The meaning of the silent scene in the finale of the comedy The Inspector General. Analysis of the final scene of `The Inspector General`
The comedy "The Inspector General" is one of the most famous works Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol. The author managed to show true face 19th century Russia in this play. Gogol through various means artistic expression, the speeches of the heroes, "speaking" names, ridiculed human vices, namely greed, hypocrisy, deceit, irresponsibility, stupidity. An important role in the above-mentioned exposure was played by such a device as the “silent” scene at the end of the play. What is her ideological meaning? Let's try to figure this out.
Before answering the question posed, it is worth mentioning a little about the plot of the comedy. In the city of N, where there is unrest, where everyone is chasing profit and not fulfilling their duties, an auditor must come. Mistaking him for another person, the cunning Khlestakov, the officials look after him as best they can, “loan” him money, just to leave a good impression of themselves.
At the end of the play, the heroes learn that it was not the inspector and that the real one will come soon. It was this news that caused the “Silent” scene. The most unpleasant news literally “paralyzed” the heroes. They realized that Khlestakov was still a “little flower,” and they would soon have to relive everything again, only for real. The mayor spread his arms and threw his head up, as if asking the sky: “for what?!” His wife and daughter rushed to him, seeking protection. Strawberry tilted his head to the side, listening to something. This cunning man, as it turns out, never succumbs to insane panic. On the contrary, he is thinking about how he can get away with it in this moment. Lyapkin-Tyapkin made a movement with his lips, as if he wanted to say: “here’s Yury’s day for you, grandma.” He was very scared. Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky rushed to each other, counting on support.
The ideological meaning of the “silent” scene is to show without replicas the whole essence of the characters, their vices, fears, character. After all, it is in an extreme situation that a person takes off his mask and reveals his true face. Gogol succeeded in this. Moreover, he managed to expand the boundaries of comedy, turning it from social to moral and philosophical. So, with the help of a small element, Gogol reminded everyone that sooner or later they would still have to answer for their actions.
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The silent scene gave rise to a wide variety of opinions in the literature about Gogol. Belinsky, without entering detailed analysis scene, emphasized its organic nature for general plan: it “excellently closes the whole of the play.”
In academic literary criticism, the emphasis was sometimes placed on the political subtext of the silent scene. For N. Kotlyarevsky, for example, this is “an apology for the government’s vigilant power”: “The non-commissioned officer, who forces the head of the city and all senior officials to petrify and turn into idols, is a clear example of the author’s good thoughts.”
According to V. Gippius, the silent scene also expresses the idea of power and law, but interpreted in a unique way: “To realistically typified images of local authorities... it<Гоголь>opposed the bare abstract idea of power, which involuntarily led to even greater generalization, to the idea of retribution."
A. Voronsky, relying on the conclusions of Andrei Bely (in the book “Gogol’s Mastery”) about the gradual “killing of gesture” of Gogol’s heroes, considers the silent scene a symbolic expression of this killing: “All this happened because the living people of “Evenings”, cheerful couples, girls... gave way to mannequins and puppets, “living corpses”.
According to M. Khrapchenko, the appearance of the gendarme and the silent scene represent an “external denouement.” “The true denouement of the comedy is contained in the monologue of the Governor, in his angry statements addressed to himself, to the clickers, paper scribblers, in his sarcastic words: “Why are you laughing? You’re laughing at yourself!..” The episode with the gendarme is just a mechanical appendage to the play.
B. Ermilov, on the contrary, is convinced of the psychological plausibility of the comedy’s ending. “The “psychological” reason for stupefaction characters at the end of the comedy
It’s clear: having gone through so much worry and trouble, we need to start all over again, but the new auditor may just be a specially authorized person; and he will probably know scandalous story with a false auditor. But this, of course, is not the meaning of the amazing finale. Before us is a parade of carved meanness and vulgarity, frozen in amazement at the abyss of its own stupidity that shook it.”
It would be possible to enlarge the summary of various statements about the silent stage. But basically they all come down to the points of view mentioned above.
How did Gogol himself interpret the silent scene? We do not know what he said about this before the presentation of The Inspector General. After the performance, the writer emphasized many times that the silent scene expresses the idea of “the law,” upon the advent of which everything “turned pale and shook” (draft edition of “Theater Travel ...”). In the final text of “Theatrical Travel...” “the second lover of the arts,” closest to Gogol in his views (for example, he made statements about Aristophanes, about “ social comedy"), says that the denouement of the play should remind of justice, of the duty of the government: "God grant that the government always and everywhere hears its calling - to be the representative of providence on earth - and that we believe in it, as the ancients believed in the fate that overtook crimes."
