What are the comic elements in this scene? A character conveying direct speech to another character

This feature of Gogol’s utopia also attracts attention. The most important thing must happen outside the immediate perception of the “Inspector General”. The experiences that renew the reader or viewer and all the spiritual work generated by them should unfold only when the reading or performance is already left behind (remember that the entire stage action of “Dénouement” recreates the situation after the performance). Gogol’s correspondence regarding “The Inspector General” also takes the problem of transforming the audience beyond its direct contact with The Inspector General himself. In this regard, the project of practical implementation of the utopian ideas outlined in the new play is interesting. We're talking about something new separate publication and a new performance of “The Inspector General”, dedicated to the benefit performance of M. S. Shchepkin. And it is impossible not to notice that Gogol sets two mandatory, from his point of view, conditions. Firstly, “” should be presented in the form in which it acquired after revision in 1841–1842, when the presence of a utopian plan in the comedy became more noticeable. Secondly, “The Inspector General” should be staged only together with “The Inspector General’s Denouement” (“with the addition of a tail,” as Gogol put it in a letter to Shchepkin on October 24, 1846). The author of The Inspector General insisted especially stubbornly on the second condition. Having encountered resistance from Shchepkin and partly from S.P. Shevyrev, whom he also tried to attract to the implementation of his project, Gogol tries to convince them and even makes concessions, reworking new play. When it becomes clear that “The Inspector General’s Denouement” in any version is unacceptable to his correspondents, he abandons his project. The logic of his position is clear: either his comedy will be re-published along with the play that complements it (essentially, together with teaching, instruction, sermon), or it should not be published or staged on the theater stage. It turns out that his utopian plan seems impossible to him without combining the two plays into one whole. Apparently, Gogol suspected that “The Inspector General” by itself could not create the effect necessary to achieve his goal, which in itself artistic nature his comedy contains some kind of obstacle that prevents it from being transformed into a force that brings “formidable cleansing.”

In search of this internal obstacle, one cannot ignore two obvious patterns that can be traced in the stage and creative stories"Inspector". The first of them boiled down to the following: in those productions in which it was possible to achieve stunning tragedy in the sound of the finale (in the production of V. E. Meyerhold, for example), the play ceased to be funny

Apparently, Gogol was not mistaken. Both laughter principles are combined inseparably in The Inspector General, and they are combined throughout the entire duration of the action. On the one hand, the most important law of satirical structure is observed all the time: none of the characters are corrected throughout the action, their original qualities remain the same, only revealing themselves deeper and more fully. But on the other hand, comedic metamorphoses occur here all the time, “upsetting,” as Galich would say, “the actual forms and relationships” of the depicted world.

Already the news of the upcoming appearance of the auditor disrupts the routine in the life of Gogol’s city. The street immediately becomes entangled with a broom, a case with a hat, a marital letter with a tavern bill. Things and ideas are shifted from their places by the new situation, chaos penetrates the system, and this chaos gives rise to something like creative ferment. The primary impetus is given from the outside, but it awakens the internal elements of “urban” life. In the characters of the characters, some kind of latent obsession, or, rather, many different obsessions, reminiscent of the “enthusiasm” of the heroes of “Dead Souls”, intensifies and takes on an explosive character. The judge, without ceasing, is being clever, the trustee charitable institutions constantly spoils his colleagues, the postmaster, obeying impulses of curiosity, constantly opens and forever keeps other people's letters, etc. Each person has his own obsession, but they are all brought together by the ability to almost instantly reach extreme tension and pour out into words with uncontrollable pressure, into action, into emotional excitement that captivates others.

Here lie the sources of irrational energy, grotesquely transforming the world depicted by Gogol. This energy is emitted primarily by Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky: they not only announce the appearance of the expected inspector, but also literally create him from the few details at their disposal. The desire to be the first to meet the auditor and the first to announce him to everyone becomes almost magical power. They need an auditor, and Khlestakov immediately becomes an auditor, for now only for them. Then their passionate impulse is transferred to other characters.

The power of this collective obsession fuels its own ambitions and own energy Khlestakova. In the lying scene, he really looks the way people around him need to see him. And then the act of universal joint creativity creates new reality. In the scenes of the fourth act, Khlestakov seems to become the inspector expected by everyone, fully fulfilling all his expected functions. And everyone else, as if infected by his lightness, is drawn into his game and already dares to do previously unimaginable desires, requests, actions, ascending in unbridled dreams to ranks, fame, luxury, and comfort unattainable in reality.

Even later, the rapid, almost vaudeville pace of the action makes it possible to weave another eccentric metamorphosis into its dynamics: sitting down to write a letter to his friend Tryapichkin, Khlestakov instantly turns into a lively accuser-feuilletonist. And in the scene of reading this letter, intercepted by the postmaster, several officials, as if in a clown show, alternately act as Khlestakov’s deputies, repeating and emphasizing the scathing assessments and characteristics given to him.

The news of the real auditor and the general “petrification” turn out to be another metamorphosis. Of course, this is a metamorphosis of a completely different kind than all the previous ones. The finale is a miracle in the precise sense of the word: it is a sharp violation of the already outlined laws of the depicted world. And yet this is another metamorphosis, moreover, in in a certain sense prepared. It is prepared at least by the fact that the consciousness of the reader or viewer is already accustomed to the very possibility of continuous transformations of one thing into another. The depicted world is plastic enough for a miracle to happen in it. And at the same time, it is insolvent enough for a catastrophe to occur within it. Both main qualities of this world are united in the potential aspiration to another existence.

We can talk about a kind of interference between satirical denunciation and the actual comedic dynamics. The growing tension of the “auditor situation” contributes to the merciless exposure of social untruth: it is this that reveals its laws and “mechanism”. But it also introduces comedic “cheerful turmoil” (the expression of N. Ya. Berkovsky) into the world of familiar forms of life and consciousness, transforming absurdity into creative chaos, causing a “Dionysian” ferment of awakened elements and a rapid flow of destructive-creative transformations. Both functions are not only combined, but also connected: metamorphoses reveal the “obsessions” of the characters, “obsessions” generate the energy of metamorphoses.

