To help a schoolchild. Gogol's innovation in the comedy "The Inspector General"

N.V. Gogol is one of the key figures in the literary process of the first half of the 19th century. The second half of the century is often called the “century of prose.” It was Gogol and Pushkin who became the “father” of Russian realistic prose. Gogol is a unique author's individuality. His works have always made a special impression on readers. Dramatic works play an important role in his work.

Gogol's predecessors in Russian drama can be called Fonvizin and Griboedov. Griboedov acted as an innovator, moving away in his work from the basic principles of comedy construction (he pushed aside the love affair, introducing a social conflict developing in conjunction with it; he filled the comedy with negative characters and portrayed only one positive person, etc.).

Gogol's innovation lies in the choice of conflict, which is the basis of the work. Looking back at the works of his predecessors, Gogol comes to the conclusion that the love affair has already exhausted itself. Seeing that it became the basis of dramatic conflict too often, Gogol decides to choose a different path. He finds a new plot, more relevant for modern times: the plot of the auditor. The figure of the auditor has always been scary for city officials who live in constant fear of an audit. And it is precisely “the fear of expectation, the very horror, the thunderstorm of the law moving in the distance” (Gogol), which seizes the officials, and forms the dramatic situation in The Inspector General.

Gogol resorts to the technique of compositional inversion: the plot appears before the exposition. The action in the comedy begins instantly, with the very first phrase of the mayor: “I invited you, gentlemen, in order to tell you the most unpleasant news. An auditor is coming to us.” The plot includes almost all the characters, which corresponds to Gogol’s theoretical idea of the composition of a social comedy: “The comedy should knit itself, with its entire mass into one large, common knot. The plot should embrace the entire face, and not one or two.”

The exposition turns out to be the dialogues of officials in the first act, revealing the real state of affairs in the city and showing the internal contradiction in the minds of officials between their dishonest activities and a completely clear conscience. Believing that every person has “minor sins,” they classify their activities in this category. Gogol shows the peculiar psychology of city officials: the whole world is divided into two parts for them - the real life surrounding them, based on the unwritten laws of bribery and lies. and a life unknown to them according to written laws, which require them to care not about their own benefit, but about the public good. The horror of the visiting auditor is due to the uncertainty of the situation: to which world does the visiting auditor belong? But the fear of officials is combined with hope, based on previous experience and a high opinion of themselves (“I deceived swindlers on swindlers... I deceived three governors!”).

All actions of the play are based on the behavior of the characters in the emergency situation of the arrival of the auditor, corresponding to the character of each of them. City officials represent a kind of holistic system in the comedy, but at the same time the characters are sharply individualized. They are unique in their individual characteristics, which makes it interesting to receive their “alternate” report on the state of affairs in the entrusted institution, “alternate” presentation to Khlestakov, “alternate” reading of the ill-fated letter. In constructing a system of characters, Gogol resorts to another innovative technique: he refuses to portray a positive hero. If in Griboyedov’s comedy Chatsky was such a hero-ideologist, a partial hero-reasoner, then Khlestakov cannot be called a positive hero, he is an “icicle, a rag” with poverty of thinking and narrow interests. Thus, the comedy appears absolutely without a high hero. The author called laughter a positive hero.

The unusual construction of the character system increases the breadth of generality of what is depicted. Gogol, generalizing as much as possible. strives to show the typicality of the described city and the officials living in it, the “speaking” surnames (private bailiff Ukhovertov, policeman Derzhimorda, judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin) serve not so much to characterize individuals, carriers of vices, but rather to typify the image of society as a whole. All city officials are characterized by illogical thinking. It, coupled with fear, leads them to self-deception. They mistake the “helicopter” for an auditor, and the emergence of the so-called “mirage” intrigue, which turns out to be nothing, is based on this fact. At the first meeting of the mayor with Khlestakov, fear of the inspector makes him not believe his eyes (“But what a nondescript, short one, it seems that he would crush him with a fingernail”), and not believe his ears: Khlestakov speaks the honest truth - the mayor admires his “cunning” ( “Oh, a thin thing! It lies, lies and never stops.” The main goal of the mayor is to force the auditor to spill the beans, and Khlestakov, a minor official who fears that he will be sent to prison for non-payment, suddenly, before the eyes of the audience, turns into an important person: “I confess, I would not demand anything more as soon as you show me loyalty and respect, respect and loyalty." Khlestakov seems to accept the terms of the game proposed by the mayor.

