Topic composition: Analysis of the collection of stories by Gogol “Mirgorod. The problem of the meaning of human life in the collection of short stories N

"Mirgorod" by N.V. Gogol

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is an outstanding master of words, a brilliant prose writer and an unsurpassed satirist. At the time when Gogol began his literary activity, the main question community development in Russia was the question of the abolition of serfdom. I continue the humanistic, anti-serfdom traditions of Radishchev, Fonvizin, Pushkin and Griboyedov. Gogol, with his annihilating laughter, breaks this system and promotes the development of democratic progressive ideas in Russia.

“Tales that serve as a continuation of “evenings on a farm near Dikanka” - such is the subtitle of “Mirgorod”. Both content and characteristic features of its style, this book opened a new stage in creative development Gogol. There is no place for romance and beauty in the depiction of the life and customs of the Mirgorod landlords. Human life here is entangled in a web of petty interests. There is no lofty romantic dream, no song, no inspiration in this life. Here is the kingdom of self-interest and vulgarity.

In Mirgorod, Gogol parted ways with the image of a simple-minded storyteller and spoke to readers as an artist who boldly reveals the social contradictions of our time.

From cheerful and romantic boys and girls, inspirational and poetic descriptions of Ukrainian nature, Gogol moved on to depicting the prose of life. In this book, the critical attitude of the writer to the musty life of the old-world landowners and the vulgarity of the Mirgorod "existents" is sharply expressed.

The realistic and satirical motifs of Gogol's work are deepened in The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich. The story of the stupid litigation of two inhabitants of Mirgorod is comprehended by Gogol in a sharply accusatory way. The life of these inhabitants is devoid of the atmosphere of patriarchal simplicity and naivety. The behavior of both heroes arouses in the writer not a soft smile, but a feeling of bitterness and anger: "It's boring in this world, gentlemen!" This sharp replacement of a humorous tone with a naked satirical one reveals the meaning of the story with the utmost clarity. A seemingly funny, funny anecdote turns in the mind of the reader into a deeply dramatic picture of reality.

Gogol, with his characteristic thoroughness, peers into the characters of his heroes: two bosom friends. They are “the only two friends” in Mirgorod – Pererepenko and Dovgochkhun. But each of them is on their own. There seemed to be no such force capable of upsetting their friendship. However, a stupid accident caused an explosion, arousing the hatred of one for the other. And one unfortunate day friends became enemies.

Ivan Ivanovich really misses the gun, which he saw at Ivan Nikiforovich. The gun is not just a “good thing”, it should strengthen Ivan Ivanovich in the minds of his noble birthright. His nobility, however, was not ancestral, but acquired: his father was in the clergy. All the more important for him to have his own gun! But Ivan Nikiforovich is also a nobleman, and even a real, hereditary one! He also needs a gun, although since he bought it from a Turchin and had in mind to enroll in the police, he has not yet fired a single shot from it. He considers it sacrilege to exchange such a “noble thing” for a brown pig and two sacks of oats. That is why Ivan Nikiforovich became so inflamed and this ill-fated “gander” flew off his tongue.

In this story, even much stronger than in the previous one, the ironic manner of Gogol's writing makes itself felt. Gogol's satire is never revealed naked. His attitude to the world seems good-natured, gentle, friendly. Well, really, what bad can be said about such a wonderful person as Ivan Ivanovich Pererepenko! Natural kindness wells up from Ivan Ivanovich. Every Sunday he puts on his famous bekesha and goes to church. And after the service, he, prompted by natural kindness, will surely bypass the poor. He sees a beggar woman and starts a cordial conversation with her. She expects alms, he will talk, talk and go away.

This is how the “natural kindness” and compassion of Ivan Ivanovich looks like, turning into hypocrisy and perfect cruelty. “Ivan Nikiforovich is also a very good person.” "Also" - obviously, he is a man of the same kind soul. Gogol does not have direct denunciations in this story, but the accusatory orientation of his letter reaches extraordinary strength. His irony seems good-natured and gentle, but how much true indignation and satirical fire is in it! For the first time in this story, bureaucracy also becomes the target of Gogol's satire. Here are the judge Demyan Demyanovich, and the magistrate Dorofey Trofimovich, and the secretary of the court Taras Tikhonovich, and the nameless clerk, with "eyes that looked askance and drunk", with his assistant, from whose breath "the presence room turned into a drinking house for a while" , and mayor Pyotr Fedorovich. All these characters seem to us to be prototypes of the heroes of The Government Inspector and officials of the provincial town from Dead Souls.

The composition of "Mirgorod" reflects the breadth of Gogol's perception of modern reality and at the same time testifies to the scope and breadth of his artistic searches.

All four stories of the "Mirgorod" cycle are connected by the internal unity of the ideological and artistic design.

However, each of them has its own distinctive style features. The originality of “The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” lies in the fact that here the method of satirical irony characteristic of Gogol is most clearly and vividly expressed. The narration in this work, as in the "Old World Landowners", is conducted in the first person - not from the author, but from some fictional narrator, naive and simple-hearted. It is he who admires the valor and nobility of Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich. It is the “beautiful puddle” of Mirgorod, the “glorious bekesh” of one of the heroes of the story and the wide trousers of the other that bring him to tenderness. And the stronger his enthusiasm is expressed, the more obvious the emptiness and insignificance of these characters is revealed to the reader.

It is easy to see that the narrator acts as a spokesman for the self-consciousness of the people. In the way Rudy Panko perceives and evaluates the phenomena of reality, one can see the humor and grin of Gogol himself. The beekeeper is the spokesman for the moral position of the author. In "Mirgorod" the artistic task of the narrator is different. Already in "Old World Landowners" he cannot be identified with the author. And in the story of the quarrel, he is even more distant from him. The irony of Gogol is completely naked here. And we guess that the subject of Gogol's satire is, in essence, the image of the narrator. It helps a more complete solution of the satirical task set by the writer.

Only once in the story about the quarrel does the image of the narrator, who was not touched by the author's irony, appears before us in the final phrase of the story: "It's boring in this world, gentlemen!" It was Gogol himself who, as it were, pushed the framework of the story apart and entered it in order to openly and angrily, without a shadow of irony, pronounce his sentence. This phrase crowns not only the story of the quarrel, but the entire “Mirgorod” cycle. Here is the core of the whole book. Belinsky remarked subtly and accurately: "Gogol's stories are funny when you read them, and sad when you read them." Throughout the book, the writer creates a judgment on human vulgarity, which becomes, as it were, a symbol of modern life. But it is precisely here, at the end of the story of the quarrel, that Gogol openly, in his own name, pronounces the final verdict on this life.

In The Old World Landowners and The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich, Gogol first spoke to readers as a “poet of real life,” as an artist boldly exposing the ugliness of social relations in feudal Russia. Gogol's laughter did a great job. He had tremendous destructive power. He destroyed the legend about the inviolability of the feudal-landowner foundations, debunked the halo of imaginary power created around them, exposed all the abomination and inconsistency to the "people's eyes". modern writer political regime, did judgment on it, awakened faith in the possibility of a different, more perfect reality.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is an outstanding master of words, a brilliant prose writer and an unsurpassed satirist. At the time when Gogol began his literary activity, the main issue of social development in Russia was the question of the abolition of serfdom. I continue the humanistic, anti-serfdom traditions of Radishchev, Fonvizin, Pushkin and Griboyedov. Gogol, with his annihilating laughter, breaks this system and promotes the development of democratic progressive ideas in Russia.

“Tales that serve as a continuation of “evenings on a farm near Dikanka” - such is the subtitle of “Mirgorod”. Both the content and the characteristic features of its style, this book opened a new stage in the creative development of Gogol. There is no place for romance and beauty in the depiction of the life and customs of the Mirgorod landlords. Human life here is entangled in a web of petty interests. There is no lofty romantic dream, no song, no inspiration in this life. Here is the kingdom of self-interest and vulgarity.

In Mirgorod, Gogol parted ways with the image of a simple-minded storyteller and spoke to readers as an artist who boldly reveals the social contradictions of our time.

Gogol, with his characteristic thoroughness, peers into the characters of his heroes: two bosom friends. They are “the only two friends” in Mirgorod - Pererepenko and Dovgochkhun. But each of them is on their own. There seemed to be no such force capable of upsetting their friendship. However, a stupid accident caused an explosion, arousing the hatred of one for the other. And one unfortunate day friends became enemies.

This is how the “natural kindness” and compassion of Ivan Ivanovich looks like, turning into hypocrisy and perfect cruelty. “Ivan Nikiforovich is also a very good person.” “Also” - obviously, he is a man of the same kind soul. Gogol does not have direct denunciations in this story, but the accusatory orientation of his letter reaches extraordinary strength. His irony seems good-natured and gentle, but how much true indignation and satirical fire is in it! For the first time in this story, bureaucracy also becomes the target of Gogol's satire. Here are the judge Demyan Demyanovich, and the magistrate Dorofey Trofimovich, and the secretary of the court Taras Tikhonovich, and the nameless clerk, with "eyes that looked askance and drunk", with his assistant, from whose breath "the presence room turned into a drinking house for a while" , and mayor Pyotr Fedorovich. All these characters seem to us to be prototypes of the heroes of The Government Inspector and officials of the provincial town from Dead Souls.

The composition of "Mirgorod" reflects the breadth of Gogol's perception of modern reality and at the same time testifies to the scope and breadth of his artistic searches.

All four stories of the "Mirgorod" cycle are connected by the internal unity of the ideological and artistic design.

However, each of them has its own distinctive style features. The originality of “The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” lies in the fact that here the method of satirical irony characteristic of Gogol is most clearly and vividly expressed. The narration in this work, as in the "Old World Landowners", is conducted in the first person - not from the author, but from some fictional narrator, naive and ingenuous. It is he who admires the valor and nobility of Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich. It is the “beautiful puddle” of Mirgorod, the “glorious bekesh” of one of the heroes of the story and the wide trousers of the other that bring him to tenderness. And the stronger his enthusiasm is expressed, the more obvious the emptiness and insignificance of these characters is revealed to the reader.

In The Old World Landowners and The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich, Gogol first spoke to readers as a “poet of real life,” as an artist boldly exposing the ugliness of social relations in feudal Russia. Gogol's laughter did a great job. He had tremendous destructive power. He destroyed the legend about the inviolability of the feudal-landowner foundations, debunked the halo of imaginary power created around them, exposed to the "people's eyes" all the abomination and inconsistency of the contemporary political regime of the writer, held judgment on him, awakened faith in the possibility of a different, more perfect reality.

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is one of the most mysterious and enigmatic Russian writers.

Recreating the era of the heroic past of his Motherland on the pages of the story, Gogol conveys all the shades of feelings, excitement and suffering of the Ukrainian people - proud and warlike Cossacks, with all their virtues and shortcomings, courage and cowardice, kindness and cruelty, a sense of brotherhood and betrayal.

The story "Taras Bulba" is a heroic illumination of the era, characters, customs, extraordinary expression of style, violent brightness of verbal colors. "... Isn't all the Cossacks here, with their daring, wild life, carelessness and laziness, their violent orgies and bloody raids." The acquisition of the past is achieved in Gogol not by a scrupulous display of historical chronicles, not by archaeological thoroughness of details, but by a generalization of events, by the romantic fullness of images, when the dramatic fates of the heroes acquire epic proportions.

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………...3

Chapter 1. Ideological originality of the collection "Mirgorod"……………….…………...8
1.1. The creative history of the collection "Mirgorod"…………………………………..8

1.2. The ideological and artistic origins of "Mirgorod"………………………....11

1.3. The meaning of the name of the collection and its ideological and philosophical symbolism…………17
Chapter 2

2.1. The ratio of ethical and aesthetic in the collection "Mirgorod"………24

2.2. The problem of the “limited world” in the story “Old-world landowners”…………………………………………………………… ...........27

2.3. The problem of the spiritual underdevelopment of the heroes of the second part of the collection "Mirgorod"…………………………………………………………………………...33

Chapter 3. Collection "Mirgorod" as an artistic whole……………………..48
3.1. Features of the compositional structure of the collection "Mirgorod"………...48

3.2. Genre originality of the stories of the collection…………………………………….51

3.2.1. Idyllic and Sentimental Traditions in “Old World Landowners”………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

3.2.2. Correlation of historical and folklore in the poetics of the story “Taras Bulba”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………55

3.2.3. Fantastic and real in the story "Viy"……………………………...61

3.2.4. The specifics of the grotesque in the "Tale of a Quarrel"…………………………………….68
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….71

References……………………………………………………………………73

Introduction

This work is devoted to the study of the ideological and artistic originality of the collection of N.V. Gogol "Mirgorod".

Relevance research topic is due to the overdue need to revise the traditional assessments of certain aspects of the ideological and artistic content of the stories of the Mirgorod cycle, taking into account both the complexity of the artistic world of these stories and the recently established view of Gogol in literary criticism as Orthodox writer.