True, the inseparability of two interacting structural and semantic principles creates contradictions that require resolution. What fun game creative forces life and consciousness is constantly embodied in transformations, with all their tangibility - deceptive, giving the dynamics of action an obvious ambivalence. It is this that requires an outcome: the metamorphoses that transform the comedic world captivate the consciousness that perceives them, but cannot satisfy it. There is something seductive and at the same time untrue about them: the feeling of the miraculous is excited, but also held back by the constant feeling that all transformations are not happening “for real.” And satirical ridicule - the very thing that with its sharpness holds back the ready to soar into boundless comedic delight - it, in turn, is held back by the fact that it cannot manifest itself in unconditional purity, by the fact that it is complicated by the cheerful adventurism of comedic laughter, by the fact that pleasure, Delivered by a comedy game with depicted reality, it can turn any ugliness into a “pearl of creation.” “Gogol involuntarily reconciles with laughter,” Herzen wrote about this in the book “Past and Thoughts”

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Gogol's element is laughter , through which he looks at life both in stories and in the poem “ Dead Souls", however, it is precisely in dramatic works(“The Inspector General,” “Marriage,” “Players”) the comic nature of Gogol’s genius was revealed especially fully. In the best comedy« Auditor» the artistic world of Gogol the comedian appears original, integral, animated by the clear moral position of the author.

Since working on " Auditor"The writer thought a lot about the deep spiritual conditioning of laughter.

According to Gogol, the “high” laughter of a true writer has nothing in common with the “low” laughter generated by light impressions, quick witticisms, puns or caricatured grimaces. “High” laughter comes “straight from the soul”; its source is the dazzling brilliance of the mind, which endows laughter with ethical and pedagogical functions. The meaning of such laughter is to ridicule the “hidden vice” and maintain “elevated feelings.”

In the works that became literary companions to The Inspector General (“Excerpt from a letter written by the author after the first performance of The Inspector General to one writer,” “Theatrical excursion after the presentation of a new comedy,” “The denouement of The Inspector General”), Gogol, deflecting accusations of lack of ideas comedy, conceptualized his laughter as “high,” combining the severity of criticism with a high moral task that was revealed to the writer and inspired him. Already in The Inspector General, he wanted to appear before the public not only as comic writer, but also as a preacher, teacher.

The meaning of comedythe fact that in it Gogol laughs and teaches at the same time. IN " Theater crossing"The playwright emphasized that the only "honest, noble face" in "The Inspector General" is precisely laughter, and clarified:“... that laughter, which all flows out of the bright nature of a person, flows out of it because at its bottom there is an eternally beating spring of it, which deepens the subject, makes to appear brightly that which would have slipped through, without the penetrating power of which trifle and emptiness life would not frighten a person like that ».

Comedy in literary work is always based on the fact that the writer selects from life itself what is imperfect, base, vicious and contradictory. The writer discovers a “hidden vice” in the discrepancy between the external form and internal content of life’s phenomena and events, in the characters and behavior of people. Laughter is the writer’s reaction to comic contradictions that objectively exist in reality or are created in a literary work. Laughing at public and human shortcomings, the comic writer establishes his scale of values. In the light of his ideals, the imperfection or depravity of those phenomena and people who seem or pretend to appear exemplary, noble or virtuous is revealed. Behind the “high” laughter lies an ideal that allows one to give an accurate assessment of what is being depicted. In “high” comedy, the “negative” pole must be balanced by the “positive”. Negative is associated with laughter, positive - with other types of assessment: indignation, preaching, defense of genuine moral and social values.

"Inspector" — innovative work, which differs in many ways from the comedy that preceded and contemporary Gogol. The main difference is that in comedy there is no “positive” pole, “positive” characters expressing the author’s ideas about what officials should be, there are no heroes-reasoners, “mouthpieces” of the author’s ideas. The writer's ideals are expressed through other means. Essentially, Gogol, having conceived a work that was supposed to have a direct moral impact on the public, abandoned the traditional forms of expressing the author’s position for social, “accusatory” comedies.

Spectators and readers cannot find direct authorial instructions about what “exemplary” officials should be, and there are no hints at the existence of any other moral way of life than the one depicted in the play. We can say that all Gogol's characters- of the same “color”, created from a similar “material”, lined up in one chain. The officials depicted in The Inspector General represent one social type - these are people who do not correspond to the “important places” they occupy. Moreover, not one of them ever even thought about the question of what kind of official should be, how to carry out his duties.

Portraying officials, Gogol uses the method of realistic typification: the general, characteristic of all officials is manifested in the individual. The characters of Gogol's comedy have unique human qualities inherent only to them.

The unique appearance of the mayor Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky : he is shown as a “very intelligent person in his own way”; it is not for nothing that all the district officials, with the exception of the “somewhat free-thinking” judge, are attentive to his comments about the disorders in the city. He is observant, accurate in his rough opinions and assessments, cunning and calculating, although he seems simple-minded. The mayor is a bribe-taker and embezzler, confident in his right to use administrative power for personal interests. But, as he noted, parrying the judge’s attack, “he is firm in his faith” and goes to church every Sunday. For him, the city is a family patrimony, and the colorful policemen Svistunov, Pugovitsyn and Derzhimorda do not so much keep order as they act as servants of the mayor.

Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky , despite his mistake with Khlestakov, he is a far-sighted and insightful person who deftly takes advantage of the peculiarity of the Russian bureaucracy: since there is no official without sin, it means that anyone, even a governor, even a “metropolitan little thing,” can be “bought” or “deceived.”

Most of the events in the comedy take place in the mayor's house: here it becomes clear who is keeping the luminary of the district bureaucracy under his thumb - wife Anna Andreevna and daughter Marya Antonovna. After all, many of the mayor’s “sins” are a consequence of their whims. In addition, it is their frivolous relationship with Khlestakov that enhances the comedy of his position and gives rise to completely ridiculous dreams of the rank of general and service in St. Petersburg. In “Notes for Gentlemen Actors,” preceding the text of the comedy, Gogol indicated that the mayor began “hard service from the lower ranks.” This is an important detail: after all, the “electricity” of the rank not only elevated Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, but also ruined him, making him a man “with crudely developed inclinations of the soul.” Note that this is a comic version of Pushkin’s captain Mironov, the straightforward and honest commandant of the Belogorsk fortress (“The Captain’s Daughter”). The mayor is the complete opposite of Captain Mironov. If in Pushkin’s hero a person is above rank, then in Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, on the contrary, bureaucratic arrogance kills humanity.

