Dead Souls short Plyushkin. Heroes of “Dead Souls” - Plyushkin (briefly)

One of the most bright characters Gogol, literary hero, whose name has long become a household name, a character who is remembered by everyone who read " Dead Souls" - landowner Stepan Plyushkin. His memorable figure closes the gallery of images of landowners presented by Gogol in the poem. Plyushkin, who even gave his name to the official disease (Plyushkin syndrome, or pathological hoarding), is essentially a very rich man who has led his vast economy to complete decline, A great amount serfs - to poverty and a miserable existence.

This fifth and final companion of Chichikov is a shining example how dead it can become human soul. Therefore, the title of the poem is very symbolic: it not only directly indicates that we're talking about about “dead souls” - as dead serfs were called, but also about the pitiful, deprived human qualities, the devastated souls of landowners and officials.

Characteristics of the hero

("Plyushkin", artist Alexander Agin, 1846-47)

Gogol begins the reader’s acquaintance with the landowner Plyushkin with a description of the surroundings of the estate. Everything indicates desolation, insufficient funding and the absence of a strong hand of the owner: dilapidated houses with leaky roofs and windows without glass. The sad landscape is enlivened by the owner's garden, although neglected, but described in much more positive colors: clean, tidy, filled with air, with a “regular sparkling marble column.” However, Plyushkin’s home again evokes melancholy, around there is desolation, despondency and mountains of useless, but extremely necessary for the old man, rubbish.

Being the richest landowner in the province (the number of serfs reached 1000), Plyushkin lived in extreme poverty, eating scraps and dried crackers, which did not cause him the slightest discomfort. He was extremely suspicious; everyone around him seemed treacherous and unreliable, even his own children. Only the passion for hoarding was important for Plyushkin; he collected everything he could get his hands on on the street and dragged it into the house.

("Chichikov at Plyushkin's", artist Alexander Agin, 1846-47)

Unlike other characters, Plyushkin's life story is given in full. The author introduces the reader to a young landowner, talking about a good family, his beloved wife and three children. Neighbors even came to the zealous owner to learn from him. But my wife died eldest daughter she ran away with a military man, her son joined the army, which his father did not approve of, and the youngest daughter also died. And gradually the respected landowner turned into a man whose whole life was subordinated to accumulation for the sake of the accumulation process itself. All others human feelings, which were not previously distinguished by their brightness, faded away in him completely.

It is interesting that some professors of psychiatry mentioned that Gogol very clearly and at the same time artistically described a typical case of senile dementia. Others, for example, psychiatrist Ya.F. Kaplan, deny this possibility, saying that psychopathological traits do not appear sufficiently in Plyushkin, and Gogol simply illuminated the state of old age, which he encountered everywhere.

The image of the hero in the work

Stepan Plyushkin himself is described as a creature dressed in unkempt rags, looking like a woman from afar, but the stubble on his face still made it clear that the main character was a representative of the stronger sex. Given the general amorphousness of this figure, the writer focuses attention on individual facial features: a protruding chin, a hooked nose, lack of teeth, eyes expressing suspicion.

Gogol - Great master words - with bright strokes shows us a gradual but irreversible change in human personality. A person, in whose eyes intelligence shone in previous years, gradually turns into a pitiful miser who has lost all his best feelings and emotions. The main goal of the writer is to show how terrible the coming old age can be, how small human weaknesses can turn into pathological traits under certain life circumstances.

If the writer simply wanted to portray a pathological miser, he would not go into details of his youth, a description of the circumstances that led to current state. The author himself tells us that Stepan Plyushkin is the future of the fiery young man in old age, that unsightly portrait, upon seeing which the young man would recoil in horror.

("Peasants at Plyushkin", artist Alexander Agin, 1846-47)

However, Gogol leaves a small chance for this hero: when the writer conceived the third volume of the work, he planned to leave Plyushkin - the only landowner Chichikov met - in an updated, morally revived form. Describing the landowner’s appearance, Nikolai Vasilyevich separately singles out the old man’s eyes: “the little eyes had not yet gone out and ran from under his high eyebrows, like mice...”. And the eyes, as we know, are the mirror of the human soul. In addition, Plyushkin, seemingly having lost all human feelings, suddenly decides to give Chichikov a gold watch. True, this impulse immediately fades away, and the old man decides to include the watch in the deed of gift, so that after death at least someone will remember him with a kind word.

Thus, if Stepan Plyushkin had not lost his wife, his life could have turned out quite well, and his old age would not have turned into such a deplorable existence. The image of Plyushkin completes the gallery of portraits of degraded landowners and very accurately describes the lowest level to which a person can slide in his lonely old age.

The image of Plyushkin in the poem “Dead Souls” is the most memorable and striking among other no less interesting, but equally vicious heroes. The character's nickname speaks for itself and personifies his character and essence. A person who has been accumulating unnecessary “junk” for years, who finds it difficult to part with things, is remembered so much that his name has become a household name and is relevant even in our time.