In addition, Gogol is such a page of our cultural and spiritual life, where there is always something to think about, something to be surprised at, something to look at with a new, fresh look. According to modern Gogol scholars, Gogol's works require a new, fresh reading.

Despite the comprehensive study of the problems of Gogol's works, some aspects of it have not yet found exhaustive coverage in literary science. In addition, the phenomenon of "Gogol as an artist" is so inexhaustible that researchers use the term "mysterious" Gogol.

Creativity N.V. Gogol has long been the subject of domestic literary criticism. One of the most important are the works of Yu.V. Manna. In his work "Gogol's Poetics" Yu.V. Mann considers the creative evolution of N.V. Gogol from Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka to Dead Souls. The researcher reveals the features of the writer's artistic world, the general principles of poetics, the author's position, ways of creating the comic in the works of N.V. Gogol.
No less significant for understanding the writer's work and the work of G.A. Gukovsky "Gogol's Realism", Yu.M. Lotman "At the school of the poetic word. Pushkin. Lermontov. Gogol.
One of the latest generalizing works on the work of N.V. Gogol is the book by M. Weisskopf “Gogol's Plot. Morphology. Ideology. Context". Its author analyzes the principles of plot construction of the writer's works, considering them in the context of the literary era.

As for the Mirgorod collection itself and the four short stories included in it, we turn mainly to traditional Gogol studies, represented by a large number of solid studies of a monographic nature and an even larger number of articles, starting from the time the second collection of Gogol's works was published, allowing ourselves, however , challenge some of the provisions.

Writers - contemporaries of Gogol kindly greeted the collection "Mirgorod". Literary critic and art theorist S.P. Shevyrev accepts Gogol's work with its characteristic features: natural (Ukrainian) humor and comedy, pathos, figurativeness, fidelity to feeling, but at the same time does not recognize the author's right to a special path in literature, to choose subjects of description and ways of presenting material, putting forward ordinary literary criteria incompatible with originality. [See: 58, p. fourteen]

Young critic V.G. Belinsky first expressed his opinion about Mirgorod in the Molva newspaper when he wrote about new books: in “Arabesques” (“Nevsky Prospect” and “Notes of a Madman”) and then “Mirgorod” prove that his talent does not fall, but gradually rises ”(Molva, 1835. No. 15. New books. Arabesques ... N. Gogol ... Mirgorod ... N. Gogol ... St. 239-242). [Cit. by: 15, p. 357]

In the literary criticism of the 20th century, the collection was interpreted in different ways. So, T.A. Gramzina singles out "three lines of Gogol's work, which were clearly identified in Mirgorod": "satirical" ("The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nnkiforovich quarreled"), "heroic-pathetic" ("Taras Bulba") and "fantastic" ("Viy").

V.V. Ermilov, in his studies of Gogol's work, paid great attention to the writer's nationality, his connection with Pushkin's themes and motives, the origins of his romantic worldview, the historicism of "Taras Bulba:" Gogol did not resort to any means of embellishing the struggle, softening, obscuring the features of the era, severity and rudeness wars...".

The latest scientific edition of Mirgorod in the academic series Literary Monuments was prepared by V.D. Denisov. In his opinion, the work of N.V. Gogol is marked by the great power of artistic creation, life-creation, possession of a certain miracle of revitalizing images, which cannot be rationally explained. It makes the reader think about the fate of Russia, Ukraine, and the world as a whole. Moreover, life itself opens up before him, as it were, both past and present.

Object of study our work is a collection of N.V. Gogol "Mirgorod".

Subject of study– ideological and artistic originality of the collection.

Purpose of the study- to determine the features of the ideological and artistic originality of the collection of N.V. Gogol "Mirgorod".

Research objectives:

To study the creative history of the collection "Mirgorod";

To analyze the ideological and artistic origins of Mirgorod;

Indicate the meaning of the name of the collection and its ideological and philosophical symbolism;

Analyze the problems of the stories of "Mirgorod";

Consider the features of the compositional structure of the collection "Mirgorod";

Explore genre originality collection of stories .

Research methods- historical-literary and system-typological.

Theoretical and methodological basis of the study are the works of I.A. Vinogradova, M.N. Virolainen, G.A. Gukovsky, V.M. Guminsky, V.D. Denisova, V.V. Ermilova, I.A. Esaulova, V.A., Yu.M. Lotman, Yu.V. Mann and other domestic critics and literary critics who wrote about Mirgorod.

Scientific novelty The work is to systematize and generalize the various points of view of researchers on the problem of the ideological and artistic originality of the collection of N.V. Gogol "Mirgorod".

The practical significance of the work consists in the possibility of using the materials and results of the study in the school study of literature as part of the basic course or in optional classes.

Structure and scope of work. The work consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, notes and a list of references, including 66 titles. The total amount of work was 76 pages.

Chapter 1. Ideological originality of the collection "Mirgorod"

1.1. Creative history of the collection "Mirgorod"

It is customary to begin the creative history of Mirgorod with Gogol's trip to his homeland in the summer of 1832. However, he himself, sending a new collection to his mother on April 12, 1835, called the stories "quite old." This indication can also be explained by the fact that they were based on some old impressions and developments - perhaps even in gymnasium times. At the same time, the idea of the second Ukrainian cycle was influenced by the teaching of General History at the Patriotic Institute (1831-1834), and Gogol's studies of medieval, Russian and Ukrainian history, and the reading of chronicles, Ukrainian, Russian and Western European folklore, Russian and foreign classics, romantic works, and, of course, work on Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, which reflected the fate of the Cossacks, which Gogol considered the root and foundation of the whole people. According to the author, the new cycle “served as a continuation”, a successor to the previous one (which is indicated by the repetition of its structure: two parts, four stories, and the development of the main themes and motives).

In this regard, the heroic-mystical Cossack line of Mirgorod continues the Terrible Revenge and partly The Lost Letter, the reduced-domestic, grotesque - Sorochinsky Fair and the story of Shponka, the love story - May Night and The Night Before Christmas and, finally, from the first published story - "Evening on the eve of Ivan Kupala" - the themes of betrayal, apostasy, Christian and "Kupala" motives of the cycle are inherited. This cycle, in the eyes of the author, "reconciled", united and continued the different beginnings of his work, indicated fragmentarily in "Evenings ..." and "Arabesques". No wonder Gogol never again republished these collections separately: he later made Mirgorod the second volume of the Collected Works of 1842, for which he significantly revised the stories Viy and, especially, Taras Bulba. At the same time, the writer made a special note that readers can begin acquaintance with his work immediately with this volume, bypassing "Evenings ...", that is, in fact, he recognized "Mirgorod" as a creation worthy of an artist-scientist who reveals to his contemporaries the truth about life.

The common handwritten source for the Mirgorod cycle, with the exception of the story “On Two Ivans,” is Gogol’s notebook, which belonged to I.S. Aksakov. In this notebook, starting from the 2nd sheet (the 1st sheet is considered lost), there are notes on the history of Little Russia, the first draft of the story "The Nose", artistic excerpts "I need to see the colonel" and "Rudokopov", a historical fragment "Neoplatonic Alexandria » and untitled draft versions"Old World Landowners", "Taras Bulba", "Viya".

Apparently, Gogol initially intended to use his notebook for historical works about Little Russia, although several times he entered fragments of other topics there, and then he gave all the remaining pages to Ukrainian stories, the composition of which, unlike the titles, had already been determined by that time. An analysis of their drafts shows that, as a rule, they were written in parts - based on previously made sketches, and most of the changes were made during the recording or when it was immediately finalized. Judging by the main variants of the handwriting, the draft autograph of the "Old World Landowners" was completed no earlier than February - March, and "Viya" - no earlier than December 1834, work on the draft version of "Taras Bulba" continued from February-March to October-November ( more than half a year), and the identity of the handwriting and ink in its different places suggests that work on them sometimes went on simultaneously.

There are no remarks in the censorship case of the Mirgorod collection. The book was prepared for publication at the end of December 1834, when the collection "Arabesques" was already being printed. Preliminary permission for its release on December 29 was given by the censor V.N. Semenov (1801-1863), a writer, a graduate of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, respectful of Pushkin (being in office since 1830, it was he who usually censored the publications of the Pushkin circle, the Literary Gazette and the almanac Northern Flowers, was familiar through Pushkin with Gogol, who sometimes read to him what was written in order to find out Semyonov’s opinion about this and as a censor). Since the second part of the collection was typed from printed and handwritten text, there was a “gap” between the stories, which was filled in by the note “Error”, referring to “Viy”, and a new preface to the story “On Two Ivans”. However, then it was removed either by Gogol himself, or, when viewing the printed second part of the collection, A.V., appointed by his censor. Nikitenko: this “Foreword” implied his own censorship notes when the text was first published in A.F. Smirdin "Housewarming". Such a withdrawal led to the fact that in the middle of the second book there was again a blank page. To avoid re-typesetting, Gogol supplemented the previous story "Viy" with a new ending: a conversation of Khoma's friends about his fate - and made the necessary changes in the text, apparently also because the story was written last and processed less than others.

Like Gogol's previously published books - "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" and "Arabesques" - the collection "Mirgorod" consisted of two books-parts with a separate table of contents in each. The collection was published at the very end of February - beginning of March 1835. This follows from Gogol's correspondence of that time.

On February 20, he informed M.P. Pogodin that the book “has already been printed” and “should go on sale” tomorrow, and on March 10 wrote S.P. Shevyrev to Moscow, which sends the collection to him, and through him - to I.V. Kireevsky and N.I. Nadezhdin, and asked him to comment on his new books. Apparently, now they all seemed to the author as a whole: after all, the appearance of “Arabesques. Various works by N. Gogol, which he called a collection of "all sorts of things", reflecting various aspects of his St. Petersburg life as an artist, historian, teacher and thinker, were to be accompanied by a reprint of "Evenings ..." (both books were submitted to censorship and allowed to be printed at the same time ), and Mirgorod, which came out next, had the subtitle “Tales that serve as a continuation of Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”. In addition, on the back of the publisher's cover of "Arabesques" an announcement was placed: "His Gogol. In a short time there will be a continuation of Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, ”while the advertisement on the cover of Mirgorod read:“ Sold in all bookstores. The price for both parts is 12 rubles. - There you can also get a recently published book: “Arabesques. Novels and various works of N. Gogol. The price for both parts is 12 rubles. - In a short time, the second edition of "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", by Gogol, will be released. The price for both volumes is 12 rubles. Those who wish can address the booksellers in advance and receive a ticket. Thus, the signatory would receive a kind of "collected works" of the author in three books (for which, apparently, it was necessary to retroactively change the subtitle "Arabesque", focusing on the "Tales" of the collection - in contrast to other "works").

1.2. Ideological and artistic origins of "Mirgorod"

Determining the ideological and artistic origins of the Mirgorod cycle of stories by N.V. Gogol, several factors should be taken into account: the discussion about whether the Ukrainian or Russian writer Gogol, and the problem of whether he belongs to romanticism or realism, and the question raised recently about his religiosity.

Love for his native Ukraine, the impressions of childhood and youth, the writer took as the basis of his works, especially early ones. The feeling of Gogol's connection with his small homeland, with the Ukrainian material underlying his first stories, was organic. But at the same time, we take into account the three sources of originality from which Russian poets drew inspiration - these are folk songs, proverbs and the word of church pastors. The writer points to them in his article “What, finally, is the essence of Russian poetry and what is its peculiarity” .

The idea of the national identity of Russian culture became the main point of the literary program of Russian romanticism in the 20s of the 19th century. in line with which Gogol's literary work of the 1920s and 1930s developed.

In the spirit of early romanticism, Gogol conceives beauty in unity, harmony of the spiritual and the sensual. Gogol is extremely characteristic of the poeticization of the beauty of the human body, material, "corporeal", which contains beautiful spirituality. The idea of life's fullness and intensity as beautiful embraces in Gogol's work both the sphere of the spiritual and the "external", objective. “Consonant combination” is beautiful not only in an individual, it should also be the principle of organizing human society. Thus, the content of the writer's aesthetic ideal naturally includes the dream of human unity, union, brotherhood, which gives Gogol's work a pronounced democratic character.

Being a continuation of "Evenings", - so Gogol himself stated, - "Mirgorod" seems to be based on the same structural principles. However, the contrast of the image in "Mirgorod" loses its "combining" meaning. Gogol's second collection is an important evidence of the ever-deepening tragedy of the writer's worldview. And the principle of contrast is now called upon not only to reveal the beauty of the ideal, but also to express the idea of its incompatibility with reality.