Bright personality traits is inLyapkin-Tyapkin and in Zemlyanika. The judge is a district “philosopher” who has “read five or six” books and loves to speculate about the creation of the world. His words, according to the mayor, “just make my hair stand on end” - probably not only because he is a “Valterian”, does not believe in God, allows himself to argue with Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, but also simply because of the absurdity and absurdity of it “ philosophizing."

As the wise mayor subtly noted, “well, otherwise a lot of intelligence is worse than not having it at all.” The trustee of charitable institutions stands out among other officials due to his penchant for gossip and denunciation.

Strawberries, perhaps, a truly terrible person, a werewolf official: he not only starves people in his charitable institutions and does not treat them (“we do not use expensive medicines”), but also ruins people’s reputations, mixing the truth with lies and slander. Luka Lukich Khlopov, superintendent of schools, is an incredibly stupid and cowardly person, an example of a learned serf who looks into the mouth of any boss. “God forbid that I serve in an academic capacity! - Khlopov complains. “You’re afraid of everything: everyone gets in the way, you want to show everyone that he is also an intelligent person.”

Individualization of comic characters is one of the main principles of Gogol the comedian. In each of them he finds something comic, a “hidden vice” worthy of ridicule. However, regardless of their individual qualities, each official is a variant of “general deviation” from true service to the Tsar and the Fatherland, which should be the duty and matter of honor of a nobleman. At the same time, it is necessary to remember that the socially typical in the heroes of The Inspector General is only part of their human appearance. Individual shortcomings become a form of manifestation of universal human vices in each Gogol character. The meaning of the characters depicted is much larger than them social status: they represent not only county bureaucracy or the Russian bureaucracy, but also “man in general” with his imperfections, who easily forgets about his duties as a citizen of heavenly and earthly citizenship.

Having created one social type of official (such an official either steals, or takes bribes, or simply does nothing at all), the playwright supplemented it with a moral-psychological typification. Each of the characters has traits of a certain moral and psychological type: in the mayor it is easy to see an imperious hypocrite who knows exactly what his benefit is; in Lyapkin-Tyapkin - a grumpy “philosopher” who loves to demonstrate his learning, but flaunts only his lazy, clumsy mind; in Strawberry - an earphone and a flatterer, covering up his “sins” with other people’s “sins”; in the postmaster, “treating” officials with a letter from Khlestakov, a curious person who likes to peek through the keyhole... And of course, himself imaginary "auditor" Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov is the embodiment of thoughtless lies, an easy attitude to life and widespread human weakness - to take credit for other people's deeds and other people's glory. This is a “labardan” man, that is, a mixture of stupidity, nonsense and nonsense that pretends to be accepted as intelligence, meaning and order. “I am everywhere, everywhere,” Khlestakov says about himself, and he is not mistaken: as Gogol noted, “everyone, at least for a minute, if not for several minutes, has been or is becoming Khlestakov, but, naturally, he just doesn’t want to admit it... "

All characters are purely comic characters . Gogol does not portray them as some kind of extraordinary people - he is interested in them in what is found everywhere and what ordinary, everyday life. Many minor characters reinforce the impression that the playwright portrays quite ordinary people, no higher than “ordinary height.” The second spectator in “Theater Travel” in response to the First Spectator’s remark “... Do such people really exist? And yet they’re not exactly villains,” he noted: “Not at all, they’re not villains at all. They are exactly what the proverb says : "Not with my soul thin, but just a rogue." The situation itself, caused by the self-deception of officials, is exceptional - it stirred them up, tore them out of the usual order of life, only enlarging, in Gogol’s words, “the vulgarity of a vulgar person.” The self-deception of officials caused a chain reaction in the city, making both the merchants and the mechanic and non-commissioned officer, offended by the mayor, accomplices in the comic action. A special role in the comedy was played by two characters who in the list of characters - the “poster” of the comedy - are called “city landowners”: Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky. Each of them is a simple doubling of the other (their images are created according to the principle: two people - one character). They were the first to report something strange young man who was seen at the hotel. These insignificant people (“city gossips, damned liars”) caused a commotion with the imaginary “auditor”, purely comical persons who led the district bribers and embezzlers to a tragic denouement.

The comedy in The Government Inspector, unlike pre-Gogol comedies, is consistent and comprehensive. Bring out the comic in public environment, in the characters of district officials and landowners, in the imaginary “auditor” Khlestakov - this is the principle of the author of the comedy.

The comic nature of the characters in The Inspector General is revealed in three comedic situations. The first is a situation of fear caused by the message received about the imminent arrival of an auditor from St. Petersburg, the second is a situation of deafness and blindness of officials who suddenly ceased to understand the meaning of the words that Khlestakov pronounces. They misinterpret them, do not hear and do not see the obvious. The third situation is a situation of substitution: Khlestakov was mistaken for an auditor, true auditor replaced by an imaginary one. All three comedy situations are so closely interconnected that the absence of at least one of them could destroy comic effect plays.

The main source of comic relief in The Inspector General is fear, literally paralyzing district officials, turning them from powerful tyrants into fussy, ingratiating people, from bribe-takers into bribe-givers. It is fear that deprives them of reason, makes them deaf and blind, of course, not literally, but figuratively. They hear what Khlestakov says, how he lies implausibly and every now and then “fools”, but it doesn’t reach them true meaning what was said: after all, according to officials, in the mouth “ significant person“even the most blatant and fantastic lies turn into the truth. Instead of shaking with laughter, listening to stories about a watermelon “worth seven hundred rubles”, about “thirty-five thousand couriers alone” galloping along the streets of St. Petersburg in order to invite Khlestakov to “manage the department”, about how “in one evening” he wrote all the works of Baron Brambeus (O.I. Senkovsky), and the story “Frigate “Nadezhda”” (A.A. Bestuzheva) and even the magazine “Moscow Telegraph”,

“The mayor and others are shaking with fear,” encouraging the intoxicated Khlestakov to “get hotter,” that is, talk complete nonsense: “I’m everywhere, everywhere. I go to the palace every day. Tomorrow I will be promoted to field marshal..." Even during the first meeting with Khlestakov, the mayor saw, but did not “recognize” his complete insignificance. Both fear and the deafness and blindness it caused became the basis on which the situation of substitution arose, which determined the “ghostly” nature of the conflict and the comedic plot of “The Inspector General.”

