The main thing in N.V.’s comedy Gogloya "The Inspector General" is a laugh!
The main character of the comedy N.V. Gogol's "The Inspector General" began to laugh. Gogol began work on his work in 1835. A little later, two premieres of the comedy took place in Moscow and St. Petersburg. And work on the text of the comedy continued until 1842.
By creating the comedy “The Inspector General,” Gogol wanted not only to expose the bureaucracy with the help of laughter. He dreamed that “The Inspector General” would force officials to change. It was for this purpose that Gogol depicted all officials in comic form. The writer believed that ridiculing the negative traits of the characters should have a positive effect on the reader and viewer of The Inspector General. A person, having discovered these vices in himself, had to strive to correct them.
Analyzing contemporary literature, Gogol came to the conclusion that a new type of comedy was needed. He was convinced that a comedy built on love conflict, has outlived its usefulness. In the 30s of the 19th century, a social comedy was needed that would raise important social issues. Therefore, in The Inspector General there is almost no love line. And that’s why there is no positive hero in The Inspector General. Gogol believed that goodie will distract attention from the main thing and attract attention to itself. And therefore the writer called laughter the only positive hero of his work. He believed that laughter and the funny have a cleansing function.
Almost everything in The Inspector General is comical. The very situation of the work is comical: officials of the county town are terribly afraid of the auditor and mistake another person for him - Khlestakov. At the same time, they are trying to present their city in at its best, hide the crimes and abuses committed. All these negative phenomena are revealed already in the first scenes of the comedy. Mayor Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky gives orders to officials. We read about uncollected garbage, about an unfinished church, about a district police officer hastily putting things in order in the city, about Judge Tyapkin-Lyapkin taking bribes with greyhound puppies, about drunken assessors. The postmaster reads other people's letters, there is not enough medicine in hospitals, the reception is conducted by a German who does not know the Russian language at all, etc. Therefore, fearing reprisals, all officials show miracles of ingenuity in comedy.
Gogol took a new approach to developing the plot of his comedy. Special significance in the work he gave a plot that at once, in a single knot, was supposed to connect all the events. The comedy also ends unusually - with a silent scene. This scene helps us understand ideological meaning works. For Gogol, the denouement does not end the comedy, but is at the same time a new beginning. This means that the action returns to normal, the triumph of law in Russia is impossible. Although at the end of the comedy he appears on stage a real auditor.
Gogol’s innovation in “The Inspector General” was also the fact that “Notes for Gentlemen Actors” were written for it, which helped to understand the meaning of the heroes of the comedy.
Gogol believed that comedy should be folk, touching on the problems of our time. The meaning of “The Inspector General” is clarified by its epigraph: “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked.” Gogol himself explains the idea of the comedy this way: “I wanted to collect all the bad things in one pile and laugh at everything at once.” In his work, the writer managed, with the help of laughter, to expose bureaucratic arbitrariness and raise problems state power, legal proceedings, education, medicine. No wonder Nicholas I, after watching his comedy, said: “Everyone got it. And most of all for me.”
Explaining the meaning of The Inspector General, N.V. Gogol pointed to the role of laughter: “I am sorry that no one noticed the honest face that was in my play. Yes, there was one honest, noble
a person who acted in her throughout her entire life. This honest, noble face was full of laughter.”
A close friend of N.V. Gogol wrote that modern Russian life does not provide material for comedy. To which Gogol replied: “Comedy is hidden everywhere. Living among it, we don’t see it, but if an artist transfers it into art, onto the stage, then we will laugh at ourselves.”
The object of satire in N.V. Gogol itself becomes modern life in its comically ugly manifestations. Already at the heart of the plot itself is a comedic incongruity: a person is mistaken for someone other than who he really is. But the author solves this situation in a new way: Khlestakov does not pretend to be anyone. The unintentionality of Khlestakov’s actions confused everyone, and his sincerity deceived the officials and the mayor, who himself “deceived the swindlers of the swindlers.” What was happening revealed the truly ugly and funny face people, caused them to laugh. It was laughter through tears - angry laughter through tears of bitterness and indignation. The author laughs not at specific individuals, but at the vices of Russian reality; it is not for nothing that at the end he throws into the laughing audience: “You are laughing at yourself.”
It becomes both funny and bitter when we read about the order in the county town: “geese and goslings” are scurrying around in public places, and the assessor always smells of vodka; What crazy teachers teach at the school; healer Christian Ivanovich doesn’t know a single word of Russian; At the post office, letters are opened to satisfy the postmaster’s curiosity, and the police “for the sake of order” give everyone a check, and so on.
That's exactly what satirical image allowed N.V. Gogol to clearly express his indignation at administrative arbitrariness and predation, the petty self-interested characters of people in power.
But there are also a lot of simply funny comic situations in the play. For example, the mayor’s hasty orders: “Let everyone pick up the street,” or the remark “Put on a paper case instead of a hat,” etc. Khlestakov is absurd and ridiculous, screaming in fear and banging his fist on the table: “What right do you have? ... I’m going straight to the minister!” And how “magnificent” he is in the scene of lying, having done it in a few minutes a dizzying career from a copyist of papers to a field marshal.