We have no reason to doubt Gogol’s sincerity, that is, that the idea of the law, of the government protecting justice, was actually associated by him with the ending of the comedy. G. Gukovsky is inaccurate, believing that the author's commentary on the silent scene arose in the 40s, when the writer “slipped... into reaction.” The sketch of “Theatrical Travel...” was made shortly after the premiere of the comedy, and yet Gogol’s interpretation of the ending is mainly expressed here.
But the whole point is that this is nothing more than a conceptual formulation of one idea. This is the so-called “key”, which is usually used to replace a complete reading of an artistic work. But Gogol, in the second edition of The Inspector General’s Denouement, puts the following remark into the mouth of the first comedian: “The author did not give me the key... The comedy would then have strayed into allegory.” The silent scene is not an allegory. This is an element of the figurative thought of “The Inspector General,” and as such it provides an outlet for a complex and holistic artistic perception of the world. In short, the task is to read the ending of The Inspector General as an expression of artistic thought.
Some elements of such a reading are outlined in the above explanations of the silent scene. Attention is drawn to the fact that the “idea of power” is expressed in the finale abstractly as opposed to the full-blooded concreteness - everyday, psychological, social - of the entire play. More precisely, Gogol outlines some specificity, but brings it to a certain point. The tendency towards specification is clearly revealed creative history final remark. In the first draft version: “The arriving official demands the Mayor and all the officials to come to him.” In the final version: “Arrived by personal order from St. Petersburg the official demands you this very hour to yourself". The new auditor is somewhat more specific and rises in rank. The authorities that sent him are clearly defined: Petersburg and the Tsar. A hint is given of the urgency of the matter and, perhaps, the anger of the arriving auditor. But Gogol does not go further. There is no information about what the auditor will do and what the officials will face.
The “second lover of the arts” said that the silent stage should make contemporaries believe in the government, “as the ancients believed in fate...”. This is reminiscent of Vyazemsky’s poisonous remark: “In our comedies, the authorities often take the place of fate in ancient tragedies.” The reason for such a remark was the finale of Fonvizin’s “Minor”, where through the mouth positive character(Pravdina) is communicated to the vicious characters (Prostakov): “In the name of the government, I order you this very hour to gather your people and peasants to announce to them a decree that for the inhumanity of your wife, to which your extreme weakness of mind allowed her, the government commands me to take custody of your house and villages."
But the fact of the matter is that the ending of “The Inspector General” does not report any specific measures, or punishment in the literal legal-administrative sense of the word.
This kind of misunderstanding - characteristic property Gogol's artistic thought. “Depict for us our honest one, straight man“- Gogol called in “The Petersburg Stage...” and he himself attempted this task more than once. But until the second volume of Dead Souls, he portrayed “our honest, straightforward man” (in modern times) only on the threshold - or on the threshold of an honest deed, like a certain “very modestly dressed man” in “ Theater crossing...", or even on the threshold conscious life: “She’s like a child now,” Chichikov thinks about the governor’s daughter... From her everything can be done she can be a miracle, or she can turn out to be rubbish, and she will turn out to be rubbish! Gogol’s thought in “The Inspector General” was also interrupted mid-sentence. It is given as a hint, as an idea of what should be and what is desired, but not real and realized.
But this is not the main thing. We have already said that Russian comedy before Gogol was distinguished not so much by the triumph of justice in the finale, but by the heterogeneity of two worlds: the one exposed and the one that was implied behind the stage. A happy ending followed from the existence of " big world" It might not have existed within the scope of the stage action (for example, in “Yabed” the punishment of vice is incomplete: Pravolov is captured and imprisoned; but the officials have not yet been convicted), but it was still implied as a possibility.
Gogol does not have an ideally implied world. The intervention of a higher, just, punitive force does not follow from the heterogeneity of the worlds. It comes from outside, suddenly and at once overtakes all the characters.
Let's take a closer look at the outline of the silent stage.
In “Notes...” Gogol draws attention to the integrity and instantaneity of the characters’ actions in a silent scene. “The last word spoken should produce an electric shock at everyone at once, suddenly. The whole group must change position to one blink of an eye. The sound of amazement should escape from all women together, as if from one breast. If these notes are not observed, the entire effect may disappear.”