Gogol used in The Inspector General all the possibilities of situational comedy available to a comedian. Three main comedic situations, each of which can be found in almost any comedy, in Gogol’s play convince the reader with the entire “mass” of the comic in the strict conditionality of everything that happens on stage. “... Comedy must knit itself, with its entire mass, into one big, common knot,” Gogol noted in “Theater Road”.

In "The Inspector General" there are many farcical situations in which the stupidity and inappropriate fussiness of district officials, as well as the frivolity and carelessness of Khlestakov, are shown. These situations are designed for a 100% comic effect: they cause laughter, regardless of the meaning of what is happening. For example, feverishly giving the last orders before going to Khlestakov, the mayor “wants to put on a paper case instead of a hat.” In phenomena XII-XIV fourth act Khlestakov, who had just declared his love to Marya Antonovna and was on his knees in front of her, as soon as she left, driven out by her mother, “throws himself on his knees” and asks for the hand... of the mayor’s wife, and then, caught by Marya Antonovna who suddenly ran in, asks for “mama “bless them with Marya Antonovna “constant love.” The lightning-fast change of events caused by Khlestakov’s unpredictability ends with the transformation of “His Excellency” into a groom.

The comic homogeneity of The Inspector General determines two of the most important features of the work. Firstly, there is no reason to consider Gogol’s laughter only as “accusatory”, castigating vices. In “high” laughter Gogol saw “cleansing”, didactic and preaching functions. The meaning of laughter for a writer is richer than criticism, denial or castigation: after all, laughing, he not only showed the vices of people and the imperfections of the Russian bureaucracy, but also took the first, most necessary step towards their deliverance.

Gogolevsky laughter- a kind of “magnifying glass” with which you can see in people what they either do not notice to themselves or want to hide. IN ordinary life The “curvature” of a person, camouflaged by position or rank, is not always obvious. The "mirror" of comedy shows true essence of a person, makes real existing deficiencies visible. The mirror image of life is no worse than life itself, in which people’s faces have turned into “crooked faces.” The epigraph to “The Inspector General” reminds us of this.

The comedy uses Gogol's favorite technique - synecdoche. Having shown the “visible” part of the world of the Russian bureaucracy, laughing at the unlucky “fathers” of the district town, the writer pointed to a hypothetical whole, that is, to the shortcomings of the entire Russian bureaucracy and to universal human vices. The self-deception of officials of the county town, due to specific reasons, primarily the natural fear of retribution for what they have done, is part of the general self-deception that forces people to worship false idols, forgetting about the true values of life.

The originality of the plot and composition of The Inspector General is determined by the nature of the conflict. It is due to the situation of self-deception of officials: they take what they want for reality. The supposedly recognized official, exposed by them - “incognito” from St. Petersburg - forces them to act as if there was a real auditor in front of them. The comic contradiction that arises makes the conflict illusory and non-existent. After all, only if Khlestakov were actually an auditor, the behavior of officials would be completely justified, and the conflict would be a completely ordinary clash of interests between the auditor and the “audited”, whose fate depends entirely on their dexterity and ability to “show off” .

Khlestakov- a mirage that arose because “fear has big eyes,” since it was the fear of being caught by surprise, not having time to hide the “disorder” in the city, that led to the emergence of a comic contradiction, an imaginary conflict. However, Khlestakov’s appearance is quite concrete; from the very beginning (the second act) his true essence is clear to the reader or viewer: he is just a petty St. Petersburg official who lost at cards and is therefore stuck in the provincial outback. Only “extraordinary ease of thought” helps Khlestakov not to lose heart in absolutely hopeless circumstances, out of habit hoping for “maybe.” He is passing through the city, but it seems to the officials that he came precisely for their sake. As soon as Gogol replaced the real auditor with an imaginary one, the real conflict also became an imaginary, illusory conflict.

The unusualness of the comedy lies not so much in the fact that Gogol found a completely new plot device, but in the reality of everything that happens. Each of the characters seems to be in its place, conscientiously playing its role. The district town has turned into a kind of stage stage, on which a completely “natural” play is performed, striking in its verisimilitude. The script and the list of characters are known in advance, the only question is how the “actors”-officials will cope with their “roles” in the future “performance”.

Indeed, one can appreciate acting each of them. The main character, the real “genius” of the county bureaucratic scene, is the mayor Anton Ivanovich Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, who in the past successfully played his “role” three times (“he deceived three governors”), the rest of the officials - some better, some worse - also cope with their roles , although the mayor sometimes has to prompt them, “prompt”, as if reminiscent of the text of the “play”. Almost the entire first act looks like a “dress rehearsal”, carried out in a hurry. It was immediately followed by an unplanned “performance”. After the beginning of the action - the mayor's message - a very dynamic exposition follows. It represents not only each of the “fathers” of the city, but also the district city itself, which they consider their patrimony. Officials are convinced of their right to commit lawlessness, take bribes, rob merchants, starve the sick, rob the treasury, read other people's letters. The “curtain” was quickly pushed aside by the fussy Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, who rushed to the “secret” meeting and alarmed everyone with the message about the strange young man they discovered in the hotel.

Mayor and officials they try to “show off” an imaginary important person and are in awe of her, sometimes losing the power of speech not only for fear of possible punishment, but also because they must be in awe of any superiors (this is determined by the role of the “audited”). They give bribes to Khlestakov when he asks for a “favor”, because they must be given in this case, whereas usually they receive bribes. The mayor is kind and helpful, but this is just an integral part of his “role” as a caring “father” of the city. In short, everything is going according to plan for the officials.