All this makes the play lively, authentic and helps the reader and viewer cleanse their souls with the help of laughter, because, exposing everything bad, the writer believes in the triumph of justice, which will win.
Essay text:
If you laugh, it’s better to laugh hard at something that is truly worthy of universal ridicule,
N. Gogol
The comedy "The Inspector General", written by N.V. Gogol, undoubtedly belongs not only to the classics of world drama, but also to works that capture the reader from the first moment and do not let go of his attention until last page. The plot of the comedy was suggested to Gogol by A.S. Pushkin, who highly valued the literary talent of the young writer with his “ability to guess a person and with a few features suddenly make him look like he’s alive.”
The comedy created by Gogol is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. Its goal is not only to entertain the reader with the witty joke that fate played on the officials of the city of N, but also to make him think about himself and his surroundings.
In Gogol's immortal work, there is actually very little that is invented. Using the example of a small provincial town, Gogol was able to show what was characteristic of the entire vast Russia of that time: servitude, bribery, careerism, embezzlement, and the arbitrariness of officials. Thus, the situation described in the comedy could arise in almost any city.
Gogol brought a whole gallery of Russian types to the stage in his comedy. Sometimes the behavior of officials, whose images Gogol created with a fair amount of irony, seems endlessly funny. It is impossible to forget the resourceful careerist mayor, who never misses his benefits and is accustomed to grabbing everything that floats into his hands. The “freethinker” Judge Lyap-kin-Tyapkin is described with great humor, confident in his infallibility due to the fact that he takes bribes with greyhound puppies. A bitter smile is evoked by the image of the trustee of charitable institutions, Strawberry, in whose hospital people are not only malnourished and dirty, but also “dropping like flies” due to lack of medicine.
But Khlestakov himself is on stage! Lazy and a slacker, an unbridled braggart and a liar, well, how can you take this seriously! However, city officials accept him as a “civil servant.” What an auditor is not: he looks down on you, speaks beautifully, takes bribes, tells you unprecedented things. This Khlestakov is a famous and respected man!
Thus, we clearly see that the comedy "The Inspector General" is not fiction, not slander contemporary writer life, but its reflection. Those who were most outraged by this comedy, I would like to direct to the very beginning, to the epigraph, which is Gogol’s worthy answer to his critics: “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked.”
If you look closely, you will notice that there is no positive hero in the comedy. The viewers and readers themselves evaluate and think about the actions and actions of the characters. The narrow-mindedness, stupidity, and opportunism of city officials evoke laughter, and this laughter is the only one." honest face"in comedy, because he connects the action on stage with the live response of the audience.
“Why are you laughing? Are you laughing at yourself!..” the mayor says to the audience at the will of the author.
Gogol achieved his goal “to gather together everything bad in Russia... and laugh at everything at once.” But the writer does not laugh alone, he laughs with us, and this is the power of comedy.
After reading “The Inspector General,” I will never forget the meaning of the words of the great Gogol: “Oh, laughter is a great thing! A person is afraid of nothing more than laughter. It does not take away either life or property from the guilty; but it binds his strength, and ", fearing laughter, a person refrains from doing something that no force could restrain him from..."
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Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol had a great influence on Russian literature. He showed the Russian reader not only his native Ukraine, but also St. Petersburg and the life of small county towns. He described not only rich landowners and officials, but also the life of ordinary “little” people. At the same time, he tried to defeat evil in people, to “cure” them of their vices, using for this the most powerful weapon and medicine - laughter.
Speaking about the idea of The Inspector General, Gogol noted that in this work he decided to “...gather in one pile everything bad in Russia that he knew then... and laugh at everything at once...”. Literary activity Gogol began studying at a time of harsh political reaction, when ruling circles Nicholas I sought to eradicate all free-thinking and social independence.
The appearance of the comedy “The Inspector General” in 1836 was of great social significance not only because the author criticized and ridiculed the vices and shortcomings of Tsarist Russia, but also because with his work the writer urged viewers and readers to look into their souls and think about simple human values.
Gogol set himself the goal of “laughing hard at what is worthy of universal ridicule,” since he saw laughter as a powerful means of influencing society.
Gogol's laughter is very unique, since the object of satire is modern life. The plot of The Inspector General is based on a truly comedic incongruity: a person is mistaken for who he really is. But Gogol solved this situation in a new way.
Khlestakov does not pretend to be anyone. The officials were deceived by his sincerity. An experienced rogue would hardly have fooled the mayor, who “deceived the swindlers of the swindlers.” It was Khlestakov’s inability to consciously, thoughtfully lie that confused everyone.
What was happening showed the true ugly and funny face of people, causing laughter at them, at their life, at the life of all of Russia in general. “Laughing at yourself” is an appeal to a laughing audience.