Let us further note that the circle of characters expands to the limit at the end of the play. A lot of people gathered to see the Governor - the extraordinary events that culminated in Khlestakov’s “matchmaking” probably aroused from their places those who, to use an expression from “Dead Souls,” had long “could not be lured out of the house...”. And then they were all struck by the terrible news about the arrival of a real auditor.
However, no matter how large the group of characters in the final scenes is, there is no “merchantism and citizenship” here. The real motivation for this is simple: they are no match for the Governor. We just gathered high circles cities. In the graphic outline of the silent scene (which was thought out to detail by Gogol) there is also a “hierarchical shade”: in the middle is the Mayor, next to him, on the right, his family; then on both sides - officials and honorable persons in the city; “other guests” - at the very edge of the stage and in the background.
In short, the silent scene graphically represents the top of the pyramid of the “prefabricated city.” The blow hit her highest point and, losing somewhat in its strength, spread to the lower “layers of the pyramid.” The pose of each character in the silent scene plastically conveys the degree of shock and the force of the blow received. There are many shades here - from the mayor frozen “in the form of a pillar with outstretched arms and his head thrown back” to the other guests who “remain just pillars.” (The character’s character and behavior during the action were also reflected in his pose; naturally, for example, Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky froze with “rushing hand movements to each other, with gaping mouths and bulging Each other eyes.")
But here on face of three ladies, guests, reflected only “the most satirical expression persons" at the address of the "Gorodnichy family". How will it feel now, my dears? - their pose seems to speak. In general, among the guests trying (in a silent scene) to “look into the face of the Governor,” there were probably those who personally had nothing to fear. But they too froze at the terrible news.
Here we come to the most important “paint” final scene, to the fact that it expresses petrification, and universal petrification. In “Excerpt from a Letter...” Gogol wrote: “... last scene will not succeed until they understand that this is just a silent picture, that all this must represent one petrified group that here the drama ends and is replaced by numb facial expressions... that all this must take place under the same conditions as required by the so-called living pictures"(In the latter case - Gogol's italics).
Petrification had a long-standing, more or less stable meaning in Gogol’s poetics. Since we will specifically talk about this in relation to Gogol’s entire work (in Chapter VII), we will now limit ourselves to just one or two examples. IN " Sorochinskaya fair“When a “terrible pig’s face” appeared in the window, “horror seized everyone in the hut. The godfather with his mouth open turned into stone.” In “The Night Before Christmas,” when a clerk was found in the bag instead of the expected scone, sausage, etc., “the godfather’s wife, dumbfounded, released her leg from her hand, by which she began to pull the clerk out of the bag.”
In both cases, petrification expresses a special, higher form of fear caused by some strange, incomprehensible event. In “Portrait” (edition of “Arabesques”) Gogol defined this feeling as follows: “Some kind of wild feeling, not fear, but that inexplicable sensation that we feel when oddities, representing disorder of nature, or better yet, some madnessnature...»
So, petrification and fear (in its special, highest form) are connected in Gogol's artistic thinking. This sheds light on the genesis of the silent scene of The Inspector General.
It is quite possible that with a silent scene the playwright wanted to lead to the idea of \u200b\u200bretribution, the triumph of state justice. This is evidenced not only by the author’s commentary on the ending, but also by the well-known concretization of the very image of a real auditor. However, he expressed this idea through the means of fear and petrification.
No, the silent scene is not an additional denouement, not an addition to the comedy. This is the last, final chord of the work. And it is very characteristic that it completes both tendencies of “The Inspector General”: on the one hand, the desire for universality and integrity, and on the other, elements of “mirage”, “mirage intrigue”.
In a silent scene, the universality of the characters’ experiences, the integrity human life receives plastic expression. The degree of shock varies - it increases along with the “guilt” of the characters, that is, their position on the hierarchical ladder. Their poses are varied - they convey all sorts of shades of character and personal properties. But a single feeling shackled everyone. This feeling is fear. Just as during the course of the play, fear entered into the most varied experiences of the characters, so now the stamp of a new, higher fear fell on the physiognomy and posture of each character, regardless of whether he was burdened with personal “guilt”, a crime, or had the opportunity to watch “satirically” on the Governor, that is, on the deeds and misdeeds of another.
Because with all the fragmentation and disintegration of people in modern life humanity, Gogol believes, is united by a single destiny, a single “face of time.”