Like "Evenings", "Mirgorod" is organized by a single poetic thought, but now it is already the idea of "separation". Reality here is sharply divided into two opposites. The opposition of the bright, poetic world, possible only in folk fantasy or in the distant heroic past, and the "fragmented", small present is the essence of the poetic idea of "Mirgorod". There is no connection between these two worlds. Modern reality may look like a parody of the past. And it is no longer funny, but terrible, for the transformation of a person into a vulgar and philistine is terrible. In Mirgorod, both the sphere of the ideal (affirmation) and the sphere of reality (negation) acquire further development. Along with this, the critical orientation of Gogol's romanticism is growing. It is already contained in the most contrasting principle of the artistic organization of Mirgorod.

Gogol introduces the principles of romantic characterization and picturesqueness into historical research. To study a historical phenomenon means also to see it, and therefore Gogol attaches great importance to the pictorial detail, the “line”.

It is known that already the first works of Gogol struck his contemporaries with their closeness to reality, "the perfect truth of life" (Belinsky). But Gogol's "real poetry" was born on the basis of a romantic worldview and, in connection with this, had its own characteristics. Like other romantics, Gogol painfully experienced the process of the accession in life of material principles, philistine inertness, rampant bourgeois practicality.

The young Gogol is characterized by a sharply contrasting perception of reality, on the one hand - high ideal aspirations, on the other - inert "earthlyness". It is in two opposite aspects that reality is depicted in Gogol's works of the first half of the 1930s.

Gogol's contemporaries and some literary critics have worked hard to identify the artistic sources of Gogol's creations.

Here is what you can read from Mikhail Weiskopf in his book “Gogol's Plot”: “Depicting the judicial squabble between two fools, Gogol relied, in addition to philosophy, on an extensive fictional tradition. In addition to Narezhny (“Two Ivans”), often involved in this connection, it is permissible to recall, for example, Khemnitser, in whose fable “Two Neighbors” a devastating litigation over a pig is shown. Of the more relevant foreign sources, it is apparently worth mentioning Balzac and W. Scott ... ".

Some literary plots are sometimes, as it seems to us, artificially attached to Gogol. M.B. Khrapchenko, for example, draws a parallel between the scene of Andriy's execution and an episode from T.G. Shevchenko. The protagonist of Gaidamaks, Gonta, kills young sons baptized by their Polish mother in the Catholic faith, he kills, having come to the conclusion that this sacrifice is necessary for a successful struggle against the oppressors. We think that the motives of the act of Bulba and Gonti are too different to be able to see this parallel.

Some satirical tales by V.F. Odoevsky, with their themes and way of depicting the surrounding life, directly anticipate Gogol. Odoevsky addresses the theme of lack of spirituality and "woodenness" of secular life, which kills his living Russian heart in a person. One of the first in Russian literature of the 19th century, he begins to write about the bureaucratic routine and the infinity of judicial red tape, about the deadening automatism of bureaucratic practices. In The Story of a Rooster, a Cat and a Frog, Odoevsky depicts the Russian outback, the small town of Rezhensk, “three hundred miles from the provincial city” and achieves almost photographic accuracy of descriptions (streets with “knee-deep dirt”, food stalls with smelly fish, etc. .d.). Odoevsky's descriptions, while preserving the moral aspect characteristic of romanticism and denouncing the lack of spirituality of a "moldy life", when "not a single thought passes through the head", at the same time, with their specificity, recreate the atmosphere of provincial life: "A warm hut, a warm sheepskin coat, colorful wallpaper, the mice bury the cat, the sun shines all over the wall, the steam from the tea is a column ... ".

Of course, Gogol experienced the influence of these literary works, this manifested itself primarily in the everyday background of his stories.

And yet, the main source of the Mirgorod cycle of Gogol's stories was, first of all, Russian reality itself.

Gogol used the stories of M.S. Shchepkin as material for his creations. The incident told in "Old World Landowners" that Pulcheria Ivanovna took the appearance of a feral cat as a harbinger of her imminent death is taken from reality. A similar incident happened with Shchepkin's grandmother. Shchepkin once told Gogol about it, and he skillfully used it in his story [See: 21, p. 230].

The question of the autobiographical sources of the Mirgorod stories also deserves attention. The farm of the heroes of the story was decommissioned from the Gogol family estate - Vasilievka. The prototypes of Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna Tovstogubov were Gogol's grandfather and grandmother - Afanasy Demyanovich and Tatyana Semyonovna Gogol - Yanovskaya. The story reflected romantic story their marriage [See: 27, p. 31].

In addition to real prototypes, the heroes of the story also have obvious prototypes in Greek mythology - Philemon and Baucis, virtuous spouses who lived to a ripe old age in happiness and peace and received simultaneous death as a reward for mutual love from the gods.

In the spring of 1834, in the second half of the almanac "Housewarming" appeared "The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan
Nikiforovich". The delight of Gogol at that time was incomparable to anything. “The unusual content, types, an unprecedented, unheard-of natural language, humor never known to anyone - all this acted simply in an intoxicating way,” writes V. Veresaev.

“It is known for certain that in Mirgorod there really existed, - of course, under other names - Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich, who quarreled over a goose. However, they quarreled and reconciled repeatedly and often left in the same crew to file a complaint against each other, ”says I.A. Vinogradov.

The creativity and personality of A.S. Pushkin. "Pushkin! What a beautiful dream I had in my life, ”the writer exclaimed. [Cit. according to: 27, p. 87]

The main thing that brought Pushkin closer to Gogol was the nationality. An expression of devotion to the cause of Pushkin was the well-known "oath" after reading "Boris Godunov" - an oath of allegiance to the pure and selfless service of Russian literature.

A number of the most important themes and motives of Gogol's work are connected with
Pushkin's themes and motifs: exposure of the wild nobility, protest
against the emerging bourgeois predation, the defense of the small
man, thoughts about Russia, its present and future. Russia, its people
majestic. And the life of the motherland should become beautiful, like poetry
Pushkin. People should become bright, simple and wise, like Pushkin
and his poetry.

Speaking about the ideological origins of the Mirgorod cycle, one cannot avoid the question of Gogol's attitude to religion: "Gogol cannot be understood without the deepest attachment to religion."

Kindness, as one of the components of his ideal of a person, was for the writer inextricably linked with religiosity: “... the most important matter of life is a spiritual matter. The upbringing of the soul is the most important of all things, and we wallow in vulgarity and everyday trifles, but we don’t care about the soul. ”

Meanwhile, the religious and patriotic idea of "Taras Bulba" was ignored in the works of researchers of Gogol's work in the late 19th and early 20th centuries or was misinterpreted.

In the capital study "Gogol's Plot", Mikhail Weisskopf, in our opinion, abuses the parallels between Gogol's story and the Holy Scriptures.

Gogol in his works also acts as a researcher of the human soul and the human personality in general. The writer himself expressed the idea that in all the characters of his works he portrayed himself, i.e. different aspects of your psyche.

Gogol especially insisted on the communicative, bringing people together
the power of art. A genuine artist awakens “reciprocal strings” in the soul of another person, arouses in him a thirst for the great, “throws out solemn oaths” to devote himself entirely to serving noble, heroic goals. When reading the “wonderful lines”, “kindred souls” meet, uniting in one noble impulse: “God ... what a high, what a wonderful pleasure you bestow on a person, settling in one soul the answer to a hot question of another! How quickly these souls find each other, despite the abysses separating them!

So, the ideological and artistic sources of the Mirgorod cycle of Gogol's stories were the author's good knowledge of the life of the Ukrainian people, their history and poetic creativity (especially folklore), passion for romantic philosophy and literature, religious views, their own psychological observations and, of course, the influence of the great Pushkin, his contemporary and friend. Gravitating towards romanticism and creating his first works (“Hans Kuchelgarten”, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”) in a romantic spirit, Gogol in the collection “Mirgorod”, continuing the romantic tradition (“Taras Bulba”, to some extent “Viy” ), tends to a realistic method of depicting life and becomes a "poet of real life", takes the first steps along the path that was then marked by the achievements of the natural school.

1.3. The meaning of the name of the collection and its ideological and philosophical symbolism

Long seen distinguishing feature Gogol's creativity: depicting reality, he deliberately gives the depicted a territorial sign, and, determining the place of action of Dikanka, Sorochitsy, Mirgorod, Petersburg, endows them, if possible, with qualities of a planetary scale. In Gogol's narratives, the idea of space is constantly present and the motives of the road, travel, adventure, and magical movement over long distances endlessly vary. The creative goal of the author, in fact, is to find ways to expand and remove the spatial boundaries of the narrated.

From this point of view, the semantic unity of "Mirgorod" is more clearly manifested in relation to "Evenings", the first cycle of Gogol, the artistic super-task of which was the creation of a harmonious world, self-sufficient in its isolation. The artistic idea of "Mirgorod" is directly related to the continuation of the search for universal harmony.

Mirgorod is the name of the county town of the Poltava province, whose history dates back to the 11th century, when the Grand Duke Vladimir built a chain of fortifications on the eastern borders with the Wild Steppe to protect Kievan Rus; they were used both for meetings of the warring parties, and for the conclusion of trade deals. Therefore, one of the fortresses was named Mirgorod. The first mention of Mirgorod in the annals dates back to 1530, when the city received Magdeburg rights and a coat of arms; shield, on its azure field above - a golden cross, below - a silver eight-pointed star of the Virgin, the patroness of the Cossacks. Despite its name, the city became a major center for the manufacture of saltpeter and gunpowder; in 1575, the Polish king Stefan Batory made it a regimental one. The Mirgorod regiment was the third largest among the registered Cossack regiments, however, for participation in the uprisings of Pavlyuk and Ostrany (1637-1638), it was disbanded by decree of the Polish Sejm. The revival of the regiment took place at the beginning of the national liberation war of 1648-1654, it soon became famous in battles, and not without reason in July 1650, it was in Mirgorod that Bogdan Khmelnitsky began negotiations on the reunification of Ukraine and Russia. [See: 3, p. 436]

The ratio of the title, subtitle and two epigraphs of the collection implied their unity and commonality. The names of the city and village in Gogol's native land were memorable to him from childhood; moreover, the road from Vasilyevka to Dikanka and Poltava went “into” Ukraine, and the road to Mirgorod indicated the direction to the north-west, to Russia; the county town was mentioned in “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” (preface to the first and second books, the story “Sorochinsky Fair” and “The Night Before Christmas”). The subtitle "Mirgorod" denoted the genre of a literary work, asserted its creative connection with the well-known to the reader "Evenings ..." Pasichnik Rudy Pank and substantiated the introduction of epigraphs. At the same time, according to the meaning of the title, subtitle and epigraphs, Mirgorod as an artificial product of civilization was opposed to natural evenings and the farm as a secluded settlement in nature. Dikanka was then called not only the exemplary estate of the Kochubeevs, but also a certain “wild place” (a possible abode of “wild peasants” - the spirits of such a place, like “a field or forest ... guardian of treasures.” [On the etymology of the toponym, see: 65, v. 1, p. 436]

What kind of "city" appears "Mirgorod"? There are two different epigraphs about this. The first one speaks of a “small” city, which “has 1 rope factory, 1 brick factory, 4 water and 45 windmills. Geography of Zyablovsky". According to I.A. Esaulov, the source was the book of Professor E.F. Zyablovsky “Land description of the Russian Empire for all states (St. Petersburg, 1810, Ch. 1-4), where it is indicated: “Mirgorod near the Khorol River; distance from Moscow 708, and from St. Petersburg 908 versts. It has 4 churches, more than 1000 houses and up to 6500 inhabitants. Cossacks make up almost half of the inhabitants; there are many Jews. Fairs are: 1) on the fourth week of Great Lent; 2) on the day of Ascension; 3) September 8; and 4) December 6 numbers. On these, bargaining is carried out in more petty goods. It has: 1 rope factory, 1 brick factory, 4 water and 45 windmills. Having reduced this characteristic to a minimum, Gogol introduced the words “deliberately small” (“deliberately” meant “very” or “very”), clearly parodying the geographer’s heavy, somewhat archaic style and emphasizing the “lack of grandeur” of a small town. This corresponded to reality, because both earlier and later it resembled a village in Russia, expressing cities, towns, rivers, the number of monasteries and churches.

The source of the second epigraph: “Although bagels are baked from black dough in Mirgorod, they are quite tasty. From the notes of one traveler, ”cannot be established in principle, because this is a parody of the form and content of the sentimental“ notes of a traveler ”, who noted only delicious bagels from city attractions (most likely, because there is nothing else to remember). Thus, the epigraphs, according to V.D. Denisov seem to represent different views on the city (objective, impartial, "external", "official geographic" and personal, "internal", taste), but in essence both characterize only the earthly side, "city walls", where there is no spirituality (and, as it were, the residents themselves, because even bagels are “baked” here as if by themselves).

The real answer to the emerging question about the essence of society living in such a World City is a set of four stories with a reverse perspective: from the sentimental "nature" of the idyll to the artificial "urban" satire. In this context, not only the Mirgorod region itself, but also the whole “world” of the Ukrainian capital and province, where the action of the stories takes place (except for the story about the quarrel), and St. Petersburg, mentioned in the first story, where they rush from the province mercantile descendants of the Cossacks.