Together with the author we laugh at everything county town in general and over its individual inhabitants, over their vices. Lawlessness, embezzlement, bribery, selfish goals instead of concern for the public good - all this is shown in The Inspector General.
There are several ridiculous, funny situations in comedy. For example, the note received by Anna Andreevna from her husband contains cheerful confusion: “I don’t understand anything, why are there pickles and caviar?” Or Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, congratulating her on her daughter’s “engagement,” “approach at the same time and bump their heads.” However, these scenes only accompany the main motive. They characterize an atmosphere of haste, confusion, and fear. But when we laugh at the characters in The Inspector General, we laugh not so much at them as at the insignificant, crooked souls of these people.
The greatest laughter is caused by the discrepancy between people's characters and their position in society, the discrepancy between what they think and what they say.
For example, officials and their wives who came to congratulate the mayor and Anna Andreevna on the wonderful marriage of their daughter flatter their eyes, but privately speak about the mayor very frankly: “Happiness always creeps into such a pig’s mouth!”
All the characters in the comedy behave almost the same, they have one and only passion - to acquire: position in society, service ranks, wealth. This picture makes me sad; it seems that there is not a single bright image in the play. And yet there is a positive hero in comedy - laughter. By denouncing everything that was bad, Gogol believed in the triumph of common sense and justice, which would win when people realized the fatality of “bad things.” Laughter helps him accomplish this task. But not idle, light or sarcastic, but that laughter that “flows entirely from the bright nature of a person,” in the words of the author of the immortal comedy “The Inspector General.”
In his “St. Petersburg Notes of 1836,” N.V. Gogol complained about the paucity of the repertoire of the Russian theater of his time, that the stage was mostly melodrama and vaudeville, and complained about the lack of a real Russian comedy repertoire. His comedy “The Inspector General” was intended to at least partially fill this vacuum. The plot of the comedy, suggested by A.S. Pushkin, was embodied in the play “The Inspector General”. In it, the playwright, with all the force of an accusatory word, attacked the world of evil and violence, showing the entire state bureaucracy of Russia at that time. The play was created in literally two months. And already in April 1836 its premiere took place. The comedy was a resounding success. This was a new and original work in every way. Its novelty consisted primarily in the fact that the comedy lacked a positive hero. Indeed, there are no positive heroes on the stage. But the author himself emphasized that there is a positive hero in The Inspector General. And this positive hero is laughter. Laughter that castigates and exposes. But this is laughter through tears.
Gogol's comedy is hilariously funny: it really turned out to be “funnier than the devil,” as the playwright promised Pushkin. But, like an Undertow, a sad, languid and melancholy feeling arises in “The Inspector General”; it rises the higher, the more carefree and easier the laughter of the comedy seems. And finally, in the last, “silent scene”, it breaks out, falling - both on the characters and on the audience - with a powerful wave. Could it be expected that the play, which began as a comedy - with the mayor’s story about two rats of “unnatural size”, with the fussy preparations of officials to receive the auditor, would end tragically - with a terrible stupor of “the whole group”? In his immortal comedy, Gogol showed living everyday images in all their diversity. “For God’s sake, give us Russian characters, ourselves, give us our rogues, our eccentrics! Take them to the stage, to everyone’s laughter!” - Gogol exclaimed, and in “The Inspector General” “Russian rogues” and “eccentrics” were presented in full - vividly and figuratively. Here are the mayor - Anton Antonovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, and the postmaster Shpekin, judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin and the superintendent of schools Luka Lukich Khlopov, the trustee of charitable institutions Zemlyanika, local landowners Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, police officers Svistunov, Pugovitsyn and Derzhimorda. Their surnames alone cause laughter, but the laughter is bitter, because they all live up to their surnames by treating their official duties accordingly. Judge Ammos Fedorovich conducts cases in court extremely poorly - a blunder, a Derzhimord policeman - beats up townspeople for any reason or without reason. And so on.
And all of them, while waiting for the auditor, find themselves in a comical situation. The essence of the comedy of the conflict in the play is that the mayor and the officials are fighting with the ghost that they created in their imagination (after all, the imaginary auditor is not an auditor at all). But the narrow-minded Khlestakov managed to deceive and cleverly deceive both the highly experienced and intelligent mayor and all his officials.
In The Inspector General there is not even a hint that somewhere, in some distant or near corner of the vast Russian state, life does not proceed the same way as in the city described by Gogol, according to different laws and rules. Everything in the play appears as generally accepted. Scary, gloomy picture. But in the finale of the comedy, the famous silent scene, Gogol’s thought about future retribution is expressed, the hope for the triumph of justice and law in the person of a real auditor.
Gogol hoped that laughter, the voice of satire, the power of ridicule, the nobility of humor could make honest and decent people out of the mayors and deputies. The seemingly evil lines of his comedy were dictated by his love for Russia and faith in its better future. Laughing angrily at the negative phenomena of life, Gogol forces the reader to think about them, understand their reasons and try to get rid of them. That is why the comedy “The Inspector General” has not lost its relevance today. And laughter, as always, helps us survive in difficult times.