Gogol not only describes Plyushkin as an immensely greedy, degraded, soulless and unprincipled person, he gives us the opportunity to reveal this image to us through a description of his appearance, through his manner of dressing. The way Chichikov saw him when they first met him, in a greasy robe, a rag around his neck instead of a scarf, a strange cap on his head, more reminiscent of a beggar than a rich landowner. His appearance showed him to be a miser and a beggar rather than a wealthy landowner. Stinginess and collecting garbage brought him to the point of absurdity. For this man the main objective- buy unnecessary things.

The description of the estate and the house, dilapidated, unkempt, soulless, like the owner himself, gave the impression that life had stopped here. The once prosperous, filled with the joy of life, the love of his wife, the laughter of children, a well-kept estate falls into desolation with the death of his wife. The same desolation and “cluttering” occurs in the soul of the owner. Until recently, bright and strong personality, to whom neighbors came to learn economical housekeeping, turns into a creature consumed by the passion of stinginess. Plyushkin sold his dead souls with joy, considering Chichikov a fool. An old man in his seventh decade, it is unknown for whom or why he was saving his fortune. Stinginess and anger made him gloomy, unsociable and imprisoned in his lonely world.

Where have the feelings of kindness, family joy and fatherhood gone? He cursed his son, who shot himself because he could not pay off a gambling debt, and he has no desire to help his needy daughter and grandchildren, despite the fact that hay, flour and bread are rotting in his barns. The landowner gradually turned into an angry, hardened old man, living out his meager life in loneliness and anger. Of course, one could try to justify Plyushkin, but he did not take the chance to correct anything. He is completely indifferent to the people around him, he is obsessed with his goals.

The rot characteristic of Plyushkin is found in people in our time. The existence of people like Gogol’s character is completely meaningless, since they poison with their essence, bile and malice. The image of Plyushkin in the poem is presented in a comic light, which has been distorted due to wealth and money.

Option 2

Plyushkin is one of the heroes of Gogol’s work “Dead Souls”, a strange, contradictory personality and not very understandable for many.

Plyushkin is an unkempt, unattractive old man of over sixty years old. His chin is sharp and protruding. The eyes are small and constantly moving. The beard is unkempt. The clothes are worn and dirty: the robe is extremely greasy and torn at the back, and there is an incomprehensible rag around the neck instead of the usual tie. At first glance, it is even difficult to determine his gender: he is more likely a woman, not a man.

But he was not always like this: many years ago he was good owner, thrifty and economical. Yes, he was not very generous, but it was “wise stinginess.” Wife, three children, a French teacher for his son and a madam for his daughters. Everything changed with the death of his wife: thoroughness turned into suspicion, and frugality into stinginess. And the house gradually began to empty: first, the eldest daughter ran away with the captain. The son went to serve, and there was no longer a need for a teacher. Madame was driven away - they learned that she had helped her eldest daughter escape. Youngest daughter died, and Plyushkin was left alone. But loneliness did not bother him at all: after all, no one would now stop him from saving, storing and getting rich.

Over the years, stinginess became his passion, a cruel and insatiable passion. And although Plyushkin “fed” this passion every day with new arrivals in his barns and bins, it demanded more and more. There was so much good that it could not be worn out, eaten and spent in several lives. Nothing was used, and new arrivals did not stop - the quitrent was still collected, every day Plyushkin brought into the house something he needed: a lost spur or a bucket forgotten at the well. Collected by peasants the goods were rotting and collecting dust in the yard; the things Plyushkin found were piled up in a large dusty heap in the corner of the room. There was a place on the bureau and windowsill for elegant little things and scraps of paper.

Gradually, Plyushkin’s soul began to empty, his feelings became dull. And the house, this “decrepit invalid,” as if sensing the state of the owner, also began to change: Plyushkin’s soul closed, and almost all the windows in the house closed, leaving only two windows that could be opened. The rest were shuttered or boarded up. The roof of the house was leaky, the wooden fence and gate were covered with mold. And the garden near the house was neglected and disorderly, although it amazed with some of its picturesqueness, which neither nature nor art could invent.

And the peasant village was also in terrible desolation: houses were falling apart, roads were crumbling, the lordly property was rotting between the huts. Many houses had no glass and the roofs were full of holes. Yes, there was the “abomination of desolation” everywhere, but it was very harmonious - everything was dull, decrepit and hopeless.

The eldest daughter, who had once fled from the estate, tried to improve relations with her father, but he did not need this: it distracted him from increasing his wealth. When his daughter arrived, Plyushkin made do with “small losses”: he gave his grandson a button, an irreplaceable item in the household. He took his daughter’s gifts without much gratitude. Didn't give me any money. And he refused money to his son, thereby ending all relationships. And so it went. Gradually, guests and buyers stopped coming to Plyushkin, and he was left completely alone. But this was only to his advantage: he did not have to feed other people’s horses.

Plyushkin is very similar to another hero from classical literature– Judushka Golovlev Saltykov – Shchedrin. In both cases - boundless indifference to others and monstrous stinginess. Both names have long become household names. Only Plyushkin, unlike Judushka, does not “babble” and does not try to provide some kind of philosophical basis for everything.

Plyushkin, the richest landowner, lives in poverty: he has many souls, but dines “worse than a shepherd.” They say that poverty is not a way of life, but a state of mind. Maybe old age, insensitive and inhuman, according to Gogol, is to blame for this. Or maybe something completely different.