The question of the meaning of the title and epigraphs of the new Gogol collection arose one of the first. So, the reviewer of "Northern Bee" P.I. Yurkevich was perplexed: “Having called his book, we don’t know why, the name of the county town of the Poltava province, the author gave it two of the strangest epigraphs ... Now it’s fashionable to flaunt the strangeness of epigraphs that have nothing to do with the book.” [Cit. according to: 42, p. fourteen]

In addition, the name of the cycle also to some extent indicates its two sources - literary and folklore. Gogol's four stories (especially about the quarrel between two Ivans) in many ways clearly echo the works of Vasily Trofimovich Narezhny, a native of the Mirgorod region, whose family estate Ustivtsy was not far from Gogol's Vasilievka. "Slavensky Evenings" by V.T. Narezhny attracted the attention of enlightened fellow countrymen, who saw in his books a reflection of Little Russian life and were proud of "their" author (apparently, V.A. Gogol-Yanovsky belonged to them). And the stages of development of N.V. Gogol the writer reveals a certain similarity in genre and thematic terms with the work of Narezhny: both start as poets: with poems, poems, poetic drama, - then in prose they turn to national history (researchers noted the similarity of the names "Slavensky Evenings" and "Evenings ..." Gogol, as well as some of their "poetic" proximity).

A certain role in Gogol's orientation towards these works could also be played by fellow writers O.M. Somov, a writer-journalist who knew Narezhny and partly used his unfinished novel "Garkusha, the Little Russian Robber" in his story "Gaydamak", where Garkusha became the main character. However, Gogol not only “adopts” from Narezhny many features of Ukrainian life, storylines, situations, types of folk heroes, but gives them a new life, rethinks them in a different environment against the background of the works of this author known to the educated reader of that time.

The correspondence of the story "Mirgorod" to the work of Narezhny is obvious. We list the main plot parallels. “Two Ivans, or a Passion for Litigation” are close to Gogol’s satire and motifs of lawless love passion, and the kind childless couple Ulita and Kirik, who provided the young heroes with a place to meet, resembles old-world landowners, the return of two seminarians to their native places is the beginning of “Taras Bulba” and the night journey of the Bursaks from Viy, and the miraculous "resurrection" in the church of the drunken Pan Zanoza seems to parody the corresponding episodes of Viy.

In the "Little Russian story" by Narezhny "Bursak" main character- an orphan who does not know his parents (like Khoma Brut), - accidentally ends up on his father's estate and falls in love with his sister there; one of the bursaks named Sarvil likes to sleep in the weeds (like the theologian Khalyava), and when he is driven out of the bursa, he clings to the portly tavern of Mastridia, hosts in the tavern, she feeds and clothes him; the story depicts the life of the Bursa, with black colors - the Zaporizhzhya Sich and its customs. In a slightly different way, closer to the traditions of the military epic, the Sich is described in the story "Zaporozhets", which is usually compared with "Taras Bulba", where the possibilities of such an adventurous and historical plot were used to some extent.

A nativity scene (puppet theater) was also a kind of Mir-city, which Gogol mentions in the first published "Mirgorod" story. Popular then in Ukraine, the folk theater was a box in the form of a two-story house. The “action” consisted of a canonical (spiritual-religious) and everyday (farcical) part: on the upper tier there was a performance based on a plot from the Holy Scriptures, and on the lower tier interludes, scenes from folk life and so on were played. The vertepschik (according to Gogol - "rogue") imperceptibly for the audience sets in motion the puppets, for which he himself spoke, changing his voice according to the role. Most often, they went with a nativity scene at Christmas time, depicting the Nativity of Christ and the events associated with it; the prologue to the performance was the singing of carols and cants, sometimes accompanied by an orchestra of violin and tambourine. In "Mirgorod" there are also direct calls to the nativity scene (as in the dialogue between Ivan Ivanovich and a beggar woman), but most of the correspondences are no longer recognizable. A modern reader who is not familiar with the folk theater does not see, for example, in the “brown pig” who stole the court paper, the “naughty pig” from the den, which has long ceased to be fed, and does not correlate the comic folk duet “grandfather and woman” with the idyll of “two old men past century."

The toponym "Mirgorod" itself combines in its meaning locality and universality, "city" and "world", making the world equal to the city, and the city - to the world. Such an interpretation of the semantics of the title of the Gogol cycle of stories brings its spatial model closer not only to Plutarch's ideal of the Greek polis, but also to the ancient understanding of Rome (most likely also based on the tradition of the Greek polis classics) - which is reflected in the initial formula generally accepted for Roman written documents - " Urbi et orbi. To the above, one should add another paradoxical observation of A.S. Yanushkevich, who saw the palindromic “Royal Rome” in the title of the Mirgorod cycle.

Such a solid cultural foundation, of course, required its streamlining, numerous hints and allusions that contribute to a non-standard reading of the cycle. Considering the experience of "Evenings", which surprised contemporaries with "a lively description of a singing and dancing tribe", "fresh pictures of Little Russian nature, this gaiety", and no more, Gogol no longer seeks to match the extremes of being into a harmonious unity. Now, in "Mirgorod", the means of ordering the world is its measured division into extremes, not smoothing, but highlighting the contradictions of being.

The cycle of Mirgorod stories, designated by the writer himself as a continuation of Evenings on a Farm..., is faithful to the traditions of romantic aesthetics. The first collection of Gogol's stories taught the reader to love life, nature, good laughter. In the new cycle of stories, the author teaches moral lessons through the coverage of mostly negative aspects of life: vulgarity, cruelty, forgetfulness of Christian commandments.

Thus, Gogol rethought the classical spiritual tradition and offered its opposite resolution in Mirgorod. The sphere of the ideal WORLD-city turns into disunity, the tragic irreconcilability of opposing concepts that found integrity and harmonic expediency in "Evenings".

Chapter 2

2.1. The ratio of ethical and aesthetic in the collection "Mirgorod"

In the creative development of Gogol, the period of creating Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, and then Mirgorod, was marked by intense artistic searches. In a living connection with reality, new ideas were born. But they also demanded a new artistic solution, which the writer did not immediately find. [See: 3, p. 121]

A reflection of the creative difficulties that Gogol was experiencing at that time are his repeated statements in letters dating back to 1833. “It will soon be a year,” he informed Maksimovich on July 2, 1833, “no matter how I write a line. No matter how hard I force myself, no, and that’s all.” In a letter to Pogodin (September 28 of the same year), the writer declared with chagrin: “What a terrible year 1833 for me! How much I started, how much I burned out, how much I abandoned! Do you understand the terrible feeling: to be dissatisfied with yourself. Through deep reflection, through great creative work, Gogol went to the creation of his new creations with their unique artistic images.

Between new works and "Evenings on a farm near
Dikanka, however, certain connections have been preserved, which is especially evident in
stories of "Mirgorod". And Gogol emphasized this by giving "Mirgorod"
subtitle - "Tales that serve as a continuation of" Evenings on a farm near
Dikanka".

One of the main problems in Gogol's work is the relationship between the ethical and the aesthetic, goodness and beauty. [See: 3, p. 126]

This problem finds its expression in the figurative system of the Mirgorod cycle of stories, including in Gogol's favorite method of antithesis. Moreover, the contrast of certain components of his stories directly determines the peculiarity of their composition.

What is the reason for the writer's tendency to cyclical early stories? What is the meaning of this or that arrangement of stories in this or that cycle?

“The desire for cyclization, clearly manifested in Gogol’s prose at all stages of his work, had one curious aspect: Gogol puts some side of Russian reality (and human existence) at the basis of the image and gives the depicted a territorial sign (Mirgorod, St. Petersburg). At the same time, the aspect of life receives the sign of a part of the territory of Russia ... ".

MM. Bakhtin wrote about the connection between the composition of a work and the image of its author: “Any creation within the framework of a literary work is the statement of a character, narrator, narrator or lyrical hero, while the primary subject of the work as a single one is “clothed in silence”. We find the author outside the work as a person living his biographical life, but we meet him as the creator in the work itself. We meet him (that is, his activity) primarily in the composition of the work: he divides the work into parts.

So let's think about why the author of the Mirgorod cycle of stories arranged them in this way: two parts, in the 1st - the stories "Old-world landowners", "Taras Bulba"; in the 2nd - “Viy” and “How did Ivan Ivanovich quarrel with Ivan Nikiforovich”? And why in that order?

Researchers invariably note the presence of antithesis. But its meaning is interpreted differently. The majority focuses on the opposition of the heroism of "Taras Bulba" to the vulgarity of the life of Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich. Some contrast "Taras Bulba" and "Old World Landowners".

The composition of "Mirgorod" by S.I. Mashinsky presents it like this: “Both
parts of "Mirgorod" are built in contrast: the poetry of a heroic deed in
"Taras Bulba" opposed the vulgarity of the old world "existents",
and the tragic struggle and death of the philosopher Khoma Brutus further set off
miserable squalor and insignificance of the heroes of "The Tale of How He Quarreled
Ivan Ivanovich with Ivan Nikiforovich.

All four stories of the Mirgorod cycle are connected by the internal unity of the ideological and artistic design. We believe that, firstly, the material is arranged according to the degree of decrease of that human in Gogol's heroes, which is the embodiment of Christian commandments in them, and, secondly, the material is united in its relation to the theme of civilization. The first two stories reveal patriarchal or semi-patriarchal life, the second - poisoned by familiarization with civilization.

In the book “Creativity of N.V. Gogol" G.N. Pospelov speaks in passing in this regard: "... in his plans, Gogol wanted to contrast two eras of noble life, defending the "old times" and condemning the present."

I.A. Vinogradov believes that the fulfillment of the commandment of the Savior, which is the main content and meaning of the life of the Cossacks, is opposed in other stories of Mirgorod by the oblivion of Christian commandments by a person, his failure to fulfill his duty. “... If for all four stories of “Mirgorod” the idea of saving the soul is fundamental, then it received the deepest embodiment in “Taras Bulba”.

Having cast a general glance at the construction of the Mirgorod cycle, let us dwell on each story separately, considering them from the point of view of the thought we expressed about the conditionality of the composition of the collection by the ideological plan of the writer.

2.2. The problem of "limited world" in the story "Old-world landowners"

"Mirgorod" opens with the story "Old World Landowners". As F.Z. Kanunov, “there is, of course, some kind of artistic intention in the fact that the Old World Landowners open the collection, which the reader has the right to guess. Perhaps the story should help us think about how complex a person is, how important it is, without dwelling on the obvious, superficial, not to rush into assessments, to peer into him in order to notice the spiritual possibilities deeply hidden in him.

In the first story, the writer reflected the collapse of the old, patriarchal-local way of life. With irony - sometimes soft and sly, sometimes with a touch of sarcasm - he draws the life of his "old men of the past century", showing the limitations and vulgarity of their existence. The days of Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna pass dull and monotonous, not a single desire of them "flies over the palisade surrounding the small courtyard." Gogol chuckles at the ingenuous existence of his heroes. But at the same time, he seems to pity these people, bound by ties of patriarchal friendship, quiet and kind, naive and helpless.

The story about Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna reveals the dreary prosaism of their solitary existence. The image of old-world landowners is imbued with subtle humor. The heroes of the story cause a smile because they take their soulless existence for true life; a comical impression is produced by the almost solemn seriousness with which they perform their more than simple worldly affairs, their concentrated immersion in their little world. The contrast between the real content of life and how the characters themselves perceive it, between the imaginary and the real, attractive and vulgar, reveals the comic essence of the characters.

However, in the humor of the story, deeply mournful notes are also clearly felt, caused by the spectacle of the extinction of a person. Possessing attractive spiritual qualities, the heroes of the "Old World Landowners" are in the grip of petty feelings and motives. Having isolated themselves from life, they doomed themselves to severe trials of deep loneliness. Tragic beginnings come out with particular force in the story of the upheavals experienced by the heroes of the story. These shocks bring to life, awaken in them real human feelings. The inconsolable grief of Afanasy Ivanovich, who lost the only person close to him, his loneliness is drawn by the writer in truly tragic colors.

distinctive The peculiarity of the story is the depiction of the characters in close connection with social life.

In "Old World Landowners" the writer for the first time characterizes the characters, widely depicting the material and everyday "environment" in which they constantly reside. With great skill, Gogol uses the details of everyday life to identify the essential features of the life of the characters, their psychology.

The story about Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna begins, in fact, with the image of everyday life. “I can see a low house from here with: a gallery of small blackened wooden posts going around the whole house so that during thunder and hail you can close the shutters of the windows without getting wet with rain. Behind him is fragrant bird cherry, whole rows of low cherries and a yahontic sea of plums covered with a lead mat; spreading maple, in the shade of which a carpet is spread out for relaxation.

