advice for life. They became the “prayer” of his life: “Look, Pavlusha, study, don’t be stupid and don’t hang around, but most of all please your teachers and bosses. Don’t hang out with your comrades, they won’t teach you any good, but if that’s the case, hang out with those who are richer, so that they can be useful to you on occasion. Take care and save a penny, it will not give you away, no matter what trouble you are in. You will do everything and ruin everything in the world with a penny.” Chichikov never forgot these instructions from his father in his life, he followed them everywhere and always, they became the goal and incentive of his worthless life, for only self-interest, money and selfishness entered the heart of this man from childhood.
From the very next day, Pavlusha began going to school. He did not have any special abilities for any of the sciences, but he turned out to have completely different abilities, from the practical side. From the very first day, he began to follow his father’s instructions: he was friends only with the rich, he was the first favorite, “in class he sat so quietly that no one could sit like that for even a minute - the teachers loved him very much for this. When the bell rang, he jumped up, handed the teacher his briefcase, and then met him in the corridor five times, greeted him and bowed deeply.”
From the very first days, Chichikov was also interested in the material issue. He starts saving money. Either he makes a figure out of wax and sells it profitably either at the market or among his comrades, or he buys gingerbread and waits until his comrades’ stomachs tighten, and then he will “rip off four skins” for it. He put the money in a bag. When they reached five rubles, Chichikov sewed it together and began saving it for another.
When our hero left school, he immediately got to work. He worked day and night, slept on tables in the office rooms, dined with the guards, but at the same time always remained neat.
Chichikov was noticed by his superiors, and he was sent to an old military officer for guidance. All the time, Pavel Ivanovich pleased his mentor and became his “son”. He promised to marry the daughter of the police officer. The old official gave a recommendation to Chichikov, and he also received the rank of police officer. This is what Pavel Ivanovich needed. He stopped going to his “patron” and did not think about marrying his daughter. Chichikov became a famous official. In the service, he took bribes, and the treasury did not go unnoticed by our hero - he got there too. Now he walked around very fashionably and richly dressed. But suddenly, in place of the former boss, the mattress was sent new person military, Strict, enemy of bribe-takers and everything that is called untruth. He quickly figured out the matter, and Chichikov was kicked out of service.
After some time, Chichikov enters the customs service. There he also “robs” people and the state, but at the same time he works very well. The authorities say about him: “This is a devil, not a man.”
When checking cases at customs, many shortcomings were found. Many officials were arrested. Seeing this, Chichikov himself leaves the service. “He has ten thousand left in money, a small chaise, two serfs,” - all that Pavel Ivanovich was able to “put together” for himself with such efforts.
Time has passed. Chichikov again lives in “beggarly conditions, walks in only a frock coat and wears dirty shirts.” One day he got lucky and got a job as an attorney, where he again carried out his scams and went into hiding.
Pavel Ivanovich is on the road again. So she brings him to the scene of the novel. Here Chichikov decided to run another business: he wants to buy dead serfs from landowners, dead souls who are listed according to the revision
fairy tale alive.
After getting to know the city, its father-officials, visiting all kinds of dinners and balls, Chichikov goes on a journey to the landowners to carry out his plan to buy dead souls.
The first of the landowners to visit Chichikov is Manilov, a sugary, sentimental man who always dreams of various fables. Then he visits the thick-headed landowner Korobochka, Nozdryov - a reckless driver and a reveler, Sobakevich - a strong owner, Plyushkin - a miser and a morally dead man. In all these houses, Chichikov behaves differently, acquiring dead souls by any means and ways. Manilov simply gives them to our hero “out of love and respect for him.” The box sells souls only because it is afraid evil spirits, which our businessman intimidated her with. Sobakevich also sells dead peasants, but not out of fear, but because of his own profit. And Plyushkin sells the peasants “fearing for every penny.” Only Pavel Ivanovich does not acquire anything from Nozdryov, but instead almost falls into the hands of a drunken landowner, then, for the same reason, he hastily leaves the city of N.
That's all we know about the life of our hero. Having read Gogol's poem, we can say about its main character as a low and vile person, resourceful and unprincipled. Yes, this is not an ideal to follow. But...Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov is a typical representative of a new type of bourgeois businessman in feudal Russia in the first half of the 19th century.
Chichikov himself cannot only be blamed for his behavior (although it largely depends on the person himself). Time itself, the course of history, plays a significant role here.
N.V. Gogol showed in “Dead Souls” the face of Russia at that time, when the nobility as a class is degrading, when new people come to the first place in life - businessmen-acquirers, people whose thoughts are low, in whose hearts there is nothing human left, except for profit, personal gain.
In his poem, the writer exposes feudal Russia (Chichikov, landowners, officials), whose life is measured only by money, where the dead are bought, where the living are sold. And all this is ruled by “dead souls” - people without souls and hearts. “Where are you rushing, Rus'-troika, what are you striving for if you are dead and only the dead live among you?” - Gogol asks his readers. Gogol wrote his poem, trying to revive Russia and protect it from Chichikov and others like him.
Let us remember Chichikov’s childhood: boredom, loneliness, monotonous work and the eternal reproaches of his sick father, “no friend, no comrade in childhood,” not a word was said about maternal affection. It is known that Gogol intended, by continuing “Dead Souls” (and a multi-volume epic was planned), to eventually lead his hero to a moral rebirth. You can see hints of such a course of events in the text of the first volume. The author saw “colossal images” ahead; it seemed to him that the entire narrative would later “take on a majestic lyrical flow.” And it is unlikely that this detail is not connected with these dreams, which to this day remains mysterious for readers and critics: after all, it is Chichikov who loves fast driving, like every Russian, and this is what Gogol goes over from the image of his troika, which harnesses Gnedoy, Chubary and Assessor to the image of the flying, unovertaken Russia-troika.