Further. From the universality of the characters’ shock, Gogol built a bridge to the universality of the audience’s experiences. “The theater is not at all a trifle and not at all an empty thing, if you take into account the fact that a crowd of five or six thousand people can suddenly fit in it, and that all this crowd, not similar in any way, when taken apart individually, can suddenly shake with one shock, burst into tears only tears and laugh with one universal laugh"(“About the theater, about the one-sided view of the theater and about one-sidedness in general”). The universality of the reaction is a special sign of the extraordinary experience of the audience, corresponding to the significance of what is happening on stage. At the same time, this is an indication that only together people can withstand hard times, just as - on the stage - all the characters together susceptible to its harmful effects.
And here we must again pay attention to those lines that were already cited at the beginning of the analysis of “The Inspector General” - to Gogol’s review of “ Last day Pompeii". Saying that Bryullov’s painting “selects strong crises felt by the whole mass,” the writer explains: “This whole group, stopping at the moment of impact and expressing thousands of different feelings...“He has all this so powerfully, so boldly, so harmoniously combined into one, as only it could arise in the head of a universal genius.” But isn’t it also true that the silent scene of “The Inspector General” captured “the entire group” of its heroes, “stopped at the moment of impact”? Isn’t this petrification (as, according to Gogol, the petrification of Bryullov’s heroes - a kind of silent scene) a plastic expression of the “strong crisis” felt by modern humanity?
Gogol was sensitive to the tremors that shook the 19th century. He felt the alogism, illusoryness, “miracle” of contemporary life, which made the existence of mankind unstable, subject to sudden crises and catastrophes. And the silent stage formalized and concentrated these sensations.
What terrible irony is hidden in the silent scene! Gogol gave it at a time when the community of people, caused by the “auditor situation,” threatened to fall apart. With her last effort she had to hold on to this community - and she did, but instead of people, she had lifeless corpses in her power.
Gogol gave a silent scene as a hint of the triumph of justice and the establishment of harmony. And as a result, the feeling of disharmony, anxiety, and fear from this scene increased many times over. In “The Inspector General’s Denouement,” one of the characters states: “The very appearance of the gendarme, who, like some kind of executioner, appears at the door, is petrification, which is brought to everyone by his words, announcing the arrival of a real inspector who must exterminate them all, wipe them off the face of the earth, completely destroy everything It’s somehow inexplicably scary!”
In the literature about the “Inspector General,” the question is often raised: what will the Governor and others do with the advent of a new auditor? It is said that with the arrival of the gendarme everything fell into place and returned to its original position, that the Governor will conduct the arriving inspector, as he conducted them before, and that everything will remain unchanged.
It is true in these remarks that the result of Gogol's comedy is not idealization, but the exposure of the foundations public life and that, therefore, the new revision (like the previous ones) would not change anything. But still, Gogol’s artistic thought is deeper. There is no doubt that the Mayor would have deceived if he had retained the ability to deceive. But the ending does not throw the heroes back to their original positions, but, having led them through a chain of shocks, plunges them into something new. state of mind. It is too obvious that in the finale they are completely unsettled by their usual life, amazed forever, and the duration of the silent scene: “almost a minute and a half,” which Gogol insists on
Ermilov V. The genius of Gogol. M., Soviet writer, 1959. P. 301. Gukovsky G.A. Gogol's realism. P. 399. Vyazemsky P. Von-Vizin. St. Petersburg, 1848. P. 217. Wed. in Chapter IX of “Dead Souls,” when the riddle of Chichikov and the “dead souls” excited everyone: “Like a whirlwind, the hitherto dormant city, it seemed, shot up!” In “Excerpt from a letter...” even “two or three minutes.” Based on all that has been said, a parallel can be drawn between the silent scene and the depiction of the Last Judgment in medieval art. “Iconographically, the image of the Last Judgment was constructed as the last living picture of a historical action, forever stopped as the “end of the century,” therefore it often included a visible image of this very end. In the Russian icon “The Last Judgment” (15th century), in the upper right corner there are angels rolling up a scroll of heaven with the moon and sun: “And the sky disappeared, curled up like a scroll.” (Danilova I. From the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. The composition of the artistic system of Quattrocento paintings. M., Art, 1975. P. 66.) D.S. Likhachev examines another “visible image” in the composition of the Last Judgment - the image of a gigantic hand on the fresco of the Assumption Cathedral of the 12th century in Vladimir - a hand clutching babies (materialization of the biblical expression “the souls of the righteous in the hand of God”). - See: Likhachev D.S. Poetics of Old Russian Literature. L., Nauka, 1967. P. 165. But in the silent scene of “The Inspector General” there are no symbolic (more precisely, allegorical) signs - they contradict Gogol’s manner; the catastrophic nature is conveyed by the entire context, the entire execution of the “scene.” On the other hand, we can consider the silent scene as the final, sculptural image of ambivalence, in its Gogolian, complicated version (see Chapter 1 for more information): in the silent scene, the variety, subtlety of shades and lines coincides with a break in movement, a stop; This is dynamics that has turned into statics.