The landscape in "Old World Landowners" creates the impression of a small limited world, "where not a single desire flies over the palisade surrounding a small courtyard ...".

For all the narrowness and isolation of this little world, where sleep and food dominate, it is poetic in its own way, captivates with “dormant and at the same time some kind of harmonic dreams that you feel while sitting on a rustic balcony overlooking the garden, when beautiful rain is luxuriously makes noise, clapping on tree leaves, flowing down in murmuring streams and slandering sleep on your members, and meanwhile a rainbow sneaks up from behind the trees and, in the form of a dilapidated vault, shines with matte seven colors in the sky.

The details of the landscape that are given here are immediately overgrown with everyday details, revealing to the reader the slow, lazy rhythm of the characters’ lives: “In front of the house there is a spacious yard with low, fresh grass, with a trodden path from the barn to the kitchen and from the kitchen to the master’s quarters; a long-necked goose drinking water with young goslings, tender as fluff; a palisade hung with bundles of dried pears and apples and airy carpets, a wagon with melons standing near the barn, an unharnessed ox lying lazily near it. Along with the stagnation of everyday life, the writer draws the invariable constancy of the life behavior of the heroes of the story. “As soon as dawn broke (they always got up early) and the doors started their discordant concert, they were already sitting at the table and drinking coffee. After drinking coffee, Afanasy Ivanovich went out into the hallway and, shaking off his handkerchief, said: Kish, kish! Come on, geese, off the porch! In the yard he usually came across a clerk. He, as usual, entered into a conversation, asked about the work, with the greatest detail. Pulcheria Ivanovna’s “occupations” are described in the same way: “Pulcheria Ivanovna’s household consisted of constantly unlocking and locking the pantry, pickling, drying, and boiling countless fruits and plants. Her house was like a chemical laboratory. Under the apple tree, a fire was always laid out; and almost never removed from an iron tripod a cauldron or a copper basin with jam, jelly, marshmallow, made with honey, sugar, and I don’t remember what else.

The writer also reveals a living relationship between social life and a person when he draws sharp changes in the psychological state of the hero. Describing the change that took place with Afanasy Ivanovich after the death of his wife, Gogol also gives a different image of the everyday situation: their owners; the palisade and wattle fence in the yard were completely destroyed, and I myself saw how the cook pulled sticks out of it to light the stove ... ". In "Old World Landowners" Gogol develops the theme of the collapse of the "idyllic" little world. In essence, the whole story is divided into two sharply defined parts: the first is the “peaceful” life of the heroes and the second is the pictures of their extinction, the death of the patriarchal way of life: “Good old men! But my story is approaching a very sad event that changed forever the life of this peaceful corner. This event will seem all the more striking because it came from the most unimportant incident.

The watershed between the two parts of Gogol's story is very skillfully
chose a very minor incident. Actually, in no
there were no major events or upheavals to show the collapse of the "idyll"
need.

The insignificance and even anecdote of the incident, which shook the whole system of life of the old-world landowners, just set off the illusory nature of the "idyll". The story of the gray cat is woven into the life story of Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna as the embodiment of insignificant causes that destroyed the "peaceful" life.

Already in these early stories, Gogol, as it were, poses the question to the reader, what is Beauty, what should a person be like in the world around him.

One of the important criteria for the beauty of a person, his dignity from the point of view of the writer, as it seems to us, is kindness. If you approach from these positions, Gogol's old-world landowners are real, good people. And it is no coincidence that the author himself openly admits his love for them: “I really love the modest life of those secluded rulers of remote villages ... I sometimes like to descend for a minute into the sphere of this extraordinary solitary life, where not a single desire flies over the palisade .. .".

Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna's feelings of touching affection and concern for each other are combined with their sincere disposition towards all people, especially those who visit their welcoming corner.

The moral qualities of these Gogol's heroes are kindness, attentive, loving attitude towards people, their goodwill. However, according to V.V. Ermilova, “all this, it would seem, is so humane, - alas! didn't matter at all." It is this researcher who owns the phrases: “In the kingdom of Pulcheria Ivanovna and Afanasy Ivanovich they live in order to eat”, “... the serene idyll is of an animal nature”. And this stands next to the reasoning of the scientist: “How humane the grief of the inconsolable widower looks!”

In this grief there is both nobility and modest dignity. How many of our contemporaries, involved in public life, to social problems and in general leading a wide, open life, having nothing in common with the modest life of those heroes of Gogol, which literary criticism so generously called vulgar.

In scientific criticism, sometimes exaggerated, from our point of view, the author's position in this first Mirgorod story is interpreted - only as a condemnation of the plant lifestyle.

Another thing is the opinion of some of our writers who are close to nature and the way of life of the people. Let us refer to V. Astafiev: “I don’t know who else, but now I’m reading these lines (the beginning of the story“ Old World Landowners ”) with a aching feeling in my heart, with regret about something lost forever, which people didn’t know how to cherish, and only having come “to the edge”, they fell ill with nostalgia for such a quiet, non-fussy Gogol world, not screaming about its happiness, not proving with its fists the advantages of certain democracies, but a world living in hope and prayer for brotherhood and achieving world harmony through labor, but not all sweeping weapons and malice that clouded the human mind.

Yes, Gogol tries to be objective, he does not literally admire his heroes, he, as a citizen and patriot, would like the interests of the provincial inhabitants to be wider, so that the concept of “human beauty” includes a civic position, but ...

His characters are far from perfect. They have many weaknesses, about which Gogol speaks with gentle humor.

Kindness, as one of the components of the ideal of man, was for the writer inextricably linked with religiosity. In this first story of the Mirgorod cycle, we do not see an atmosphere of worship, but its heroes are people, as they say, with God in their souls. They are kind and simple-hearted, they are not capable of doing evil. Their life is so close to nature that they themselves are perceived as part of nature. “It is not for nothing that God protects the simplicity of some peoples and keeps the remnants of patriarchal life in the gorges and mountains,” Gogol wrote about Spain.

The concept of "simplicity" acts as a key in determining the powerful moral influence: how much society can achieve "only by the simple execution of the customs of antiquity and rituals, which were not without meaning established by the ancient sages and commanded to be passed down as a shrine from father to son" .

N.N. Skatov, in his literary-critical essays, unfortunately, refuses to see in the world depicted by Gogol in the story “Old-world landowners” any kind of humanity, poetry of feelings (“They are not here, according to him, neither the poetry of feelings, nor humanity” [Quoted from 8, p. 23]). If this were so, the words of V.G. would not have been justified. Belinsky in a letter to Gogol (April 20, 1842): “Now I understand why ... You consider The Old World Landowners to be your best story in Mirgorod.

Elegiac motifs dominate in The Old World Landowners, an atmosphere of unhurried thoughts about life, evoking a whole range of feelings: irony, sympathy, bitterness, tenderness, sadness.

All the genre features of the story are evident in it: a household plot, several characters, a small volume, an even narrative style. Only one feature of the genre is noted by critics - this is an idyllic tonality. Pushkin, for example, assessed this story as "a playful, touching idyll - which makes us laugh through tears of sadness and tenderness."

The story, filled with good humor, ends on a sad note. Pulcheria Ivanovna and Afanasy Ivanovich are good people, but this is not what feeds the writer's ideal.

The story "Old World Landowners" reveals not only the features of the writer's moral ideal. Comparison of the story with "Selected Places from Correspondence" allows us to conclude that the writer's program of "developing" Russia took shape over the years, growing out of a craving for strong foundations of life, from him, according to Yu.Ya. Barabash, “faith in the greatness of truth and God-spirited commandments, in the everlasting commandments of the spirit and in the immortality of the soul. These are generic features of Gogol's worldview as a person, as an artist and as a thinker.

2.3. The problem of spiritual underdevelopment of the heroes of the second part of the collection "Mirgorod"

Leaving the second story of the first part of the collection (“Taras Bulba”) for a separate section (namely, the third chapter), we pay attention to the construction of the entire second part. It begins with the story "Viy". That connection between "Mirgorod" and "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", which the writer himself pointed out, is perhaps most evident in "Viya". This story has largely grown from folklore sources. In a note to it, Gogol wrote: "Viy" is a colossal creation of the common people's imagination.

The story "Viy" occupies a certain place in the composition of the Mirgorod cycle: it outlines the transition from the depiction of the life of people close to nature and far from civilization, to the depiction of those who have been touched by "civilization". This is how we see the compositional idea of this cycle of stories.

This thesis cannot be understood exaggeratedly as Gogol's negative attitude towards civilization in general. A man of the world, taking the successes of progress and civilization to heart, Gogol stigmatized the world of his contemporary "civilization," ruining the freedom and moral dignity of man. We see this in the stories of the second part of the analyzed collection. The writer will not bypass this issue in the story "Taras Bulba" in the antithesis "Cossacks - and the Polish gentry" that he reveals.

In "Viy" the author clearly ridicules the education system in Russia and, of course, the theological one. The heroes of this work are the students of the bursa, it is no coincidence that the sons of Taras Bulba did not endure anything from the bursa, and their father abandoned all “scholarship” and advised the children not to study it. What are those who have joined the education? Maybe science makes them Human? Students of bursa, grammar and rhetoric are still children, but philosophers and theologians... What are they like?

Estimates of the heroes of this story in criticism are very contradictory, and therefore unconvincing. So, V.V. Yermilov claims: “... these schoolchildren, youths, teenagers, magnificently named: theologian, philosopher, rhetorician are surrounded by tenderness and pity in the story.” On the other hand, he also refers to examples of their clearly negative behavior. Gogol ironically describes the activities of the "learned crowd", from them one can hear "a pipe and a burner ...". Here we have the theologian Khalyava - “a tall, broad-shouldered“ man ”, who had an extremely strange disposition: everything that lay there happened to be near him; he will surely steal. In another case, his character was extremely gloomy, and when he got drunk drunk, he hid in the weeds.

Rhetor Tiberius Gorobets "promised to be a good warrior, judging by the big bumps on his forehead, with which he came to class." The philosopher Khoma Brutus was very fond of lying down and smoking a cradle. “If he drank, he would certainly hire musicians and dance trepak.”

The son of unknown parents, he is far from the circles of the provincial aristocracy. When Khoma Brut arrives at the centurion's estate, he is placed together with the courtyard people of the owner of the estate. This is an environment that is close to him and to which he is close; here the "philosopher" finds an understanding of his sorrows and anxieties. Here he develops his mournful thoughts. Throughout the warehouse of his nature, Khoma Brut is a man of a cheerful disposition. He loves life, those blessings with which it very sparingly endows him. Alien to asceticism, Homa Brutus never refuses himself the pleasure of feasting, having fun, when at least some opportunity presents itself for this; he does not at all strive to become a model of walking virtue. "Holy" life is not at all to the liking of Homa Brutus. He prefers earthly joys to dead church scholasticism.

Khoma Brut - an expression of the "prose" of life, unworthy of a man. It is surrounded by the appropriate atmosphere of everyday life: bursa, bazaar, tavern, surrounded by pictures of fights, drunkenness, theft, debauchery. The rector of the seminary is mainly busy with exactions from those to whom he does some kind of favor. “Thank the pan for cereals and eggs ... and say that as soon as those books about which he writes are ready, I will send them right away. ... Yes, do not forget, my pigeon, to add to the sir that they have, I know, found on the farm good fish... ". The ideas about the bursa among the Cossacks are the most naive. “I would like to know what they teach in your bursa; Is it the same one that the deacon reads in church, or something else?” - the Cossack Dorosh asks the philosopher Khoma.

All the heroes of the story act in the sphere of everyday life (unlike the Cossacks in Taras Bulba), most often on the way to the tavern or in the tavern. “... The Little Russians, when they go for a walk, will certainly begin to kiss or cry ... Soon the whole hut was filled with kisses: “Come on, Spirid, let's kiss!” “Come here, Dorosh, I will hug you!” .

All of them, with their primitive thinking and lack of scientific knowledge, believe in devils, witches and all kinds of devilry. It is no coincidence that Gogol includes fantasy in this story: both in the plot and in the characterization of individual characters.

The image of a pannochka, a witch, is given in a folk poetic manner and introduces into this work the romance and lyricism inherent in Gogol's "first poetic dreams", his "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka". The portrait of the pannochka resembles the appearance of the black-eyed Ukrainian Cossacks in “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”: “The forehead, beautiful, tender like silver ... Eyebrows - night on a sunny day ... lips - rubies.”

In the form of a folk-song lament, the centurion’s farewell to his dead daughter is given: “I regret that, my dove, that I don’t know who was, my fierce enemy, the cause of your death ... But woe to me, my field cape, my quail , my yasochka, that I will live the rest of my life without fun, wiping the hollow with fractional tears flowing from my old eyes ... ".

As we can see, the proximity of this story to oral folk art is reflected not only in the fantastic elements of the plot, but also in the use of a song style of speech in some cases.