Essay 3

Stepan Plyushkin is one of the characters in Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”.

The author said little about Plyushkin’s past. It is known that he was married and had three children: two daughters and a son. He had a prosperous, beautiful estate. Plyushkin is the richest man among the people in the poem. Balls were often held in his house, and he himself was an example for others in housekeeping. Plyushkin approached this matter with intelligence and enviable intelligent economy.

But after the death of his wife, this man began to change greatly for the worse. His shallow feelings began to take on a negative character. Plyushkin's thriftiness turned into terrible stinginess. He completely abandoned his estate. His peasants starve all the time and die from it. Someone escapes, but still dies in prison. Stepan Plyushkin always thinks that they are stealing his things and constantly accuses them of this. The estate has not been renovated for a very long time. Due to weather conditions, his house took on an unkempt and abandoned appearance. It seemed like no one lived there. The hay and bread, which he had saved for some reason, were rotting. The inside of the house was a mess: old broken things that Plyushkin did not throw away were mixed with old furniture and garbage. The rooms were dark except for his room. With all this, this man still remained the richest among all: he had about a thousand working people.

In the poem he was in his seventh decade. When Chichikov came to him, from afar he did not even understand who was coming to him. Plyushkin looked like a sexless creature: it was not clear whether he was a man or a woman. There was a feeling that a servant was heading towards him, but it turned out to be the owner of the estate himself - Plyushkin. He was dressed in rags. The robe no longer looked like clothing, but like some kind of rag. The sleeves were completely saturated with grease. The owner himself seemed to have not washed for a long time and had forgotten what hygiene was in general. He had coarse white hair. His face did not express any feelings. He had a protruding chin, which he spat on when he spoke.

Plyushkin did not like guests. He broke off relations with his children a long time ago. The son fled to the army (who was later cursed by his father), one daughter died, and the other rushed to get married. He didn't help them in any way.

And once upon a time they envied Stepan Plyushkin. His estate prospered and he was a diligent family man.

Essay Image and characteristics of Plyushkin

Images of landowners play a key role in N.V.’s poem. Gogol "Dead Souls". Each landowner is unique and represents a distinct personality type. In fact, all landowners of that time can be divided into these types. Important features for characterizing a particular hero are his house, estate and reaction to Chichikov’s unusual proposal to sell dead peasants.

The motley gallery of gentlemen is terrifying with unpleasant character traits. It’s as if the author deliberately arranged a series of landowners according to the principle: one is more vulgar than the other. It begins with the “sugar” Manilov, whose estate draws us in along with the main character. And it ends with a “hole in humanity” - Plyushkin. Greedy and base, he strikes the reader the most. Even the men from the neighboring neighborhoods, from whom Chichikov learns the way to the estate, call the last master “patched.”

The village through which the road leads to the manor house amazes those passing by with its squalor and poverty. Dilapidated peasant huts, impoverished lands and dirty yards. The manor's estate does not look like a living space. Rather, it resembles an ancient castle, entwined with cobwebs, which people abandoned long ago. Although there is evidence that once both the house and the household were strong, and the owner was prosperous.

Chichikov drives into the yard and notices either a woman or a man arguing with the driver. The hero, who decides that it is the housekeeper, asks whether the owner is at home. A sexless creature is surprised by the arrival stranger and escorts him to the room.

Chichikov is stunned by the chaos inside. It’s as if all the trash and unnecessary things from all over the area were brought here. And, indeed, it turns out that Plyushkin collects various unnecessary items on the street and stores them on the floor. It could be a bucket left behind by someone, broken dishes or a feather. The hero experiences no less shock when he realizes that he was met not by the housekeeper, but by the landowner - the owner of the house.

The master was dressed in a greasy, worn-out robe, all full of holes, and there were scraps of rags around his neck. Small eyes ran around, as if boring into the interlocutor. The hero was wary, suspicious, restless. If you don’t know that he is a wealthy landowner, then on the street you might mistake him for a beggar. The reader feels horror and pity for the hero.

Plyushkin can be considered the most prescribed image of all the landowners. Because it the only hero with a history, a kind of biography. Once upon a time it was good landowner, a thrifty owner and a wonderful family man. Everything was in its place. His ability to save money was enviable. People from neighboring estates came to him to learn how to farm. But everything changed when the hero lost his wife. And the children left the house in an impartial manner, without their father’s blessing.

Stinginess grew every year until it replaced all the master’s feelings. The household began to become empty because the hero was skimping on money for absolutely everything. Greed took over him.

The character rejoices at the opportunity to receive money for dead peasants. And he doesn’t even know about the legality of the transaction. In gratitude, he even treats Chichikov to some crackers left over from the Easter cake his daughter brought. And a shot of liquor, diluted more than once. For him, this is great generosity and a sign of special favor.

After meeting this hero, the reader is left with an unpleasant aftertaste. On the one hand, he evokes pity. On the other hand, disgust.

Option 5

In his satirical work The author shows us “dead souls”; there are many landowners who live in different villages.