The image of Khlestakov is the discovery of Gogol. This is a rogue, but a rogue according to the situation. He did not want to deceive anyone, and only fear and the illogical thinking of officials turned him into an auditor. Khlestakov is simple-minded. And that is precisely why he appears in the eyes of the mayor as a real auditor, because he speaks from the heart, sincerely, and the mayor looks for tricks in his words. Innocence allows Khlestakov not to deceive anyone, but only to play the roles that officials impose on him. Khlestakov fully justifies the description given to him by Gogol: “He speaks and acts without any consideration.” However, the mirage dissipates and two imaginary endings follow (Khlestakov’s departure and the reading of the letter). Khlestakov’s departure does not arouse suspicion among anyone, since he, who has proven himself to be a decent person, will definitely return if he promised. But the reading of Khlestakov’s letter that followed his departure puts everything in its place and brings the officials down to earth. It is noteworthy that when reading the letter, all the officials described in it from a negative side think only about the insult inflicted on them by Khlestakov. They do not understand that the danger that awaits them ahead and is already approaching them is much worse than “becoming a laughing stock.”

Following the reading of the letter, the true denouement occurs: the “silent scene” that followed the news of the arrival of a real auditor in the city. "Silent scene" is a flexible way of expressing the author's idea. Gogol's comedy is addressed not to a narrow circle of select, enlightened readers, but to the entire mass of the reading public. This led to Gogol’s rejection of the “fourth wall” principle. The line between the characters in the comedy and the audience in the hall is blurred for several minutes, during which the “petrified group” stands motionless on the stage. There is a feeling of unity between the characters and the audience. Heroes frozen in a moment of great crisis. overshadowed by the idea of inevitable retribution. Instilling in the reader the idea of this supreme court was Gogol's main task, which he expressed in a “silent scene.”

The only “honest and noble face in comedy is laughter” (Gogol). But laughter in comedy is not directed at a specific person, an official, or a specific county town, but at the vice itself. Gogol shows how terrible the fate of a person struck by him is. The play combines comedy and drama, which lies in the discrepancy between a person’s initially high purpose and its unrealization. exhaustion in pursuit of life's mirages. The final monologue of the mayor and the scene of Khlestakov's matchmaking are full of drama, but the culmination of the tragic, when the comic completely fades into the background, is the final “silent scene”.

Gogol's comedy, in many ways, developed the traditions of Griboedov's social comedy, and continues to search for new expressive and visual means. Gogol's bold experiments led to the creation of a unique work that embodied many innovative features.

The work was added to the site website: 2015-07-10

;font-family:"Times New Roman"" xml:lang="en-EN" lang="en-EN">Gogol's innovation as a playwright

In response to Aksakov's remark that modern Russian life does not provide material for comedy, Gogol said that this is not true, that comedy is hidden everywhere, that, living in the midst of it, we do not see it; but that “if the artist transfers it into art, onto the stage, then we will laugh at ourselves.” It seems that this phrase contains the general meaning of Gogol’s innovation in drama: the main task is to transfer the comedy of everyday life to the stage. As Grigoriev said in one of his articles, “it is obvious that a new ore was discovered by the great poet, the ore of analysis of everyday ordinary reality*. This choice of subject matter also dictated artistic means. Gogol's plays are comedies, but comedies are contrasted with classical works of this genre, firstly, in plot (in comparison with high comedy), and secondly, the types derived in Gogol's comedies are contrasted with the types of plays of that time. Instead of cunning lovers and intractable parents, living, everyday national characters appeared on the stage. Gogol banishes murder and poison: in his plays, madness and death become the result of gossip, intrigue, and eavesdropping. Gogol rethinks the principle of “unity of action” as the unity of the plan and its execution by the main character. In Gogol's plays, it is not the hero who controls the plot, but the plot, developing according to the logic of a game of chance, carries the hero. The hero’s goal is opposed by the end result; approaching the goal turns out to be moving away from it “at a huge distance” (“Vladimir of the third degree”).

Gogol creates a situation unusual for the play: instead of one personal or domestic intrigue, the life of an entire city is depicted, which significantly expands the social scale of the play and makes it possible to realize the goal of writing the play: “to collect everything bad in Russia into one pile.” The city is extremely hierarchical; the development of all comedy is concentrated within it. Gogol creates an innovative situation when a city torn apart by internal contradictions becomes capable of integral life, thanks to a general crisis, a general feeling of fear of higher powers. Gogol covers all aspects of the social life of management, but without “administrative details”, in a “universal human form”. In “Theatrical Travel” it is said: “humanity is found everywhere.” In his comedy, with a wide system of officials, a wide range of spiritual properties is displayed: from the good-natured naivety of the postmaster to the trickery of Strawberry. Each character becomes a symbol of sorts. But a certain psychological property correlates with a character not as his main feature, but rather as a range of certain mental movements (the postmaster, as Gogol himself says, “is only a simple-minded person to the point of naivety,” but with no less simple-minded malice, when reading Khlestakov’s letter, he repeats three times: “The mayor is as stupid as a gray gelding”). All the feelings of the characters are transferred from the artificial to the sphere of their real manifestation, but at the same time, human life is taken by the writer in all its depth. And when Bobchinsky says to Khlestakov: “I humbly ask you, when you go to St. Petersburg, tell all the different nobles there: senators and admirals, that your Excellency, or Excellency, lives in such and such a city, Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky. Just say so: Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky lives.” Gogol shows in this request the desire to “mean his existence in the world,” the highest moment of his life.