Highly appreciates the artistic originality of the story "Viy" by V.V. Ermilov. He believes that shaded by fantasy, "entangled by it, like a magical haze, everything everyday, everyday rises, becomes poetic."

The features of the folk epic are endowed with the image of Viy, whose name the whole story is named. In a note to it, Gogol wrote: "Viy" is a colossal creation of the common people's imagination. This is the name of the Little Russians called the head of the dwarfs, whose eyelids go to the very ground in front of his eyes. This whole story is folk tradition. I did not want to change it in anything and I tell it in almost the same simplicity as I heard. Assessments of the image of Viy in criticism seem to us somewhat artificial, far-fetched. It is indicated, for example, that “the image of Viy, inspired by folk art, shows how deeply the writer, together with the people, felt all the stuffiness and darkness of oppression”, “Viy” is the embodiment of underground darkness, suffocation, execution, oppression.

In the light of later assessments of this story, the fall of Khoma Brutus does not stem from external circumstances, but from mental and physical laziness. Brutus strives only for satiety and peace.

The life that the heroes of the story lead is already devoid of that atmosphere of kindness and decency that distinguished the life of old-world landowners. It can be called vulgar to a greater extent, given the senseless pastime, sloppiness, involvement in vices (drunkenness, theft, fights).

I.A. Vinogradov emphasizes the oblivion of Christian commandments by man, his failure to fulfill his duty.

He considers it significant that at the turn of the two millennium of Christianity, "Gogol was discovered as a profoundly Christian writer." For the first time Vinogradov I.A. an attempt was made to apply Gogol's testament: "Try to see me as a Christian and a person better than a writer." The researcher writes: "Increasingly, it is the appeal to the Christian foundations of Gogol's artistic worldview that provides the key to solving the problems that arise when studying his biography and work."

In Viy there is not even a trace of an integral poetic world, an ideal norm of goodness and beauty. In "Viy" there is no unity of the world, but there is a world dissected by irreconcilable contradictions.

The writer ironically depicts in this story the primitivism of the life of his heroes, the primitivism of thinking. Seminarians are portrayed as young people "fearing the abyss of wisdom."

Its philosophers, theologians and rhetoricians are far from the ideal of Man. The writer raises the problem of spiritual underdevelopment in this story, which is very difficult in terms of artistic form. In our time, this is one of the main components of the problem of the decline of morality!

IN latest work collection "Mirgorod", in "The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich", the writer's critical attitude to human nature, far from ideal, reaches its climax.

The reader is presented with caricatured images of representatives of the educated nobility caricatured by the satirist. But there is almost nothing human in them. This is a parody of a person. What do they live? What ideals are carried in society? Who needs their existence? What is their knowledge, their “scholarship” used for? All these questions are answered in the negative.

From the first lines of the story, the author hints that we are talking about living modernity. For example, mentioned; absolutely exact date when the main event happened. In the petition of Ivan Ivanovich to the court it is said: "... This July 7, 1810, he offended me to death ...". While The Old World Landowners is almost devoid of external sharp collisions, in The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich tense clashes, a continuous struggle appear. If in the life of the heroes in the first story there are no spiritual impulses, then in the second one there is a violent seething of "passions". In The Old World Landowners, Gogol debunks the local "idyll"; in the story of a quarrel, depicting people of the provincial noble circle, the writer revealed an acute contradiction between their significance and real insignificance.

In "Old World Landowners" the writer, as it were, explains what the positive moral traits that he found in "old Ukrainian surnames" are. This is kindness and innocence, this is the clarity and tranquility of life.

The heroes of the story about the quarrel, Pererepenko and Dovgochkhun, under the guise of outward courtesy, ostentatious piety, show features of spiritual callousness, rudeness, cruelty, craftiness. In these people there is not a trace of the patriarchy of the "old eighteenth century."

The heroes of the story about the quarrel are among those who in their environment are revered as a model of good manners, wisdom and kindness. Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich are firmly convinced that they are bearers of high and noble principles of life behavior. The thought of "chosenness", aristocracy does not leave them for a minute. The consciousness of belonging to the "noble" class fills the heroes of the story with a sense of extraordinary pride. With vain self-satisfaction, they talk about their noble rank and position. Ranks and rank are the most important thing for them, what sanctifies a person, endows him with any positive qualities. Associating all their “virtues” with their rank and position, the heroes of the story perceive the slightest violations of their honor with great scrupulousness.

They have farms, they are involved in trade and money relations. But this is not the focus of the writer's attention. We share the opinion of those literary scholars who believe that Gogol showed us not the social-serf type of the landowner, but the moral-aesthetic type of human degradation.

For the rest of his life, Gogol retained a deep conviction in the civic vocation of man.

“The abstractness and utopianism of his hopes for the possibility of carrying out enlightened and progressive civic activity made Gogol a moralistically thinking person, and his artistic criticism of contemporary society was moralistic in its original, subjective intentions.” Gogol sees the task of art in correcting bad public morals. His Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich, for all their laziness and idleness, are capable of feverish activity only in litigation. Their life does not contain any grounds for mental development.

Ivan Ivanovich. Pererepenko in his circle is known as a man of great education and fine education. He himself is unshakably sure that he is fluent in art. good behavior in society. “Ivan Ivanovich is an extremely subtle person and in a decent conversation he will never say an indecent word and will immediately be offended if he hears him.” A feeling of "significance" and self-satisfaction is permeated with Ivan's entire behavior: Ivanovich. He is very pleased with himself, his position, his well-being. “Lord, my God, what a master I am! What don't I have? Birds, building, barns, every whim, distilled vodka, infused; pears, plums in the garden; there are poppies, cabbage, peas in the garden ... What else do I not have? ... I would like to know what I do not have? :

Next to the "subtle" appeal in the guise of Ivan Ivanovich, cold callousness appears. His self-satisfaction is closely intertwined with stinginess.

“Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich send each other to find out about their health and often talk to each other from their balconies and say such pleasant speeches to each other that it was a pleasure for the heart to listen. On Sundays, it used to happen that Ivan Ivanovich in a standard bekesh, Ivan Nikiforovich in a nanke yellow-brown Cossack coat, went almost hand in hand with each other to the church. And if Ivan Ivanovich, who had extremely keen eyes, was the first to notice a puddle or some kind of uncleanliness in the middle of the street, which sometimes happens in Mirgorod, he always said to Ivan Nikiforovich: “Beware, don’t set foot here, because it’s not good here.”

All the "dignities" of the heroes, all their numerous "virtues" Gogol tries on the small, the insignificant. As in The Old World Landowners, where a minor incident was the beginning of the collapse of the "idyll", in the story of a quarrel, an insignificant reason dispelled all the virtues and virtues of the characters. The microscopic nonsense has become the true measure of "high." The word "gander" sowed irreconcilable enmity between the heroes. Ivan Ivanovich petitions the court: “Known throughout the world for his ungodly, disgusting and exceeding every measure of lawful acts, nobleman Ivan, Nikiforov’s son, Dovgochkhun, this July 7, 1810, inflicted a mortal insult on me, as personally, to my honor related, so evenly to the humiliation and embarrassment of my rank and surname. This nobleman, and himself, moreover, of a vile appearance, has a quarrelsome character and is full of different kind blasphemy and abusive words."

You can't refuse the hero's "education"! So competently executed application, so Ivan Ivanovich mastered the clerical style! But let's think about what forces are spent on, how insignificant the subject of ranting!

Bound by bonds of close friendship, "noble men" - Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich - compete with each other in order to arrange "troubles" for each other. Each of them strains his mind to find a new muck that would allow him to deal a crushing blow to his enemy. They are ready for anything in order to destroy each other: “Therefore, I ask this nobleman, like a robber, a blasphemer, a swindler, who has already been caught in theft and robbery, to shackle him and send him to prison, or a state jail, and send him there, according to discretion, depriving the ranks and the nobility, it’s good to smear with barbars and to Siberia for hard labor, if necessary, imprison, protors, tell him to pay losses ... ".

Accusing one another of vile plans and deeds, each of them, in essence, is right. Noble spiritual qualities, which led to the admiration of others, turned out to be an appearance. Under the arrogant ambition, "good temper" lurked base feelings and motives. The activity of Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich does not stem from the desire to create anything. From a lazy, sleepy vegetative life, they “wake up” only to create all sorts of incongruities. The “act” of the heroes of the story takes on the character of a petty and vicious fuss, an insignificant struggle.

The history of the enmity between Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich is closely intertwined with the pictures of the life of a provincial town. The story also contains a description of the district court, city officials and a description of the “color” of Mirgorod society. These pictures are not just a background against which the story unfolds. There is an internal connection between the story of the quarrel and the description of the city, which is revealed not only in the development of the plot, but also in the general tone of the coverage of the way of life.

For the first time in this story, Gogol refers to the image of bureaucracy. Here is the judge Demyan Demyanovich, and the defendant Dorofei Timofeevich, and the secretary of the court Taras Tikhonovich, and the mayor Pyotr Fedorovich. All these characters seem to us to be prototypes of the heroes of The Government Inspector and officials from Dead Souls.

In urban paintings, the servants of power, the guardians of order, appear before the reader, devoid of any halo. Selfish motives serve as the guiding principle of the activity of these people; here they draw both their zeal and their “loyalty” to justice.

The combination of the imaginary sublime and petty determines not only the structure of the story's images, but also forms its style. Just like in some of his other works, in the story of a quarrel, Gogol builds a narrative using the image of a narrator. The story about the "virtuous" Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich, their clash is conducted on behalf of 67 people living in the environment to which the heroes of the work belong.

It was he who admired the nobility of Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich. It is he who is brought to tenderness by the bekesh of one and the trousers of the other. And the stronger his enthusiasm is expressed, the more obvious the insignificance of these characters is revealed.

The image of the narrator is also a subject of ridicule. Throughout the story, the writer administers judgment on human vulgarity. Already the first lines of the work introduce the reader into an environment of delight, admiration of the narrator not only for the characters themselves, but also for everything that has to do with them. “Glorious bekesha at Ivan Ivanovich! excellent! And what embarrassment! Fu you an abyss, what taunts! gray with frost! I bet god knows what if anyone has one! Look at them for God's sake, especially if he starts talking to someone, look from the side: what kind of overeating is this! It is impossible to describe: velvet, silver! Fire!".

Or: “Wonderful man Ivan Ivanovich! He loves melons very much."
Evidence of the beautiful soul of Ivan Ivanovich with equal success
serves both his bekesh, and his love for melons, and the fact that Poltava knows him
commissioner.

The examples in the text are very impressive, but they carry over from one study to another. The principle of comic pathos will become one of the main art style Gogol. The “sublime” narrative is petty, vulgar in its creation; pathos acquires a special sound, performing a satirical, revealing function.

In the pathos of the narrator of the story about the quarrel, Gogol reveals the features of provincial-philistine thinking. They find their expression not only in enthusiastic outpourings about imaginary phenomena, but in that “homely”, “own” manner of the story, when it is assumed in advance that the listener is well aware of many faces, incidents, details that are quite well known in a certain circle of people. “What an assembly the mayor gave! Let me reread everyone who was there: Taras Tarasovich, Evyl Akifovich, Evtikhy Evtikhievich, Ivan Ivanovich, and another Savva Gavrilovich, our Ivan Ivanovich, Elevfery Elevferievich, Makar Nazarovich, Foma Grigorievich ... I can’t go any further! unable to!"

Romantic aesthetics of Gogol enters, according to G.N.
Pospelov, "in contradiction with the ideological meaning of his romantic
stories ... Turning to a critical image of his own time, Gogol soon came in connection with this to overcome his romantic and aesthetic views.

But this does not mean that Gogol renounced his religious ideas, as Pospelov hints at: “Gogol was aware of his moral ideal in the light of those traditional religious beliefs that had been instilled in him from childhood in a provincial landlord environment and which still lived in his exalted, romantically inclined imagination” [Ibid., p. 68].

About Ivan Ivanovich, for example, it is said with irony that "Archpriest Father Peter does not know anyone who would fulfill his Christian duty more regularly than he did."

The worship of the heroes of this story is only formal. A visit to the church for Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich does not testify to their spirituality and Christian morality.

From the complaint of Ivan Ivanovich it is clear that the church visited by former friends is the church of three saints - Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom, who eliminated the strife among Orthodox Christians in the 11th century. The author, as it were, reminds the reader that the behavior of Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich is a deviation from Christian commandments.

So, the writer draws Ivan Ivanovich's "pious deeds": "cordial conversations" with the beggars, to whom he does not give anything. The natural kindness and compassion of Ivan Ivanovich turns into hypocrisy and cruelty.

“And what a pious man Ivan Ivanovich is! ..”, says the narrator. And then follows a murderous sketch of the hero's spiritual callousness and apostasy from God's commandments:

"Hey, sky! - he usually said, having found the most
a crippled woman in a tattered, patched dress. - Where are you from,
poor?