Even Khlestakov easily assumes the role of an important person: he gets acquainted with officials, accepts petitions, and begins, as befits a “significant person,” to “scold” the owners for nothing, causing them to “shake with fear.” Khlestakov is not able to enjoy power over people; he simply repeats what he himself probably experienced more than once in his St. Petersburg department. An unexpected role transforms Khlestakov, elevating him above everyone else, making him an intelligent, powerful and strong-willed person, and the mayor, who actually possesses these qualities, again in full accordance with his “role”, temporarily turns into a “rag”, “icicle” , complete nonentity. The comic metamorphosis is provoked by the “electricity” of the rank. All the characters - both the district officials who have real power, and Khlestakov, the “cog” of the St. Petersburg bureaucratic system - seem to be struck by a powerful discharge of current that was generated by the Table of Ranks, which replaced a person with a rank. Even the imaginary bureaucratic “greatness” is capable of bringing generally intelligent people into the movement, turning them into obedient puppets.

Readers and viewers of the comedy understand perfectly well that a substitution has occurred that determined the behavior of officials until the fifth act, before the appearance of postmaster Shpekin with Khlestakov’s letter. The participants in the “performance” have unequal rights, since Khlestakov almost immediately realized that he had been confused with someone. But the role of a “significant person” is so well known to him that he coped with it brilliantly. Officials, shackled by both real and scripted fear, do not notice the glaring inconsistencies in the behavior of the imaginary auditor.

"Inspector"- an unusual comedy, since the meaning of what is happening is not exhausted by comic situations. Three dramatic plots coexist in the play. One of them - comedic - was realized in the second, third, fourth and at the beginning of the fifth act: the imaginary (Khlestakov) became a magnitude (auditor) in the eyes of officials. The beginning of the comedy plot is not in the first, but in the second act - this is the first conversation between the mayor and Khlestakov, where they are both sincere and both are mistaken. Khlestakov, according to the observant mayor, “is nondescript, short, it seems he could crush him with a fingernail.” However, from the very beginning, the imaginary auditor in the eyes of the frightened “mayor of the local city” turns into a gigantic figure: Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky “becomes timid,” listening to Khlestakov’s “threats,” “stretching out and trembling with his whole body.” The mayor is sincerely mistaken and behaves as one should behave with an auditor, although he sees that in front of him is a nonentity. Khlestakov enthusiastically “lashes”, putting on the appearance of a “significant person”, but at the same time he speaks the absolute truth (“I’m going to the Saratov province, to my own village”). The mayor, contrary to common sense, takes Khlestakov’s words as a lie: “Nicely tied the knot! He lies, he lies, and he never stops!”

At the end of the fourth act, to the mutual satisfaction of Khlestakov and the officials, who are still unaware of their deception, the imaginary “auditor” is carried away from the city by the fastest troika, but his shadow remains in the fifth act. The mayor himself begins to “whip”, dreaming of a St. Petersburg career. It seems to him that he received “what a rich prize” - “what a devil they became related to!” With the help of his future son-in-law, Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky hopes to “get into high rank, because he is friends with all the ministers and goes to the palace.” The comic contradiction at the beginning of the fifth act reaches particular acuteness.

Comedy Climax - a scene of triumph for the mayor, who behaves as if he had already received the rank of general. He became higher than everyone, ascended above the district bureaucratic brethren. And the higher he rises in his dreams, taking wishful thinking, the more painfully does he fall when the postmaster “hurriedly” brings a printed letter - Khlestakov the writer, a scribbler, appears on the stage, and the mayor cannot stand the scribbler: for him they worse than the devil. It is the position of the mayor that is especially comical, but it also has a tragic undertone. The unlucky hero of the comedy himself views what happened as God’s punishment: “Now, truly, if God wants to punish, he will first take away his reason.” Let's add to this: irony will also deprive you of your hearing.

In Khlestakov’s letter, everyone discovers even more “unpleasant news” than in the letter from Andrei Ivanovich Chmykhov, read by the mayor at the beginning of the play: the auditor turned out to be an imaginary, “helicopter,” “icicle,” “rag.” Reading the letter is the denouement of the comedy.

Everything fell into place - the deceived side both laughs and is indignant, fearing publicity and, what is especially offensive, laughter: after all, as the mayor noted, now “if you become a laughing stock, there will be a clicker, a paper maker, who will insert you into a comedy. That's what's offensive! Rank and title will not be spared, and everyone will bare their teeth and clap their hands.” The mayor is most of all not saddened by his human humiliation, but indignant at the possible insult to his “rank, title.” There is a bitter comic shade to his indignation: a person who has sullied his rank and title attacks the “clickers” and “paper makers”, identifying himself with the rank and therefore considering it closed to criticism.

Laughter in the fifth act becomes universal: after all, every official wants to laugh at others, recognizing the accuracy of Khlestakov’s assessments. Laughing at each other, savoring the pokes and slaps that the exposed “auditor” gives in a letter, officials laugh at themselves. The stage laughs - the audience laughs. The mayor’s famous remark is “Why are you laughing? “Laughing at yourself!.. Oh, you!..” - addressed both to those present on stage and to the audience. Only Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky is not laughing: he is the most injured person in this whole story. It seems that with reading the letter and finding out the truth, the circle has closed, the comedy plot has been exhausted. But the entire first act is not yet a comedy, although there are many comic incongruities in the behavior and words of the participants in the mayor’s meeting, in the appearance of Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, and in the mayor’s hasty preparations.

Two other plots - dramatic and tragic - are planned, but not fully realized. The first words of the mayor: “I invited you, gentlemen, in order to tell you very unpleasant news: an auditor is coming to us,” supplemented by clarifications that this inspector is coming from St. Petersburg (and not from the province), incognito (secretly, without publicity), “ and also with a secret order,” caused a serious commotion. The challenge facing county officials, - quite serious, but doable: “take precautions”, how to prepare for a meeting with the formidable “incognito”: cover up, patch up something in the city - maybe it will blow through. The plot of the action is dramatic, life-like: the terrible auditor will not fall out of the blue, the ritual of receiving the auditor and defrauding him could be realized. There is no auditor in the first act yet, but there is a plot: the officials have awakened from their hibernation and are fussing about. There is no hint of a possible substitution, only the fear that they may not make it in time worries the officials, especially the mayor: “You just wait for the door to open and go…”

So, in the first action the contours are indicated future drama, in which only the officials could depend on the favorable outcome of the audit. The mayor's message about the letter he received and the possible arrival of the auditor is the basis for the emergence of a dramatic conflict, which is quite common in any situation associated with the sudden arrival of the authorities. From the second act to the finale of the play, a comedy plot unfolds. The comedy reflected the real world of official bureaucracy as if in a mirror. In laughter, this world, shown from the inside out, revealed its usual features: falsehood, window dressing, hypocrisy, flattery and the omnipotence of rank. Hastening to the hotel where the unknown visitor from St. Petersburg was staying, the mayor hurried into the comedic “behind the mirror”, into the world of false, but quite plausible ranks and relationships between people.