Most bright image for me this is Plyushkin, who, because of his pity, lost all his human qualities. All of Plyushkin’s property makes a bad impression. He was fine village houses. After all, the logs from which the houses were built were already rotten, some houses had no glass, and there was nothing left to do but cover them with rags.

Plyushkin's house also looked very miserable, although he was not a poor man. Inside the house it was unclear what could be said - a trash can: scribbled papers were lying around, there was a glass filled with something, and there were already a bunch of flies floating in it, some strange rags were lying on the floor. Based on this, you might think that no one lives there.

The owner of the house, Plyushkin, looks like his home. The face is ordinary, and the small eyes move like those of a mouse. He is dressed very poorly, and his clothes are dirty; it is unclear what he is wearing at all. Looking at his clothes, it is difficult to determine whether he is a man or a woman. Plyushkin looks like a man who asks for alms. There were times when he was a very good owner, he had everything: family, children, and other people’s respect for himself.

All the neighbors happily came to visit Plyushkin. But after his wife died, he changed dramatically. He became greedy, suspicious, and anxious. His eldest daughter married, secretly from her father, a military man, and went to live in another city. A youngest daughter died.

Image of Plyushkin On Plyushkin’s estate, what is most striking is the dilapidation and devastation. According to Gogol's description, Plyushkin's estate takes on an ominous character, and shivers involuntarily run down your spine. When I read chapter 6, I had a feeling that some kind of disaster had happened on Plyushkin’s estate. Gogol emphasizes desolation and the spirit of death, and about Plyushkin’s room: “It was impossible to say that in this room there lived Living being..." The picture of an “extinct place” is completed by a “giant castle” hanging on the usually “tightly locked” main gate. What can you say about Landowner Plyushkin? To begin with, even Chichikov, who was a good psychologist, could not distinguish the gender of “some figure”, which turned out to be Plyushkin. Plyushkin's story is very sad. “But there was a time when he was a thrifty owner! He was married and a family man,” the author begins the story of Plyushkin with these words. “Everything flowed lively and happened at a measured pace.” But because of the death of the mistress, Plyushkin became stingier and more suspicious. And so, gradually, his relatives and friends left his home for various reasons. “Lonely life has provided satisfying food for stinginess, which, as you know, has a ravenous hunger and the more it devours, the more insatiable it becomes. All good feelings Plyushkina was replaced by stinginess, devastation and suspicion. Because of his constant petty thefts from his own subjects, almost all the peasants turned away from him. Plyushkin had food supplies for more than 2 times his estate, but he still kept them under lock and key. All these food supplies rotted. Even when Chichikov, in Plyushkin’s opinion, Practical gives him money just like that, and for the big stingy Plyushkin it should be just a furor of happiness, he can’t even be happy. There was no feeling of joy on his face, but just a reflection. This shows us Plyushkin’s “Dead Soul”, because even the language does not dare to call it alive.

Image of Chichikov

Each chapter expands our understanding of Chichikov’s capabilities and leads us to think about his amazing variability: with Manilov he is cloyingly amiable, with Korobochka he is petty, persistent and rude, with Nozdryov he is assertive and cowardly, with Sobakevich he bargains insidiously and relentlessly, Plyushkina conquers with his "magnanimity". In Chichikov’s character there is Manilov’s love for a phrase, for a “noble” gesture, and Korobochka’s petty stinginess, and Nozdryov’s narcissism, and the rude tight-fistedness, the cold cynicism of Sobakevich, and Plyushkin’s hoarding. It is easy for Chichikov to turn out to be a mirror of any of these interlocutors, because he has all the qualities that form the basis of their characters. And this “versatility” of Chichikov, his kinship with the “dead souls of the landowners” allows us to make him the main character of the poem. The characteristics of Chichikov are given by the author in the first chapter. His portrait is given very vaguely: “not handsome, but not bad-looking, neither too thick nor too thin; One cannot say that he is old, but not that he is too young. Gogol pays more attention to his manners: he made an excellent impression on all the guests at the governor’s party, showed himself to be an experienced socialite, maintaining a conversation on a variety of topics, skillfully flattered the governor, the police chief, and officials and formed the most flattering opinion of himself. Gogol himself tells us that he did not take a “virtuous man” as his hero; he immediately stipulates that his hero is a scoundrel. "Dark and humble origins of our hero." The author tells us that his parents were nobles, but whether they were nobles or private - God knows. Chichikov's face did not resemble his parents. As a child, he had neither a friend nor a comrade. His father was ill, and the windows of the small little house did not open in winter or summer. Gogol says about Chichikov: “At the beginning, life looked at him somehow sourly and unpleasantly, through some cloudy, snow-covered window...” “But in life everything changes quickly and vividly...” Father brought Pavel to the city and instructed him to go to classes. Of the money his father gave him, he did not spend a penny, but rather added to it. He learned to speculate from childhood. Having left school, he immediately got down to business and service. Through speculation, he was able to get his boss to give him a promotion. After the arrival of the new boss, Chichikov moved to another city and began serving at customs, which was his dream. “Of the orders, by the way, he received one thing: to work for the inclusion of several hundred peasants in the guardianship council.” And then the idea came to his mind to carry out one little business, which is discussed in the poem.