In his play, Gogol tries to limit comic effects. “The Inspector General” is a comedy of characters. We laugh, according to Gogol, not at the “crooked nose” of the characters, but “at the crooked soul.” The comic in the play is subordinated to the depiction of types and arises from the manifestation of their psychological and social properties.

In “Theatrical Travel” Gogol writes: “Yes, if we take the plot in the sense in which it is usually taken, then it definitely does not exist. But it seems it’s time to stop relying on this eternal tie<...>. Now the drama is more strongly tied to the desire to get an advantageous place, to “shine and outshine, at all costs, the other, to mark for neglect, for ridicule. Isn’t it now more important to have electricity, money capital, and a profitable marriage than love? “So, Gogol abandons the traditional structure of the play. Nemirovich-Danchenko quite clearly expressed the new principles of constructing the play: “The most remarkable theater masters could not begin the play except in the first few scenes. In “The Inspector General” there is one phrase: “I invited you, gentlemen, in order to convey the most unpleasant news: the inspector is coming to us,” and the play has already begun. The denouement is similar. Gogol finds stage movement in surprises, which manifest themselves in the characters themselves, in the versatility of the human soul, no matter how primitive it may be. External events do not move the play. A general thought, an idea is immediately set: fear, which is the basis of action. This allows Gogol to dramatically change the genre at the end of the play: with the revelation of Khlestakov’s deception, the comedy turns into tragedy.”

If in 1832 Gogol wrote to Pogodin: “Drama lives only on the stage. Without it, she is like a soul without a body,” then in 1842 Gogol prefaced his play with the epigraph “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked,” clearly intended for the reader, which gave critics a reason to talk about the general lack of stage presence of the comedy. And, although the comedy is indeed very difficult for stage implementation, and Gogol himself wrote about dissatisfaction with its productions, the comedy was still designed specifically for the viewer. The principle of the “fourth wall” is observed, except for: “Why are you laughing? You’re laughing at yourself!” there are no replicas to the hall. But Gogol, for the first time in Russian comedy, paints not a separate island of vice into which virtue can rush in, but a part of a single whole. In fact, he does not have a denunciation, as in the comedy of classicism; the critical beginning of the play is that his model of the city can be expanded to an all-Russian scale. The broad vital significance of the “Inspector General” situation is that it could arise almost anywhere. This is the vitality of the play.

Gogol's innovation as a playwright

In “Theatrical Travel” Gogol writes: “Yes, if we take the plot in the sense in which it is usually taken, then it definitely does not exist. But it seems it’s time to stop relying on this eternal tie. Now the drama is more strongly tied to the desire to get an advantageous place, to “shine and outshine, at all costs, the other, to mark for neglect, for ridicule. Isn’t it now more important to have electricity, money capital, and a profitable marriage than love? “So, Gogol abandons the traditional structure of the play. Nemirovich-Danchenko quite clearly expressed the new principles of constructing the play: “The most remarkable theater masters could not begin the play except in the first few scenes. In “The Inspector General” there is one phrase: “I invited you, gentlemen, in order to convey the most unpleasant news: the inspector is coming to us,” and the play has already begun. The denouement is similar. Gogol finds stage movement in surprises, which manifest themselves in the characters themselves, in the versatility of the human soul, no matter how primitive it may be. External events do not move the play. A general thought, an idea is immediately set: fear, which is the basis of action. This allows Gogol to dramatically change the genre at the end of the play: with the revelation of Khlestakov’s deception, the comedy turns into tragedy.”

Gogol's innovation as a playwright In response to Aksakov's remark that modern Russian life does not provide material for comedy, Gogol said that this is not true, that comedy is hidden everywhere, that, living in the midst of it, we do not see it, but that if the artist transfers it to art, to the stage, then We'll be rolling our heads over ourselves with laughter. It seems that this phrase contains the general meaning of Gogol’s innovation in drama; the main task is to transfer the comedy of everyday life to the stage. As Grigoriev said in one of his articles, it is obvious that a new ore was discovered by the great poet, the ore of analysis of everyday ordinary reality. This choice of subject matter also dictated artistic means.