If the action in The Government Inspector had ended with the reading of Khlestakov’s letter, Gogol would have accurately realized the “thought” of the work suggested to him by Pushkin.

But the writer went further, ending the play with “The Last Appearance” and “Silent Scene”: the ending of “The Inspector General” brought the heroes out of the “looking glass” in which laughter reigned, reminding them that their self-deception did not allow them to “take precautions” and dulled their vigilance . In the finale, a third plot is planned - tragic. A gendarme who suddenly appears announces the arrival of not an imaginary, but a real auditor, terrible for officials not because of his “incognito”, but because of the clarity of the task set before him by the tsar himself. Every word of the gendarme is like a blow of fate, this is a prophecy about the imminent retribution of officials - both for sins and for carelessness: “The official who arrived by personal order from St. Petersburg demands you to come to him this very hour. He was staying at a hotel." The mayor’s fears expressed in the first act came true: “That would be nothing, damned incognito! Suddenly he’ll look in: “Oh, you’re here, my dears! And who, say, is the judge here? - "Lyapkin-Tyapkin." - “And bring Lyapkin-Tyapkin here! Who is the trustee of charitable institutions?” - “Strawberry”. - “And serve Strawberries here!” That’s what’s bad!” The appearance of the gendarme is the imposition of a new action, the beginning of a tragedy that the author takes beyond the stage. A new, serious “play”, in which no one will be laughing, should, according to Gogol, not be played in the theater, but take place in life itself.

Three plots begin with messages: the dramatic - with the message of the mayor, the comic - with the message of Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, the tragic - with the message of the gendarme. But only the comic ghost plot is fully developed. In a dramatic plot that remained unrealized, Gogol discovered comic potential, demonstrating not only the absurdity of the behavior of fooled officials, but also the absurdity of the action itself, in which the roles were pre-determined: both the auditor and the auditees diligently throw dust in each other’s eyes. The possibility of embodying the author's ideal is outlined in the finale of the comedy: the last and most important emphasis is placed by Gogol on the inevitability of punishment.

The play ends with the “petrification” scene. This is a sudden stop to the action, which from that moment could turn from comedic, ending with the exposure of Khlestakov, into tragic. Everything happened suddenly, unexpectedly. The worst happened: the officials were no longer in hypothetical, but in real danger. The “silent scene” is the moment of truth for officials. They are made to “petrify” by a terrible guess about imminent retribution. Gogol the moralist affirms in the finale of The Inspector General the idea of the inevitability of the trial of bribe-takers and embezzlers who have forgotten about their official and human duty. This trial, according to the writer’s conviction, must be carried out according to a personal command, that is, according to the will of the king himself.

The gendarme is a messenger from that ideal world created by Gogol’s imagination. In this world, the monarch not only punishes, but also corrects his subjects, wants not only to teach them a lesson, but also to teach them. The pointing finger of Gogol the moralist is also turned towards the emperor; it is not for nothing that Nicholas I remarked, leaving the box after the performance on April 19, 1836: “Well, a play! Everyone got it, and I got it more than everyone else!” Gogol did not flatter the emperor. Having directly indicated where retribution should come from, the writer essentially “insolently” him, confident in his right to preach, teach and instruct, including the king himself. Already in 1835, when the first edition of the comedy was created, Gogol was firmly convinced that his laughter was laughter inspired by a high moral ideal, and not the laughter of a scoffer or an indifferent critic of social and human vices.

Gogol's faith in the triumph of justice and in the moral effect of his play can be assessed as a kind of social and moral utopia generated by his enlightenment illusions. But if there were no these illusions, there would be no “Inspector General”. In it, comedy and laughter are in the foreground, but behind them stands Gogol’s belief that evil is punishable, and punishment itself is carried out in the name of liberating people from the illusory power of rank, from “bestial”, in the name of their spiritual enlightenment. “Having seen his shortcomings and mistakes, a person suddenly becomes higher than himself,” the writer emphasized. “There is no evil that cannot be corrected, but you need to see what exactly the evil is.” The arrival of the auditor is not at all a “duty” event. The Inspector is important not as a specific character, but as a symbol. It’s like the hand of an autocrat, just and merciless to lawlessness, reaching out to the provincial backwater.

In “The Inspector General's Denouement,” written in 1846, Gogol emphasized the possibility of a broader interpretation of the comedy's ending. The inspector is “our awakened conscience,” sent “by the Named Supreme Command,” by the will of God, reminding man of his “high heavenly citizenship”: “Whatever you say, the inspector who is waiting for us at the door of the tomb is terrible. As if you don’t know who this auditor is? Why pretend?Auditorthis one is our awakened conscience, which will force us to suddenly and at once look at ourselves with all our eyes. Nothing can be hidden from this auditor. ...Suddenly such a monster will be revealed to you, within you, that your hair will stand up in horror.” Of course, this interpretation is only one of the possible interpretations of the symbolically polysemantic ending of the comedy, which, according to the author’s plan, should influence both the mind and soul of the audience and readers.
(based on Internet materials)

In 1836, the comedy N.V. Gogol's "The Inspector General" appeared on stage for the first time Alexandrinsky Theater. Russian society was confused, bewilderment was reflected on the face of every spectator after watching the play: everyone found “The Inspector General” something unexpected, not previously known.