A brief description of Plyushkin in the work “Dead Souls” is a realistic description of the old landowner, his character and way of life. The fact is that this character is presented by the author in an unusual manner for him - without humor.

Stepan Plyushkin is one of the landowners in the poem by N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls". This is one of the most significant and deep characters not only of the mentioned work, but of the entire Russian literature generally.

The hero first appears in the sixth chapter, when he comes to the landowner to buy “dead souls” from him.

The image and characteristics of Plyushkin in the poem “Dead Souls”

The landowner is incredibly stingy and unkind.

The hero symbolizes spiritual collapse strong man, drowned in the vice of boundless stinginess, bordering on cruelty: a huge amount of food is stored in the landowner’s barns, which no one is allowed to take, as a result of which the peasants go hungry, and supplies are lost as unnecessary.

Plyushkin is quite rich, he has a whole thousand serfs on his account. However, despite this, the old man lives like a beggar, eating crackers and dressing in rags.

Symbolism of the surname

Like most characters in Gogol's works, Plyushkin's surname is symbolic. With the help of contrast or synonymy of the surname in relation to the character of the corresponding character, the author reveals certain features of a given personality.

The meaning of the surname Plyushkina symbolizes an unusually stingy and greedy person, whose goal is to accumulate material wealth without specific purpose their applications. As a result, the collected wealth is not spent anywhere or is used in minimal quantities.

It is noteworthy that Plyushkin’s name practically does not appear in the text of the work. In this way, the author shows the hero’s callousness, detachment, and the absence in him of even a hint of humanity.

The fact that the landowner's name is Stepan can be learned from his words about his daughter, whom he calls by her patronymic. By the way, ordinary men from other estates did not know such a surname at all, calling the landowner by the nickname “patched.”

Plyushkin family

This character is the only one of all the landowners who has enough detailed biography. The hero's life story is very sad.

In the plot narration, Plyushkin appears before us as a completely lonely person leading a hermit’s lifestyle. The wife who inspired him to show the best human qualities and made his life meaningful has long since left this world.

In their marriage they had three children, whom their father raised very carefully and with great care. great love. During the years of family happiness, Plyushkin was completely different from his current self. At that time, he often invited guests to his house, knew how to enjoy life, and had a reputation as an open and friendly person.

Of course, Plyushkin was always very economical, but his stinginess always had reasonable limits and was not so reckless. His clothes, although not sparkling with newness, still looked neat, without a single patch.

After the death of his wife, the hero changed a lot: he became extremely distrustful and very stingy. The last straw that hardened Plyushkin’s temper was new problems in the family: his son lost a large amount playing cards, the eldest daughter ran away from home, and the youngest died.

Surprisingly, glimmers of light sometimes illuminate the dark recesses of the dead soul of the landowner. Having sold his “souls” to Chichikov and reflecting on the issue of drawing up a deed of sale, Plyushkin remembers his school friend. At this moment, a faint reflection of feeling appeared on the old man’s wooden face.

This fleeting manifestation of life, according to the author, speaks of the possibility of the revival of the hero’s soul, in which, as if in twilight, the dark and light sides mixed with each other.

Description of the portrait and first impression of Plyushkin

When meeting Plyushkin, Chichikov first mistakes him for the housekeeper.

After talking with the landowner, main character realizes with horror that he was mistaken.

In his opinion, the old man looks more like a beggar than a rich owner of the estate.

All of him appearance, like this: a long chin covered with a scarf; small, colorless, mobile eyes; a dirty, patched robe indicates that the hero has completely lost touch with life.

Appearance and condition of the suit

Plyushkin's face is very elongated and at the same time is distinguished by excessive thinness. The landowner never shave, and his beard began to look like a horse comb. Plyushkin has no teeth left at all.

The hero’s clothes can hardly be called such; they look more like old rags - the clothes look so worn and unkempt. At the time of the story, the landowner is about 60 years old.

The character, demeanor and speech of the landowner

Plyushkin is a man with a difficult character. Probably, the negative traits that manifested themselves so clearly in him in his old age also existed in previous years, but their such pronounced appearance was smoothed out by family well-being.

But after the death of his wife and daughter, Plyushkin finally broke away from life, became spiritually impoverished, and began to treat everyone with suspicion and hostility. The landowner experienced such an attitude not only towards strangers, but also towards relatives.

By the age of 60, Plyushkin had become very unpleasant due to his difficult character. Those around him began to avoid him, his friends visited him less and less, and then completely stopped all communication with him.

Plyushkin’s speech is abrupt, laconic, caustic, loaded with colloquial expressions, for example: “poditka, they beat, ehva!, actor, already, podtibrila.”

The landowner is able to notice any little things and even the most insignificant errors and shortcomings. In this regard, he often finds fault with people, expressing his comments by shouting and cursing.

Plyushkin is not capable of good deeds, he became insensitive, distrustful and cruel. He doesn’t even care about the fate of his own children, and the old man suppresses his daughter’s attempts to establish a relationship with him in every possible way. In his opinion, his daughter and son-in-law are trying to get closer to him in order to get material benefits from him.