Yesterday I attended the play The Inspector General at the Theater. Mayakovsky.
In the role of the Mayor and his wife, the married duo of Alexander Lazarev and Svetlana Nemolyaeva.
The director added notes to the classic production modern liberty. Thus, the play opens with a scene of general intoxication among officials dressed in their underwear. They are revived by orderlies, and nurses in short skirts and pantaloons peeking out from under them first bring glasses of vodka to the sick people for their hangover, and then shave them and dress them in suits.
Further more. The postmaster is presented as playful and exalted, and if at first you take this for mannerism, then by the middle of the play there is no longer any doubt about the hero’s orientation. Continuing the theme, Khlestakov sits on the judge’s lap and asks what kind of women he likes: blondes and brunettes. And in this case, the judge’s embarrassment takes a completely different turn.
You can click on this photo to go to its page
At the mere mention of men, the Mayor’s daughter parts her fluffy skirt and shows off her trousers. And during her explanation with Khlestakov, she completely rolls around the stage: she either stands up doggy style, or lies on her back and spreads her legs in pantaloons.
The silent scene in the finale was completely unexpected decision. The final act begins with the Gorodnichy family accepting congratulations on the occasion of their daughter’s imminent wedding to Khlestakov. At the same time, the Mayor himself, his wife and daughter in elegant costumes are sitting on the stage, and behind them there is a painted decoration covering the entire wall. It depicts caricatured figures of beautifully dressed ladies and gentlemen with slits instead of faces, like in some kind of photographer’s set on the Yalta embankment, and through these slits the faces of the actors playing provincial officials are visible.
When in the finale the actors who played Khlestakov and Osip appear in uniform and announce the arrival of the inspector, the set soars up and completely naked actors appear before the eyes of the astonished audience, squealing and covering themselves with their hands. Then the lights go out, the curtain goes out. The dressed actors (the Gorodnichy family, Khlestakov and Osip) bow, and the naked ones behind the scenes quickly put on canvas rags and take a bow in them.
I won’t judge how Christian Gogol would have reacted to this production, but the audience was clearly encouraged by the ending. However, if I were the teachers who brought schoolchildren to the performance, I would be embarrassed that the students would judge Gogol’s comedy based on a rather frivolous production.
Otherwise, interesting scenery, unexpected directorial decisions, good job Alexandra Lazareva, the charm of Svetlana Nemolyaeva, the hilariously funny Khlestakov and the very colorful servant Osip - a fellow in a soldier's overcoat who commands his unlucky master.
Writes Yulia Nabokova
The comedy “The Inspector General” by N.V. Gogol at one time became one of the most innovative works dramatic art. Many of the techniques used by the author have never been used by playwrights before and have not been embodied in theater stage. Such innovative techniques include the aforementioned “silent scene”, which ends the final part of the comedy “The Inspector General”. What did the author want to achieve by concluding the work with a silent scene? What effect did you expect? It is believed that the silent scene that ends the comedy “The Inspector General” was introduced into the work by the writer under the impression of famous painting Russian artist Karl Bryullov “The Last Day of Pompeii”. It is this picture that strikes the person looking at it with the strength and expressiveness of frozen emotion. The image is motionless, static, but at the same time the faces of the people depicted in the picture, their figures, the poses they take, testify to their internal state better than any words. The eloquence of static scenes, their expressiveness - it was these properties that were subtly noticed by N.V. Gogol and later successfully used by the writer. After all, “The Inspector General” is far from the only work of the writer in which there is a “silent scene” (in another extremely popular work- the story “Viy” - the author also uses this technique). If we consider artistic techniques, used by N.V. Gogol, in more detail, one can notice a certain pattern: the technique of “death”, a kind of “petrification” is the basis for the depiction of many characteristic Gogol characters (for example, the same landowners in “ Dead souls""). In The Inspector General, the silent scene is the climax, and it should be the most eloquent. Fading in expressive pose(at the same time, the poses of all the characters are different, which emphasizes their individual personal qualities) is a real pantomime. The mayor, members of his family, the postmaster, Strawberry, Luka Lukich - all of them become mimes for some time, actors in the “theater of facial expressions and gestures”. And words are not needed here, maybe even unnecessary. Posture and facial expression can express an incomparably greater surge of emotions than words. Moreover, the silent scene in “The Inspector General” is also massive - everyone stands as if struck by thunder, and this circumstance once again emphasizes how shocking and stunning the news was for all the characters that “... an official who arrived by personal order from St. Petersburg demands you to come to him this very hour.” Gogol was the first Russian playwright to use the pause technique, which was successfully used by many directors, screenwriters and writers after him. Today, the pause technique is one of the most commonly used dramatic techniques.
Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" is an innovative work. For the first time in Russian literature, a play was created in which the social, rather than love conflict. In The Inspector General, the playwright exposed the vices Russian society, laughed at all his heroes, but it was a bitter laugh, “laughter through tears.”
The depravity of the officials of the city of N., their fear for their places, made these people blind - they mistook Khlestakov for an auditor. At the end of the play, everything seems to fall into place - Khlestakov is exposed, the officials are punished. But the real finale is yet to come - this is the last act and the famous silent comedy scene.
Excited by the news about the imaginary auditor, the officials are told that... the real auditor has arrived. In the “heat of events,” everyone had already forgotten that the real one should come, if Khlestakov was just a deceiver. And so, like thunder among clear skies, news: “The official who arrived from St. Petersburg by personal order demands you to come to him this very hour.”
This message literally paralyzes all the heroes, they petrify: “The mayor is in the middle in the form of a pillar, with outstretched arms and his head thrown back,” “The other guests remain just pillars,” “For almost a minute and a half, the petrified group maintains this position.”
We understand that it is at this moment that all officials experience real horror. The fear that they experienced under Khlestakov increased tenfold also because they need to relive everything again. And if the heroes managed to somehow prepare for the arrival of the imaginary auditor, then here complete surprise turned officials into stone statues.
In the middle, as the head of the city, the main “thief and swindler,” stands the mayor. The author indicates that he spread his arms and threw his head up. It seems as if Anton Antonovich is asking the sky: “For what? Why?" This hero considers himself no more sinful than others - after all, everyone lives the way he does. Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky’s wife and daughter rushed to the mayor, as if seeking his protection as the head of the family.
In a silent scene, in my opinion, Gogol, without the help of the characters’ replicas, was able to express their character, the essence of each character. So, meek and cowardly caretaker educational institutions Luka Lukic "got lost" in the "most innocent way" and the trustee charitable institutions Strawberry tilted his head to the side, listening to something. This cunning man does not lose his head, but “listens” to events, ponders how he can “get out of the water unscathed.” But Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin looks the most comical from the outside. He “with his arms outstretched, crouched almost to the ground and made a movement with his lips, as if he wanted to whistle or say: “Here’s to you, grandma, and St. George’s Day!” We understand that the judge was very frightened, because he knows very well that he has many sins behind him.
The figures of Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky are comical, their eyes bulging, their mouths open and, it seems, they rushed into each other’s arms, and even petrified halfway there. However, like all the remaining guests. Gogol shows us that each of them has a dirty conscience and each of them is afraid of punishment.
It is in the silent scene that the boundaries of comedy are pushed. And it develops from social into moral and philosophical. The author reminds us that sooner or later all people will have to answer for their actions, like officials in a comedy. Gogol appeals to each of us - we need to live according to our conscience, always remember our responsibility to ourselves, God, and people.
Thus, the famous “silent scene” affects the interests of all the characters in the play: in the finale, Gogol brings all the characters onto the stage, forcing them to become “petrified” within a few minutes. This technique allows the playwright to focus the viewer’s attention on the action itself, to more deeply feel the horror that the characters experienced upon learning of the arrival of the real auditor.
In addition, a silent scene allows for a variable interpretation of the comedy's ending. Had arrived a real auditor, and the city will receive its well-deserved retribution? Or maybe someone has arrived who the residents associate with heavenly punishment, which everyone fears? Or maybe it was not an auditor who arrived, but an important official traveling accompanied by a gendarme? And even if a real auditor arrived, maybe the audit will go smoothly and everything, as always, will end well?
The author himself does not give a direct answer, because the ending, in fact, is not that important. The very idea of inevitable punishment, of judgment, which everyone knows about and which everyone is afraid of, is important. Or maybe it’s worth living in such a way as not to be afraid of answering before God?