In “The Inspector General,” Gogol skillfully combines “truth” and “anger,” that is, realism and bold, merciless criticism of reality. With the help of laughter and mocking satire, Gogol exposes such vices of Russian reality as veneration, corruption, arbitrariness of the authorities, ignorance and bad education. In “Theatrical Travel” Gogol wrote: “Now the drama is more strongly tied to the desire to get a profitable place... Don’t they now have more power, money capital, a profitable marriage than love?”

The comedy “The Inspector General” presents a whole “corporation of various official thieves and robbers” blissfully existing in the provincial town of N.

When describing the world of bribe takers and embezzlers, Gogol used a number of artistic techniques, which enhance the characteristics of the characters.

Gogol gave critical characteristics of each of the main characters. These characteristics help to better understand the essence of each character. Mayor: “Although he is a bribe-taker, he behaves very respectably”; Anna Andreevna: “Raised half on novels and albums, half on chores in her pantry and maid’s room”; Khlestakov: “Without a king in my head. He speaks and acts without any consideration”, Osip: “A servant, such as servants who are several years old usually are”; Lyapkin-Tyapkin: “A person who has read five or six books is therefore somewhat freethinking”; Postmaster: “A man who is simple-minded to the point of naivety.”

Bright portrait characteristics are also given in Khlestakov’s letter to his friend in St. Petersburg. So, speaking about Strawberry, Khlestakov calls the trustee of charitable institutions “a complete pig in a yarmulke.”

The main literary device used by N.V. Gogol in his comic portrayal of an official is hyperbole. The city merchants and ordinary people, blinded by fear for their future and clutching at Khlestakov like a straw, are unable to appreciate the absurdity of what is happening. Absurdities are piled on top of each other: here is the non-commissioned officer who “flogged herself”, and Bobchinsky, asking to be brought to his attention Imperial Majesty, that “Peter Ivanovich Bobchinsky lives in such and such a city,” etc.

The climax and the denouement that immediately follows it come sharply and cruelly. Khlestakov’s letter gives such a simple and even banal explanation of everything that happened that at this moment it looks to the mayor, for example, much more implausible than all Khlestakov’s fantasies. A few words should be said about the image of the mayor. Apparently, he will have to pay for the sins of everyone around him. Of course, he himself is not an angel, but the blow is so strong that the mayor has something like an epiphany: “I don’t see anything: I see some pig snouts instead of faces, but nothing else...”

Next, Gogol uses a technique that has become so popular in our time: the mayor, breaking the principle of the so-called fourth wall, addresses the audience directly: “Why are you laughing? You’re laughing at yourself.” With this remark, Gogol shows that the action of the comedy actually goes far beyond the theater stage, is transferred from county town to the vast expanses of Russia. There is even a legend that Nicholas I, after watching the play, said: “Everyone got it, but I got it most of all!”

A silent scene: the inhabitants of a provincial town stand as if struck by thunder, mired in bribes, drunkenness, and gossip. But here comes a cleansing thunderstorm that will wash away the dirt, punish vice and reward virtue. In this scene, Gogol reflected his faith in the justice of the higher authorities, thereby castigating, as Nekrasov put it, “little thieves for the pleasure of big ones.” It must be said that the pathos of the silent scene does not fit with the general spirit of this brilliant comedy.

The genre of The Inspector General is a comedy, in which Gogol develops the traditions of social comedy laid down by Fonvizin and Griboyedov and supported by other Russian comedians. "Inspector" is satirical comedy, in which social and moral vices are sharply and caustically ridiculed Russian society and the state-bureaucratic structure of power. IN art world“The Inspector General” did not have room for a positive or lofty hero, unlike the great comedies of Fonvizin and Griboyedov. Honest and noble hero Comedy, as the author himself notes, showed laughter, causing righteous denunciation and angry denial of the unworthy and base. Also noteworthy is the absence in comedy love conflict- this testifies to Gogol’s refusal of established traditions, his principled position not to deviate from reality: firstly, in the light social conflict all people are equal, and secondly, in the distorted world of The Inspector General there is no love, there is only a parody of it.

To create satirical portraits of officials, Gogol uses various techniques, the leading of which is the grotesque. Exaggeration negative qualities and the behavior of officials goes beyond what is recognizable in ordinary life; the heroes are perceived as dolls, thanks to which for the viewer (reader) it is not the personal qualities of the heroes that come to the fore, but their vices. This technique characterizes the originality of the humanism of Gogol’s satire: his satire is aimed not at a person, but at exposing vice and sin in a person. In other words, Gogol attacks not a certain person Lyapkin-Tyapkin, but stupid complacency, insensitivity, selfishness, which are shown without any condescension, inevitable when depicting personal hero.

The action in comedy is characterized by fussiness, turmoil, and vaudeville. Everything in comedy happens quickly, stupidly, and absurdly. For example, hearing Khlestakov’s steps (the opening scene of the fourth act), the officials rush to the doors in fear, but cannot all leave at once, they interfere with each other. Similar comedic effects are characteristic of the entire play. Nevertheless, Gogol resorted to comic situations not only to cause simple, thoughtless laughter. The writer actively uses farce in action (farce is comedy genre and at the same time it is a type of comic laughter based on the creation of external effects). So, in the first act, the mayor, getting ready to go to Khlestakov’s hotel, in a hurry, instead of a hat, puts a paper case on his head. In the second act, Bobchinsky, eavesdropping on the mayor’s conversation with Khlestakov, got so carried away that he simply lay down with his whole body on the door separating them, and it fell off its hinges, and the unlucky hero, along with the door, flew into the middle of the room and broke his nose in the fall. Of course, Gogol does not introduce these scenes with the aim of simply making people laugh: the comedian makes visible two forces, driving development plot action - the fear of the mayor and the curiosity of the townspeople, especially Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky.

The author's laughter contains sarcasm and irony; humorous intonations slip through to a lesser extent. In addition to the grotesque, the play uses hyperbole and elements of fantasy. A striking example hyperbolas (in in this case quantitative metaphor) are details from Khlestakov’s story about his balls: for dessert they serve watermelon “for seven hundred rubles,” and soup arrives by boat “directly from Paris.” Watermelon and soup are the usual food of the minor official Khlestakov, and since in high society he is not accepted and his imagination is poor, then, in order to impress his listeners, he incredibly exaggerates the cost of a watermelon, and “delivers” the soup from afar. The element of fantasy is manifested, for example, in the “thirty-five thousand couriers” sent through the streets of St. Petersburg to his home with a request to head the department.