It is noteworthy that Plyushkin absolutely does not understand the true consequences of his actions. He actually fancies himself a caring landowner, although, in fact, he is a tyrant, an incredible miser and a stingy man, a rude and grumpy old man who destroys the destinies of the people around him.

Favorite activities

The joy in Plyushkin's life consists of only two things - constant scandals and the accumulation of material wealth.

The landowner likes to spend time in all alone. He sees no point in receiving guests or acting as such. For him, this is just a waste of time that can be spent on more useful activities.

Despite large financial savings, the landowner leads an ascetic lifestyle, denying literally everything not only to relatives, servants and peasants, but also to himself.

Another favorite hobby Plyushkina - to grumble and become poor. He believes that the supplies stored in his barns are not enough, there is not enough land and there is not even enough hay. In fact, the situation is completely opposite - there is plenty of land, and the amount of reserves is so huge that they spoil right in the storage facilities.

Plyushkin loves to create scandals for any reason, even if it is an insignificant trifle. The landowner is always dissatisfied with something and demonstrates it in the most rude and unsightly form. A picky old man is very difficult to please.

Attitude to the economy

Plyushkin is a rich but very stingy landowner. However, despite the huge reserves, it seems to him that they are not enough. As a result, a huge number of unused products become unusable without leaving the storage facility.

Having a large fortune at his disposal, including 1000 serfs, Plyushkin eats crackers and wears rags - in a word, he lives like a beggar. The landowner has not been monitoring what is going on on his farm for many years, but at the same time he does not forget to control the amount of liquor in the decanter.

Plyushkin's life goals

In short, the landowner has no specific goal in life. Plyushkin is completely absorbed in the process of accumulating material resources without a specific purpose for their use.

House and interior of rooms

Plyushkin's estate reflects the spiritual desolation of the character himself. The buildings in the villages are very old, dilapidated, the roofs have long since become leaky, the windows are clogged with rags. There is devastation and emptiness all around. Even the churches look lifeless.

The estate seems to be falling apart, which indicates that the hero has fallen out of real life: instead of the main things, the focus of his attention is on empty and meaningless tasks. It’s not for nothing that this character is practically devoid of a name and patronymic - it’s as if he doesn’t exist.

The Plyushkin estate is striking in its appearance - the building is in a terrible, dilapidated condition. From the street, the house looks like an abandoned building in which no one has lived for a long time. It’s very uncomfortable inside the building – it’s cold and dark all around. Natural light enters only one room – the owner’s room.

The whole house is littered with junk, which is becoming more and more every year - Plyushkin never throws away broken or unnecessary things, because he thinks that they can still be useful.

The landowner's office is also in complete disarray. The appearance of the room embodies real chaos. There is a chair that cannot be repaired, as well as a clock that has stopped long ago. In the corner of the room there is a dump - in the shapeless heap you can see an old shoe and a broken shovel.

Attitude towards others

Plyushkin is a picky, scandalous person. Even the most insignificant reason is enough for him to start a quarrel. The hero shows his dissatisfaction in the most unsightly way, stooping to rudeness and insults.

The landowner himself is completely confident that he is behaving caringly and kindly, but people simply do not notice or appreciate this, because they are biased towards him.

Probably due to the fact that his son once lost at cards and did not return home, Plyushkin is prejudiced towards officers, considering them all to be spendthrifts and gamblers.

Plyushkin's attitude towards the peasants

Plyushkin treats the peasants cruelly and irresponsibly. The appearance, clothing and dwellings of the serfs look almost the same as those of the owner. They themselves walk around half-starved, skinny, exhausted. From time to time, escapes occur among the peasants - Plyushkin's existence as a serf looks less attractive than life on the run.

The landowner speaks negatively about his serfs - in his opinion, they are all quitters and slackers. In fact, the peasants work honestly and diligently. It seems to Plyushkin that the serfs are robbing him and doing their work very poorly.

But in reality, things are different: the landowner intimidated his peasants so much that, despite the cold and hunger, they under no circumstances dare to take anything from the master’s storehouse.

Did Plyushkin sell Dead Souls to Chichikov?

The landowner sells about two hundred “souls” to the main character. This number exceeds the number of “peasants” that Chichikov purchased from other sellers. This traces Plyushkin’s desire for profit and accumulation. When entering into a deal, the hero understands perfectly well what it is and what profit he can get for it.