I, panochko, came from the farm, the third day I didn’t sleep, didn’t eat, my own children kicked me out.

- Poor head, why did you come here?

- And so, lady, you are welcome to ask if someone will give at least bread.

- Hm! Why do you want bread? - Ivan Ivanovich usually spoke.

- How not to want! Hungry like a dog.

- Hm! - Ivan Ivanovich usually answered - so maybe you want some meat?

Well, go with God."

Such is the callousness of Ivan Ivanovich's imaginary pity!

The image of Ivan Ivanovich is all the more significant in the development of Gogol's creativity, because by creating this image Gogol begins to wage his struggle against the ability of meanness to accept a humanoid appearance. Ivan Ivanovich is decency itself, decorum, good manners. “Ivan Nikiforovich is also a very good man!” That open "simplicity", which distinguishes Ivan Nikiforovich, does not prevent him from feeling like a person endowed with special qualities, a chosen person. Neither he nor those around him deny him either the nobility of the soul or exemplary morality. Ivan Nikiforovich is also inclined to consider his rough "simplicity" an undoubted virtue that adorns his noble person.

As noted by V.V. Yermilov, bearishness somewhat ennobles Ivan Nikiforovich, humanizes him. Hypocrisy, hypocrisy, cruelty, greed, envy, malice do not fit with the idea of the “character” of a bear. Nevertheless, there is no place for romance in the depiction of the life and customs of the Mirgorod landlords. Human life here is entangled in a web of petty interests. Here is the kingdom of self-interest and vulgarity. Gogol moved on to portraying the prose of life. The story of the stupid litigation of two inhabitants of Mirgorod is described in a sharply accusatory way. [See: 41, p. 149]

Speaking about the features of the style of this story, we note the method of reification of people, the method of comparing judgments that have no logical connection, either internal or external, whether in the sphere of the quality of objects, the nature of phenomena, events, or moral concepts.

An example of a parody of the bureaucratic-litigious style is Ivan Nikiforovich's complaint to the Mirgorod court.

The first feature of Gogol's humor is fidelity to reality. But Belinsky also reveals his second feature: accusatory character. Gogol's "humor" does not spare the insignificance, does not brighten up its ugliness, for, captivating with the image of this insignificance, it arouses disgust for him.

Belinsky saw in Gogol "the poet of real life", and this meant not only the recognition of the young writer, but also the establishment of realism as the only possible and fruitful way for the development of Russian literature.

Vulgarity became a key concept in Gogol's work. Vulgarity in the concepts of A. Herzen, D. Merezhkovsky, V. Zenkovsky is “banality”, “ordinary”, “dullness”, “middleness”, “philistinism” - moral categories. V.V. Zenkovsky subjects this concept to an aesthetic assessment. “Vulgarity repels oneself because it aesthetically irritates, causes aesthetic disgust, and above all, we are repelled by complacency in people, the lack of aspiration to rise, calm immersion in our own insignificant little world. But why can the insignificance of human interests be annoying? Because an indestructible aesthetic approach to man lives in us, rooted in the very “deep of the soul” [Cit. according to: 29, p. 41].

The theme of vulgarity is the theme of the impoverishment and perversion of the soul, the insignificance and emptiness of its movements in the presence of other forces that can uplift a person. Wherever it is a matter of vulgarity, one can hear the hidden sadness of the author. The story ends with the author's exclamation "It's boring to live in this world, gentlemen!" A patriotic writer, a humanist, is not only “boring”, but also painful, bitter! His moral and aesthetic ideal appears in the development from one story to another in the collection "Mirgorod", and later from one work to another.

Continuing the gallery of satirical images in the poem "Dead Souls", Gogol will express his positive position with a rhetorical question addressed to the Motherland: "Here, in you, can't a hero be born when you yourself are without end and without edge!?"

The creation by Gogol of stories about landowners marked the approval in

creativity of the writer of realistic tendencies. Belinsky, in his article “On the Russian story and the stories of Gogol,” says that the creator of real poetry “reproduces” life “in all its nakedness and truth, remaining true to all the needs, colors and shades of its reality” and applying this general definition to Gogol, he believes his writer, who showed "the perfect truth of life", "the poet of real life."

Thus, it can be argued that during the period of creation of the stories included in the Mirgorod collection, Gogol's aesthetic ideal combines elements of romanticism of the early 30s and the formation of a new trend in Russian literature, realistic. It is significant that Gogol stands at the origins of this direction. It seems to us that the fact of Gogol's transition from the romantic style to the realistic one is illustrative.

This is the originality of the stories of the collection "Mirgorod". This is a definite line separating Gogol the romantic from Gogol the realist in the mid-1930s. There are still about 20 years of the writer's work as the head of the natural school ahead.

So, in the structure of the Mirgorod cycle of Gogol's stories, three stories can be distinguished that are close in their embodiment of the vulgarity of a vulgar person: in one of them, this vulgarity is expressed in the primitivism of life (“Old-world landowners”), in the other, it is supplemented by bestial manifestations of carelessness (drunkenness, theft) and ignorance (“Viy”), in the latter (“How Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”), the vulgarity of life, attitude, and behavior is brought to its culminating expression.

Chapter 3. Collection "Mirgorod" as an artistic whole

3.1. Features of the compositional structure of the collection "Mirgorod"

Analyzing "Mirgorod" as a cycle, it is necessary, on the basis of identifying the nature of the artistic integrity of each of his stories, one way or another, three points must be taken into account:

1. The real composition of "Mirgorod" as a cycle consisting of four stories in their interconnection.

3. A given sequence of stories.

Depending on the extent to which these moments, which are inherent in one of the aspects of aesthetic integrity - constructive, are taken into account (or not taken into account), one can conditionally distinguish three groups of Mirgorod studies.

1. Researchers do not consider this or that story as an integral part of the cycle. So, T.A. Gramzina singles out "three lines of Gogol's work, which are clearly indicated in Mirgorod": "satirical" ("The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich quarreled"), "heroic-pathetic" ("Taras Bulba") and "fantastic" ("Viy"). As you can see, the first story of the cycle does not appear in this series.

N.V. Dragomiretskaya believes that “the cycle of stories keeps next to each other ... two opposite stylistic formations (in “Taras Bulba” and “The Tale of How We Quarreled ...”), without considering the other two stories in the collection. [Cit. according to: 39, p. 252]

V.A. Zaretsky, speaking of two "cross-cutting themes" of the cycle - the opposition of "daring dreams" to base bucolic life and "variation of tragic collisions" is forced to admit that "the last story of Mirgorod is the only one where the theme of" daring dreams "is not directly developed."

M.S. Gus speaks of three versions of the plots of Mirgorod: "lyrical-dramatic" (in "Old-world landowners"), "tragic" (in "Viya") and "comedy" (in "The Tale of how they quarreled ..."), pointing that all of them "have been given a demopological coloring." But the cycle also includes the story "Taras Bulba", which, obviously, is the fourth version of the plot, devoid of "demonological coloring". [Cit. according to: 49, p. fourteen]

3. The given sequence of stories is not taken into account. According to G.N. Pospelov, "the heroic Cossacks oppose ... the landlords (depicted in the first story of the cycle), and the terrible struggle of Khoma Brutus ... the ridiculous quarrel of the Mirgorod inhabitants."

This is the most common point of view. S.I. Mashinsky, for example, also believes that the "poetry of a heroic deed" in "Taras Bulba" opposed the vulgarity of the Old World "existents", and the tragic struggle and death of the philosopher Khoma Brutus further set off the miserable squalor and insignificance of the heroes of "The Tale of a Quarrel". I.V. has a similar point of view. Kartashova, I.I. Agayeva. [See: 7, p. 6]

Speaking about the relationship between the stories of the cycle, we join the opinion of G.A. Gukovsky that "Mirgorod" is "not only a collection of four stories, it is like a single book containing a single setting." The concept of G.A. Gukovsky in general seems extremely tempting. The scientist distinguishes in the structure of Mirgorod the first stories of each part (he calls them "introductory") and the second ones. In the first, according to his observations, the association of “dream as a norm” and its “distortion” is given, and in the second there is a separate “norm” (in “Taras Bulba”) and its “distortion” (in “The Tale of how they quarreled ... ").

However, in our opinion, the real artistic content of "Mirgorod" still does not quite fit into this harmonious logical system. It is symptomatic in this connection that Gukovsky does not find it necessary to dwell in detail on the place of "Viya" in the structure of the cycle. After all, if "Old World Landowners", according to the scientist, is "the shortest expression of the entire ideological composition of the book", its "thesis", where the "Norma" and its "distortion" are still combined, then it is difficult to motivate the artistic necessity of the existence of another such book as part of the cycle. the same “thesis” (and, moreover, in the middle of the collection), in which the researcher finds the same combination of two principles.

Thus, joining those researchers who are convinced of the unity of the Gogol cycle under consideration, we will try in the following chapters to offer our own interpretation of the essence of this unity based on an analysis of each of the stories in the collection and taking into account the necessary conditions mentioned above.

The “introductory” stories are smaller than others: “Old-world landowners” occupy (according to the 1842 edition) 45 pages, “Viy” - 76 pages, while the main stories that develop the theme are “Taras Bulba” - 246 pages (in the second edition, in the edition of 1842; in the first edition, this story, although shorter, is still three times longer than The Old World Landowners); the story about Ivans is smaller, it has 99 pages. It is worth paying attention to the fact that the stories "Old World Landowners" and "Viy" are not divided into chapters, that is, they are given in a single text as a "small form"; on the contrary, "Taras Bulba" and the story of two Ivans are divided into chapters ("Taras Bulba" - 12 chapters in the second edition and 9 chapters in the first edition; "The Tale" - 7 chapters).

The division of a work into chapters is not just an external division, but a special principle of composition associated with the structure of the theme, presentation, grouping of material, etc. chapters, but its division into chapters is emphasized by the presence of their names, which is not in Taras Bulba).

3.2. Genre originality of the stories of the collection

3.2.1. Idyllic and sentimental traditions in "Old World Landowners"

The draft untitled version of the story is not completed: it ends with the narrator's conversation with Afanasy Ivanovich and the message about his death, placed on a "piece of paper". This suggests the existence of another edition - perhaps an extended one, with a slightly different ending - intermediate between draft and white. The vast majority of corrections and notes in the draft were made during the recording to clarify certain details of the narrative.

Researchers usually attribute the idea of the story and the beginning of work on it to the end of 1832, the description of the farm of old-world landowners is associated with Vasilievka, Gogol's family estate, where he spent the summer of this year. Among the possible prototypes of the heroes of the story are the writer's grandfather and grandmother Afanasy Demyanovich and Tatyana Semyonovna Gogol-Yanovsky, the familiar Zarudny family.

However, in creating these images, the writer naturally combined rethought memories of childhood and adolescence with later life observations. The daughter of the poet V.V., who knew the young Gogol closely, Kapnista Sofya recalled the acquaintances of the old Brovkovs, with whom they usually stayed in Mirgorod: “The old man and the old woman always met us with great cordiality and did not know what and how to treat us. Almost they were described by N.V. Gogol in his story “Old World Landowners”. Approaching their little house, we always met an old man with a pipe in his hands, tall, with regular features, expressing both intelligence and kindness, sitting on a simple wooden porch with small posts; he greeted us cordially, led us into a small, low, and gloomy living room with some kind of constant special smell with a wide wooden door that emitted a terrible creak at every entrance and exit.

Here we were joyfully met, waddling from foot to foot, by a kind old woman, his wife, of small stature. She was always dressed in a cotton dress, with a clean white handkerchief on her chest and on her head. She lived positively only for goodness. Every Saturday, she baked all kinds of kalachi, bread and pies, and went to the city prison with a full cart to distribute to the poor, the crowd of whom surrounded her house that day ...

During our visits, she most of all bothered to make a tastier Little Russian table and feed our people and horses to their fill and satiety.

Her husband, by nature a smart man, having previously been a simple Cossack, managed to acquire a decent fortune, attributing to his land the people who lived on it ...

No one in that city will remember such a touching funeral, which was arranged for the old woman, the deceased, his wife. Their house and yard were so filled with weeping and blessed by her people that it was difficult for an outsider to get to her coffin. Until now, the memory of her is preserved in Mirgorod. .. [Cit. by: 21, p. 111-113]

In addition, the image of Pulcheria Ivanovna is undoubtedly related to the previous images of old landowners, enthusiastically managing and hospitable, such as Anna Ivanovna in the chapter "Teacher" (from the Little Russian story "The Terrible Boar") and Grigory Storchenko's mother in the story "Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt. The story of how the cat disappeared and returned, which so struck the imagination of Pulcheria Ivanovna, is based on what Gogol heard from M.S. Shchepkina story about the same incident with his grandmother. When the actor read the story, “at a meeting with the author, he told him jokingly: “But the cat is mine” - “But my cats!” - answered Gogol, and in fact the cats belonged to his invention.