The most important means of comedy in the play is the technique of “ speaking names", which during the development of Russian comedy at the end of the 18th - early XIX centuries has undergone significant changes. In accordance with the classic tradition, Fonvizin in “The Minor” gives the character a name that fully corresponds main characteristic image and his role in comedy: Starodum, Prostakova, Skotinin, Pravdin, etc. Griboedov in “Woe from Wit” already uses quite a lot complex system speaking names, where heroes are named not only by one leading character trait (for example, Molchalin or Famusov), but also visual, evaluative, and associative names are introduced. Gogol's system of speaking names is extremely diverse. Here is the clarity of the Griboyedov surnames (compare Khlestova and Khlestakov), and their associativity (Zagoretsky - Poshlepkina), and the emphasized pairing (G. N. and G. D . in Griboyedov, Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky in Gogol). Despite the somewhat simple names of the police officers, they are given to the characters in order to describe in detail the activities of the police department in the city: for example, Svistunov keeps order, Pugovitsyn is with the authorities, Derzhimorda is suitable for cordoning off and protecting, and the private bailiff Ukhovertov is busy with “edification” and “education” » population. The names of retired officials (Lyulyukov, Korobkin, Rastakovsky), reflecting them, are also interesting former image behavior in service. The names of officials require separate comments: the name of the judge is formed from the combination “blunder-blunder”, but he is so ridiculous that the basis of the name becomes the confused “blunder-blunder”. The curious surname Strawberry contains a contradiction between the name and behavior of a person, which causes special hostility towards this character, and the collision of the name Christian and the surname Gibner of the district doctor clearly expresses the author’s idea of the death that his activity brings.

The effective means of comedy in the play is the speech of the characters. First of all satirical characterization officials are represented by their general speech portrait, consisting of vernacular, abusive words and soulless bureaucratic bureaucracy. The speech of the remaining characters accurately conveys their social status, character traits, as well as their inherent manner of expression. Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky speak hastily, chaotically, interrupting each other; the speech of the locksmith Poshlyopkina is heavy and angry; The merchants speak flatteringly and obsequiously. In the speech of the characters there is a large share of illogicality and absurdity of statements; the speech of the mayor’s wife and city landowners is replete with them. To Russian speech culture The mayor’s phrase that the non-commissioned officer’s wife “flogged herself” will forever be remembered. Gogol also uses such a technique as changing stable (phraseological) expressions, for example, Strawberry tells Khlestakov that his “sick people, like flies, get better.”

The innovation of Gogol the playwright was expressed in the fact that he combined two traditional type Comedy: sitcom and character comedy. In a comedy of characters, the comic is based on the image funny characters heroes, their shortcomings, vices, passions, unworthy morals. This, apparently, was what the comedy “The Inspector General” was supposed to be at first, but with the introduction of a “mirage” situation, that is, with a change in direction in the development of the plot, it also becomes a sitcom, where funny things arise on the basis of different plot situations.

The hero’s name, which is the most important humorous and satirical means in Gogol’s poetics, plays a decisive role in creating a character. It is known that Gogol “invented” the names, patronymics and surnames of his characters extremely painstakingly

Thanks to his pitiful, homely appearance, Gogol’s comic character, from the very first pages of the work, receives a definitely tragic overtones and rises to the status of a tragicomic hero. This feature of Gogol’s characters was also emphasized by Yu. Tynyanov: “Masks can be either comic or tragic - Gogol has two levels: high, tragic, and low, comic. They usually go side by side, successively replacing each other.”

About language comic means N.V. Gogol. It should be noted right away that there is no single and established “comic language”. The language of the comic character, along with the comic language of the narrator, is unique to each author, unlike others, since it is determined by various reasons: the author’s individual style, involvement in various literary movements and schools, inherited literary traditions, historical and political events of a given time, and so on. . A prerequisite is that the speech of the characters should reveal their main characteristics, both personal and social, and should reflect the life, thoughts, judgments and behavior of the characters.

It should also be noted that in creating his unique comic style, Gogol relies on both European and Russian literary traditions. In Gogol's irony one can notice the influence of Stern, but Gogol transforms the ironic technique of the English writer, including it in his special system of interacting humorous and satirical means. Irony becomes an effective weapon in the writer's comic tale, which he uses to discover and expose the weaknesses and vices of his characters and the comic situation as a whole. In the story “How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” there is an ironic description of the “only”, “amazing” and “beautiful” puddle of Mirgorod, which “occupies almost the entire area” and which the mayor calls a “lake”. Besides the irony in this passage The technique of a solemn and laudatory tone is also used, which helps Gogol expose the subject of the comic - the city of Mirgorod and its inhabitants, emphasizing all their banality and insignificance.

"The Inspector General" as a new type of comedy:

The innovative understanding of the comic in "The Inspector General" was expressed

1) through defining the essence of comedy (the idea, thought rules the play);

2) in the choice of the only positive hero - this is laughter (in “Theater Travel” Gogol will say that no one noticed him);

3) in the way of creating characters (they are not caricatures, not comedic types, at the core of each is the discrepancy between their essence and their ideas about themselves);

4) in the creation of the Khlestakov type and the concept of Khlestakovism “born” from him.

Gogol did not intend to specifically destroy anyone in the comedy, satirically expose anyone, etc. Gogol portrays everyone through one person. With “The Inspector General” the implementation of his moralizing tendencies begins and the parable nature of his creative style is revealed. This is the reason for the immortality of comedy, its life on eternal times. Bakhtin’s understanding of Gogol’s laughter as bright and positive is also connected with this. It is no coincidence that the comparison of Gogol’s laughter with the position of Cervantes is common. Of course, in comedy there are also purely comedic situations. From the sitcom there are numerous examples: Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky in every step, a letter from the governor to his wife on a tavern account, the “rivalry” between mother and daughter, etc. Gogol, as in other future works, brilliantly uses onomastics. But all this happened before Gogol. There was no Gogolian principle of a “universal expression of the role,” which he wrote about in “A warning for those who would like to play “The Inspector General” properly.