Quoted description of Plyushkin

Plyushkin's age	“... I’m living in my seventh decade!...”
First impression	“... For a long time he could not recognize what gender the figure was: a woman or a man. The dress she was wearing was completely indefinite, very similar to a woman’s hood, on her head was a cap, like that worn by village courtyard women, only one voice seemed to him somewhat hoarse for a woman ... " “...Oh, woman! Oh, No! […] Of course, woman! ..." (Chichikov about P.’s appearance) “... Judging by the keys hanging from her belt and the fact that she scolded the man with rather obscene words, Chichikov concluded that this was probably the housekeeper...”
Appearance	“... it was more like a housekeeper than a housekeeper: […] his entire chin with the lower part of his cheek looked like a comb made of iron wire, the kind they use to clean horses in a stable...” “... he [Chichikov] has never seen anything like this before. His face was nothing special; it was almost the same as that of many thin old men, one chin only protruded very far forward, so that he had to cover it with a handkerchief every time so as not to spit; the small eyes had not yet gone out and ran from under the high eyebrows like mice..." “...Plyushkin muttered something through his lips, because he had no teeth...”
Cloth	“... His outfit was much more remarkable: no amount of effort or effort could have been used to find out what his robe was made of: the sleeves and upper flaps were so greasy and shiny that they looked like yuft*, the kind that goes into boots; in the back, instead of two, there were four floors dangling, from which cotton paper came out in flakes. He also had something tied around his neck that could not be made out: a stocking, a garter, or a belly, but not a tie...” “... if Chichikov had met him, so dressed up, somewhere at the church door, he would probably have given him a copper penny. But standing before him was not a beggar, standing before him was a landowner...”
Personality and character	“... has eight hundred souls, but lives and dines worse than my shepherd!...” “... Fraudster […] Such a miser that it is difficult to imagine. In prison, convicts live better than he: he starved all the people to death...” (Sobakevich about P.) “... human feelings, which were not deep in him anyway, became shallow every minute, and every day something was lost in this worn-out ruin...” “... the miser Plyushkin […] the fact that he feeds people poorly?..” “... he really has people dying in large numbers? ..." (Chichikov) “... I don’t even advise you to know the way to this dog! - said Sobakevich. “It’s better to go to some obscene place than to go to him...” “...does not like officers due to a strange prejudice, as if all military gamblers and money-makers...” “... Every year the windows in his house were closed, finally only two remained...” “... every year […] his small gaze turned to the pieces of paper and feathers that he collected in his room...” “... he became more unyielding to the buyers who came to take away his household goods...” “... this is a demon, not a person...” (customers’ opinion about P.) “... the words “virtue” and “rare qualities of the soul” can be successfully replaced with the words “economy” and “order” ...” (Chichikov about P.)
Plyushkin's house	“... This strange castle looked like some kind of decrepit invalid, long, prohibitively long...” “... a house that now seemed even sadder. Green mold has already covered the dilapidated wood on the fence and gates..." “... The walls of the house were cracked in places by the bare plaster lattice and, as you can see, they suffered a lot from all sorts of bad weather, rains, whirlwinds and autumn changes. Only two of the windows were open, the others were covered with shutters or even boarded up...” “... my kitchen is low, very nasty, and the chimney has completely collapsed: if you start heating, you’ll start a fire...”
Plyushkin's room	“... he finally found himself in the light and was amazed at the chaos that appeared. It seemed as if the floors were being washed in the house and all the furniture had been piled here for a while...” (Chichikov’s impression) “...It would have been impossible to say that there was a living creature living in this room if his presence had not been announced by the old, worn cap lying on the table...”
Village and Plyushkin's estate	“... He noticed some special disrepair in all the village buildings: the logs on the huts were dark and old; many roofs were leaky like a sieve; on others there was only a ridge at the top and poles on the sides in the form of ribs..." “... The windows in the huts were without glass, others were covered with a rag or a zipun; balconies under roofs with railings […] are askew and blackened, not even picturesquely…” “... A crowd of buildings: human buildings, barns, cellars, apparently dilapidated, filled the courtyard; near them, to the right and left, gates to other courtyards were visible. Everything said that farming had once taken place here on an extensive scale, and everything now looked gloomy. Nothing was noticeable to enliven the picture: no doors opening, no people coming out from somewhere, no living troubles and worries at home!
Peasants of Plyushkin	“... Meanwhile, on the farm, income was collected as before: a man had to bring the same amount of rent, every woman was obliged to bring the same amount of nuts; the weaver had to weave the same number of pieces of canvas - it all fell into the storerooms, and everything became rotten and a hole, and he himself finally turned into some kind of hole in humanity ... " “... After all, my people are either a thief or a swindler: they will steal so much in a day that there will be nothing to hang a caftan on...” (P. about his peasants)
Plyushkin about the past	“... But there was a time when he was just a thrifty owner! he was married and a family man, and a neighbor came to him for lunch, to listen and learn from him about housekeeping and wise stinginess...” “... The owner himself came to the table in a frock coat, although somewhat worn, but neat, the elbows were in order: there was no patch anywhere...” (Plyushkin in the past) “... two pretty daughters […] son, a broken boy...” «… kind housewife died..." (about Plyushkin's wife)
Plyushkin's greed	“... Plyushkin became more restless and, like all widowers, more suspicious and stingy. […] The owner’s stinginess began to be more noticeable […] Finally last daughter[…] died, and the old man found himself alone as a watchman, guardian and owner of his wealth...” “... Why would Plyushkin seem to need such a destruction of such products? in his entire life he would not have had to use it even for two such estates as he had, but even this seemed not enough to him...” “... the hay and bread rotted, the luggage and stacks turned into pure manure, even if you planted cabbage on them, the flour in the cellars turned into stone, and it was necessary to chop it, it was scary to touch cloth, linens and household materials: they turned to dust. He had already forgotten how much he had...