Ironizing his hero, mercilessly exposing his claims to nobility and decency, Gogol at the same time admires his practical intelligence and perseverance. “We must do justice to the irresistible force of his character,” Gogol says about Chichikov. “After all that would have been enough, if not to kill, then to cool and pacify a person forever, the incomprehensible passion in him did not go out”!
Gogol's hero loved one thing in his life passionately and sincerely - his face, and one thing truly touched his soul - his own well-being. As for others, he, like Sobakevich, will be guided by his own interests. Sentimental moods will not interfere with him. He needs it - and he goes to those “corners of our state that have suffered more than others from accidents, crop failures, deaths, and so on and so forth.” He goes, of course, not in order to sympathize and help, but in order to “buy the people in need more conveniently and cheaper.”
And this property of Chichikov is by no means only personal in nature.
Frightened officials suspected that Chichikov was Napoleon in disguise, and even discovered a similarity in appearance. This fiction has a meaning, and Gogol wanted the reader to guess it. After all, Napoleonism became an expression of the morality of a merchant society, according to which people are only means of achieving power, wealth, and success. The scales are different, but in essence Chichikov acts in the spirit of this morality, acts not with troops and diplomacy, but with the means of semi-legal commerce. Gogol continues Pushkin’s satirical denunciation of inhuman individualism:
We all look at Napoleons.
There are millions of two-legged creatures
For us there is only one weapon.
So, Chichikov is a figurative generalization of a very wide range of phenomena - from bribes to wars of conquest. With all the diversity of these phenomena, they have one essence - acquisition, that is, satisfaction by any means of selfish interests, covered by the most decent arguments and explanations.
Chichikov is not opposed, as is sometimes thought, to the district landowners and the bureaucrats. He is only singled out against the background of this environment as a hero of a new, capitalist formation. Chichikov represents those who can be called “first accumulators.” It was they who appreciated the power of capital, preferring large monetary transactions to natural farming. In the course of historical development, the Chichikovs come to replace the decaying class of nobles. Gogol emphasizes that the new type of acquirer is much more dangerous than the previous ones. The nobles ruin the peasants at home, within the district, while Chichikov strives for scale. He travels all over Russia, looking for “profit” everywhere. In addition, he is dexterous, evasive, acts with knowledge of the matter, covering his selfish thoughts with a guise of good manners and adapting to the situation. With Manilov, he pretended to be a “sensitive” person who had experienced a lot of “persecution” for “observing the truth,” “giving his hand to both a helpless widow and a miserable orphan.” He hinted to the governor that “you enter his province as if you were entering paradise, the roads are velvet everywhere.” He even endeared himself to Plyushkin by refusing the treat under the pretext that he “had already drunk and eaten.” Everywhere he carries himself with “dignity,” and among money-hungry officials he is also known as a “millionaire.”
Acquisitions develop into entrepreneurship for Chichikov. He stops at nothing to achieve selfish goals, basing his actions on skillfully veiled meanness. His last, most vile scam is the purchase of dead peasant souls in order to acquire capital. The scam failed. Chichikov is exposed, but exposed by accident, he leaves the city without suffering any punishment: From this it is clear that Chichikov is “his own” person in the noble-bureaucratic environment, and his “failure” is accidental. Elsewhere, other Chichikovs will achieve their goal. The socio-economic life of Russia developed in this direction and Western Europe in the 30-40s of the 19th century. Obviously, Gogol, foreseeing such a tendency, ultimately abandoned the intention to correct the “scoundrel-acquirer.” In any case, the author’s attempts to make Chichikov “ashamed” of his vices when meeting “virtuous” heroes in the second volume (Kostanzhoglo, Murazov, etc.) did not produce convincing artistic results. In the minds of the reader, Chichikov remains a typical representative of bourgeois predation, regardless of where and in what sphere it manifests itself. The global significance of Chichikov’s image was keenly noticed by Belinsky and Chernyshevsky, who wrote that the Chichikovs could be found in France and England, wherever bourgeois business was gaining strength.
Provincial Society
Painting a broad picture of the noble-landlord Russia of his time, Gogol, in addition to the local nobles, also depicts provincial officials. In the notes to the first volume of the poem, Gogol wrote: “The idea of a city is an emptiness that has arisen to the highest degree. Idle talk. Gossip that has gone beyond limits. How all this arose from idleness and took on the expression of the most ridiculous, how intelligent people come to do complete stupid things.”
This is the life of provincial society and its representatives that Gogol shows. This is also the kingdom of “dead souls”, idleness and internal squalor. Provincial officials, in essence, are no different from the district officials previously depicted by Gogol in The Government Inspector. Like the mayor, the “miracle worker” - the chief of police “visited the shops and the living room as if he were visiting his own storeroom.” The “freethinker” Lyapkin-Tyapkin’s penchant for reading Masonic books was shared by the city’s postmaster, who “went more into philosophy and read very diligently, even at night,” the books of mystics. Khlopov’s timidity was inherited by the “Morgun” prosecutor, who “died in fright” from the rumors that spread in the city in connection with Chichikov’s purchase of dead souls. The appointment of a new governor-general frightened the provincial officials and deprived them of their reason just as much as the expected arrival of the district auditor. The same nepotism, the same corruption and the same arbitrariness reign here as in the district town; The same bribery is flourishing (what is Ivan Antonovich alone worth - the “jug’s snout”!), the same ignorance and vulgarity. Like the heroes of The Inspector General, the officials of the provincial city are disconnected from the people, from their needs and demands.