Gogol's plays are comedies, but comedies contrasted with classical works of this genre, firstly, in plot in comparison with high comedy, and secondly, the types derived in Gogol's comedies are contrasted with the types of plays of that time. Instead of cunning lovers and intractable parents, living, everyday national characters appeared on the stage.

Murder, poison Gogol drives out madness in his plays, death becomes the result of gossip, intrigue, eavesdropping. Gogol rethinks the principle of unity of action as the unity of the plan and its execution by the main character. In Gogol's plays, it is not the hero who controls the plot, the plot, developing according to the logic of a game of chance, carries the hero. The hero's goal is opposed by the end result, approaching the goal turns out to be a great distance away from it. Vladimir of the third degree. Gogol creates a situation unusual for the play, instead of one personal or domestic intrigue, the life of the whole is depicted city, which significantly expands the social scale of the play and makes it possible to realize the goal of writing the play to collect everything bad in Russia into one pile. The city is extremely hierarchical, the development of the entire comedy is concentrated within it. Gogol creates an innovative situation when a city torn apart by internal contradictions becomes capable of integral life, thanks to a general crisis , a general feeling of fear of higher powers.

Gogol covers all aspects of the social life of management, but without administrative details, in a universal form. In the Theater Travel it is said that humanity is found everywhere. In his comedy, with a wide system of officials, a large range of spiritual properties is derived from the good-natured naivety of the postmaster to the cunningness of Strawberry. Each character becomes a symbol of sorts.

But a certain psychological property is correlated with the character not as his main feature, but rather as a range of certain mental movements. The postmaster, as Gogol himself says, is only a simple-minded to the point of naivety, but with no less simple-minded malice, when reading Khlestakov’s letter, he repeats three times: The mayor is stupid, like a gray gelding . All the characters’ feelings are transferred from the artificial to the sphere of their real manifestation, but at the same time, the writer takes human life in all its depth.

And when Bobchinsky says to Khlestakov, I humbly ask you, when you go to St. Petersburg, tell all the nobles there, various senators and admirals, that your Excellency, or Excellency, lives in such and such a city, Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky.

This is how Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky lives. Gogol shows in this request his desire to signify his existence in the world, the highest moment of his life. In his play, Gogol tries to limit comic effects. The Inspector General is a comedy of characters. We laugh, according to Gogol, not at the crooked nose of the characters, but at the crooked soul. The comic in the play is subordinated to the depiction of types, arises from the manifestation of their psychological and social properties. In Theatrical Travel, Gogol writes Yes, if we take the plot in the sense in which it is usually accepted, then it definitely does not exist. But, it seems, it’s time to stop relying on this eternal tie lt gt. Now the drama is more strongly tied to the desire to get an advantageous place, to shine and outshine, at all costs, the other, to be noted for neglect, for ridicule.

Isn’t it now more important to have electricity, money capital, and a profitable marriage than love? So, Gogol refuses the traditional structure of the play.

Nemirovich-Danchenko quite clearly expressed the new principles of constructing the play. The most remarkable theater masters could not begin the play except in the first few scenes. In The Inspector General, there is one phrase: I invited you, gentlemen, in order to tell us very unpleasant news: the inspector is coming to us and the play has already begun. The denouement is similar.

Gogol finds stage movement in surprises that manifest themselves in the characters themselves, in the versatility of the human soul, no matter how primitive it may be. External events do not move the play. A general thought is immediately set, the idea of fear, which is the basis of the action. This allows Gogol to dramatically change the genre at the end of the play with the revelation of Khlestakov’s deception, the comedy turns into tragedy. If in 1832 Gogol writes Pogodin Drama lives only on the stage. Without it it is like a soul without a body, then in 1842 Gogol prefaces his play with the epigraph of Necha blaming the mirror, The story is crooked, clearly aimed at the reader, which gave critics a reason to generalize about the lack of stage presence of the comedy.

And, although the comedy is indeed very difficult for stage implementation, and Gogol himself wrote about dissatisfaction with its productions, the comedy was still designed specifically for the viewer. The principle of the fourth wall is observed, and besides, Why are you laughing? You're laughing at yourself! there are no replicas in the hall. But Gogol, for the first time in Russian comedy, paints not a separate island of vice into which virtue can rush in, but a part of a whole.

He actually does not have a denunciation, as in the comedy of classicism; the critical beginning of the play is that his model of the city can be expanded to an all-Russian scale. The broad vital significance of the Inspector's situation is that it could arise almost anywhere. This is the vitality of the play.

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