Conclusion

The image of Plyushkin and the characteristics of his essence serve illustrative example to how much a person can sink morally and physically. It is no coincidence that the author calls this hero “a hole in humanity.”

Plyushkin is not interested in spiritual development his personality, he is indifferent to his own inner world. The landowner is characterized by pettiness, stinginess and complete absence deep feelings. There is no shame, no conscience, no sympathy in him.

The name Plyushkina became a household name. It denotes pathological greed, pettiness and stinginess. IN modern world the so-called “Plyushkin syndrome” occurs quite often and characterizes those people who strive for the aimless accumulation of material resources.

The hero's surname has become a household name for centuries. Even someone who has not read the poem represents a stingy person.

The image and characterization of Plyushkin in the poem “Dead Souls” is a character deprived of human traits, who has lost the meaning of the appearance of his light.

Character appearance

The landowner is over 60 years old. He is old, but he cannot be called weak and sick. How does the author describe Plyushkina? Stingily, like himself:

• An incomprehensible floor hidden under strange rags. Chichikov takes a long time to figure out who is in front of him: a man or a woman.
• Hard White hair, sticking out like a brush.
• An insensitive and vulgar face.
• The hero’s clothing evokes disgust, one is ashamed to look at it, ashamed of a person dressed in something like a robe.

Relationships with people

Stepan Plyushkin reproaches his peasants for theft. There is no reason for this. They know their owner and understand that there is nothing left to take from the estate. Everything has been tidied up at Plyushkin's, rotting and deteriorating. Reserves are accumulating, but no one is going to use them. A lot of things: wood, dishes, rags. Gradually, the reserves turn into a pile of dirt and scrap. The heap can be compared to the trash heap collected by the owner of the manor's house. There is no truth in the landowner's words. People don't have time to steal and become a swindler. Due to unbearable living conditions, stinginess and hunger, men run away or die.

In relationships with people, Plyushkin is angry and grumpy:

Likes to argue. He quarrels with men, argues, and never immediately accepts the words spoken to him. He scolds for a long time, talks about the absurd behavior of his interlocutor, although he is silent in response.

Plyushkin believes in God. He blesses those who leave him on their journey, he is afraid of God’s judgment.

Hypocritical. Plyushkin tries to pretend to care. In fact, it all ends in hypocritical actions. The gentleman enters the kitchen, he wants to check if the courtiers are eating him, but instead he eats most cooked. Whether people have enough cabbage soup and porridge is of little interest to him, the main thing is that he is full.

Plyushkin does not like communication. He avoids guests. Having calculated how much his household loses when receiving them, he begins to stay away and abandons the custom of visiting guests and hosting them. He himself explains that his acquaintances fell out of touch or died, but what is more likely is that no one simply wanted to visit such a greedy person.

Character of the hero

Plyushkin is a character who is difficult to find positive features. He is completely permeated with lies, stinginess and sloppiness.

What traits can be identified in the character’s character:

Incorrect self-esteem. Behind the outward good nature lies greed and constant desire profit.

The desire to hide your condition from others. Plyushkin becomes poor. He says he has no food when barns full of grain rot for years. He complains to the guest that he has little land and no patch of hay for the horses, but this is all a lie.

Cruelty and indifference. Nothing changes the mood of the stingy landowner. He does not experience joy, despair. Only cruelty and an empty, callous look are all that the character is capable of.

Suspicion and anxiety. These feelings develop in him at breakneck speed. He begins to suspect everyone of stealing and loses his sense of self-control. Stinginess occupies his entire essence.

Main distinguishing feature- this is stinginess. The curmudgeon Stepan Plyushkin is such that it is difficult to imagine unless you meet him in reality. Stinginess manifests itself in everything: clothes, food, feelings, emotions. Nothing in Plyushkin is fully manifested. Everything is hidden and hidden. The landowner saves money, but for what? Just to collect them. He does not spend either for himself, or for his relatives, or on the household. The author says that the money was buried in boxes. This attitude towards a means of enrichment is amazing. Only the miser from the poem can live from hand to mouth on sacks of grain, having thousands of serf souls and vast areas of land. The scary thing is that there are many such Plyushkins in Russia.

Attitude towards relatives

The landowner does not change in relation to his relatives. He has a son and a daughter. The author says that in the future his son-in-law and daughter will happily bury him. The hero's indifference is frightening. The son asks his father to give him money to buy uniforms, but, as the author says, he gives him “shish.” Even the poorest parents do not abandon their children.

The son lost at cards and again turned to him for help. Instead, he received a curse. The father never, even mentally, remembered his son. He is not interested in his life, fate. Plyushkin does not think whether his offspring are alive.

A rich landowner lives like a beggar. The daughter, who came to her father for help, takes pity on him and gives him a new robe. The 800 souls of the estate surprise the author. Existence is comparable to the life of a poor shepherd.

Stepan lacks deep human feelings. As the author says, feelings, even if they had the beginnings, “diminished every minute.”

A landowner living among garbage and rubbish is no exception, a fictional character. It reflects the reality of Russian reality. Greedy misers starved their peasants, turned into semi-animals, lost their human features, and aroused pity and fear for the future.