Pushkin described the story as "a playful, touching idyll that makes you laugh through tears of sadness and emotion ...". The researchers noted that it was influenced by the Karamzin sentimental-idyllic tradition. Confirmation of this is seen in Gogol's letter to an old friend N.M. Karamzin to the poet I.I. Dmitriev (written in July 1832 from Vasilievka): “Now I live in a village, exactly the same as described by the unforgettable Karamzin. It seems to me that he copied the Little Russian village: his colors are so bright and similar to the local nature. "Old-world landowners" are permeated with sentimental motifs of such works by Karamzin as "Message to Dmitriev in response to his poems, in which he complains about the transience of a happy youth" (1794), "A letter from a villager" (1803), have a roll call with Dmitriev's "free translation" of La Fontaine's Philemon and Baucis in 1805, with pastoral novels like Long's Daphnis and Chloe. The sentimental-idyllic, moreover, complicated by prosaic decline, is contrasted in the story with a romantic, essentially tragicomic "urban" story of a young man in love who did not want to live anymore, having lost his beloved, and ... consoled himself by marrying another. In a different way, the patriarchal idyll is also contradicted by the subsequent civilizing attempts of the “distant relative” - the heir to the estate, which quickly lead to its complete ruin.

Initially, the name Nastasia was intended for the heroine, and then “the anthroponyms themselves - Athanasius and Anastasia would indicate the theme eternal love and the associated literary story about a lost beloved and a feeling that turns out to be stronger than death.

In the final version, the combination of the names Athanasius and Pulcheria adds to the plot the motif of the fading, fading "natural" beauty of life. Moreover, these “poetic, idealizing names” are accompanied by Ivanov’s common peasant patronymic at that time, the surname Tovstogub and the nickname Tovstogubikha. Thus, "high" and "mundane" are inextricably linked already in the names of the characters themselves. The commonality and difference of these anthroponyms emphasize both the “inseparability” of the spouses as a kind of androgyne, and the very dissimilarity of their characters: the playfulness of Afanasy Ivanovich is the seriousness of his girlfriend, the “playfulness” of his mind is her innocence, the hero’s indifference to everyday worries is the thriftiness of the heroine. Complementing each other, they only together constitute a harmonious unity.

The combination of the names Ivan and Athanasius (the name of grandfather Gogol from the maternal side and grandfather from the paternal side) is first found here after the story “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” and indicates that the depicted is very close and dear to the author: he is obviously familiar with these places, paintings from childhood Little Russian landlord life, and he experiences a "heavy feeling" at the sight of how the foundations of patriarchal life disappear.

He endows his heroes with some features of relatives and friends (for example, according to the Gogol family tradition, grandfather Athanasius secretly took his future wife from the Lizogub parental home, like Tovstogub) and shares his life impressions with the reader, depicting his childhood fears or the position of a provincial in the capital . It is not for nothing that such personal confessions sometimes turn into "lyrical digressions" as if by themselves. And this sincere, confidential story about the most intimate and important thing in natural existence - about the gradual withering, destruction, foreshadowing a new life - determines the sentimental plan of the story, the "unintentional" combination in it of high and low, prosaic, comic and tragic, which is characteristic of life. and real art. The versatility and versatility of the episodes, connected more by intonation and feeling than by plot (this was immediately noted by critics), brings the story closer to the Arabesques.

3.2.2. Correlation of historical and folklore in the poetics of the story "Taras Bulba"

Researchers attribute the beginning of work on the story "Taras Bulba" to the turn of 1833-1834. At that time, Gogol was conceived extensive works on general, medieval and Ukrainian history, but the accumulated information required generalization and careful systematic processing. In the course of it, the creative imagination of the author is played out - and then Gogol begins to combine scientific and artistic, facts and myth, truth and fiction in order to create his own, artistic history of Ukraine, to reflect in the fate of one Cossack family the thoughts, aspirations and conflicts of the entire Cossacks. Capacious images of the Cossack epic absorb the features and actions of various historical figures, the events of the national liberation struggle of several generations of Ukrainians, a vivid picture of the Zaporizhzhya Sich, peaceful life and greatest feats, sacrifices, victories, defeats and betrayals ... Gogol completed work on the story only in the early 1840s, when he created its canonical edition, forever abandoning the ideas of scientific and poetic history.

Gogol's main studies on the history of Ukraine were "The History of the Russian State" by N.M. Karamzin (T. 1-2, 1816-1829), which provides information about the origin of the Cossacks, excerpts from the Chronicle of Polish, Lithuanian, Zhmud and All Russia by M. Stryikovsky. This fundamental work had a huge impact on the young writer, not only in terms of historical and philosophical, but also in art, nourishing his style and figurative system of works. And although Gogol largely followed Karamzin and checked the course of his historical reflections on him, he did not hesitate to argue with him, if there were good reasons for that. The History of Little Russia by D.N. Bantysh-Kamensky. The “Brief Chronicle of Little Russia…” by V.G. Ruban, the work of J.B. Scherer "History of the Zaporozhye Cossacks and Ukrainian Cossacks" and the book of G. de Beauplan "Description of Ukraine". Gogol could have known the "Historical news of the Unia that arose in Poland" by D.N. Bantysh-Kamensky and a detailed essay “Hostel Don Cossacks in the XVI-XVII centuries" Decembrist V.D. Sukhorukov.

When creating the story, Gogol relied on the lists of Cossack chronicles known to him, which covered the origin of the Cossacks, its history, deeds and told in detail about the events of the people's liberation war of 1648-1654 (Khmelnytsky region). Poltava sources were probably in the writer's field of vision from the very beginning, such as the chronicle of the Gadchinsky colonel G. Grabyanka (where the history of Ukraine from antiquity to the Battle of Poltava was coherently presented for the first time), partially published under the title "Chronicler Small Russia" in F. Tumansky's journal "Russian shop”, fragments of the chronicle of the military clerk S.V. Velichko, compiled with the involvement of many sources, the list of which was available to M.P. Pogodin, as well as the chronicle of the Samovidets, "The History of the Zaporizhian Cossacks" by Prince Myshetsky, etc.

In a letter to the folklorist I.I. Sreznevsky dated March 6, 1834, Gogol claimed that he had “almost all” of the published chronicles mentioned by D.N. Bantysh-Kamensky, and asked the correspondent to provide extracts from handwritten, that is, not yet published chronicles.

Of fundamental importance for the work was the "History of the Russes, or Little Russia", which was attributed to St. George, some historians consider G.A. Poletik, others - his son V.G. Poletik; at the turn of the 1820s-1830s, Gogol read it from one of the lists belonging to Pushkin, M.A. Maksimovich and, probably, O.M. Somov. The young writer had his own reasons to trust this work: G.O. Konissky was the son of Burgomaster Nezhin and the rector of the Kiev Theological Academy at the time when Gogol's grandfather studied there. The name of the archbishop is associated with the publication of some documents about the persecution of the Orthodox during the union.

From folklore sources, to which Gogol attached importance to historical ones, collections of folk songs were used: “The experience of collecting old Little Russian songs” by Prince P. Tsertelev, “Little Russian songs” by M. Maksimovich, “Zaporozhye Old times” by I. Sreznevsky, “Ukrainian folk songs” by M. Maksimovich, sent from Vasilyevka "an old notebook with songs, as well as songs from the handwritten collection of Z. Dolengo-Khodakovsky and others. According to scientists, in Taras Bulba there is not a single significant epic or lyrical motif that did not have would have its analogy in Ukrainian folk songs and thoughts.

Gogol received most of the songs from his relatives. So, in a letter dated April 2, 1830, he thanked his aunt Katerina Ivanovna for "a few good curious songs," and his mother for "decommissioned ... two Zaporizhzhya songs." Apparently, he strongly encouraged his sister Maria to write down fairy tales and songs, and when she got tired, he persuaded: “... you started collecting Little Russian fairy tales and songs so well, but, unfortunately, stopped. Can't it be restarted? I need it, I need it, ”and also asked his relatives“ fairy tales, songs, incidents ... to send in letters or small parcels. They later delighted him with a sent "an old book of songs...many of them very wonderful." Gogol also kept a handwritten collection of old Ukrainian songs dating back to the 1830s, perhaps a gift from Maksimovich.

Gogol collected folk Ukrainian and Russian songs until the end of his life, and subsequently they were used to create the story "Taras Bulba" and a number of other works. At the same time, Gogol relied on spontaneous national-historical ideas about the Cossacks, which embodies the people's aspirations and sees its calling in protecting the "homeland and faith" from all "non-Christian predators."

The focus of the writer is the national liberation movement of the Ukrainian people. He uses an epic-song technique: “Like a hawk floating in the sky, having given many circles with strong wings, suddenly stops spread-eagled in the air in one place and shoots from there with an arrow at a male quail swinging near the road itself, - so Tarasov’s son, Ostap, suddenly flew into cornet and immediately threw a rope around his neck.

The most common technique is a threefold repetition. In the story of N.V. Gogol, in the midst of the battle, Taras calls to the Cossacks three times: “What, gentlemen? There is life in the old dog yet? Has the Cossack strength weakened? Aren't the Cossacks bending?" And three times he heard the answer: “There is still, father, gunpowder in the powder flasks; The Cossack strength has not yet weakened, the Cossacks are not yet bending! All the heroes of the Zaporizhzhya Sich are characterized by patriotism, devotion to the Motherland. Dying, the Cossacks glorify their native land: “Let them all know what partnership means in the Russian land. If it comes to that, to die, then none of them will ever die like that! ..».

In the works of folklore, the thought of the incomparable value of the Motherland, of the desire to give one's life for its freedom and independence, is heard. There is no more shameful and terrible crime in the world than treason. Carried away by the Polish woman, Andriy goes over to the side of the enemy. His last meeting with his father is a terrible retribution. Taras says: “What, son! Did your Poles help you?” Andriy "was unresponsive." “So sell? Sell faith? the angry father asks. Taras does not feel any pity for his traitor son. Andriy understands that there is no one to justify him, and dutifully accepts the will of his father.

Soon Taras himself dies. But his death is the death of a hero. In the last minutes of his life, he thinks about his comrades, about his homeland. “Already the Cossacks were on the canoes and rowed with oars; bullets rained down on them from above, but did not reach them. And the joyful eyes of the old chieftain flashed.

- Farewell, comrades! he shouted at them from above. Remember me and come here again next spring and have a good walk! What did you get, damn Poles? Do you think there is anything in the world that a Cossack would be afraid of? Wait, the time will come, the time will come, you will know what the Orthodox Russian faith is!

The story is closely connected with all Gogol's previous works about Cossacks, but especially with the story "Terrible Revenge" (1832) and fragments of the historical novel on which he worked in the 1830-1833s, with the articles "A look at the compilation of Little Russia", " About Little Russian songs. In some places, the author's narration clearly echoes the works of European literature known at that time, revealing the predilections of Gogol the reader. Thus, the mention of “two healthy girls” running from the “arrived panichs” correlates with an episode in W. Scott’s first novel “Uzverli” (1814), when the hero saw two girls in a meadow who were rinsing their bare feet “in a huge barrel” , but, “terrified by an accidental appearance, they hurried to lower their dress to cover their legs, which, from their movements, could present indecency. - Oh, gentlemen! They cried out, and their voice expressed both modesty and coquetry, and they started to run like wild goats.

With other novels by W. Scott, first of all - "The Puritans" and "The Legend of Montrose", "Taras Bulba" are brought together by the depiction of the characters, the patriarchal nature of their statements and the peculiarities of the narrative. The colorful description of the Ukrainian steppe is similar to the picture of the prairies in F. Cooper's novel "American Steppes", and the spontaneous Russoist views, the natural love of freedom of the main characters of this and subsequent novels by Cooper correlate with the views of Bulba. It has long been noted that one of the main episodes of the story - the murder of his son Andriy by Taras - goes back to the famous short story by P. Merime "Matteo Falcone". At the same time, the roll call is not as unambiguous as it seems at first glance ... Matteo executes his child - the only son spoiled by the heir's mother and older sisters - because he violated the "code of honor" and betrayed the robber who asked him for help, "stranger ", state people. Having been seduced by the brilliant toy of the New Age, a mechanical watch, insignificant in the face of the ever-changing nature and the change of generations, the boy betrayed everything for which the family and the entire Falcone family lives. Thus, Matteo kills, as it were, himself and stops his race because he gave birth to an unworthy son - and God does not take away the father's hand, as it was in the biblical story. And Bulba kills an adult Cossack son, who, having betrayed Vera, relatives and comrades, went over to the enemy with weapons, and the father-patriarch, who renounced kinship with him, punishes him with his own hand as an apostate from the common, holy cause, but still then, after hesitation, he agrees to pay tribute to his military prowess and bury him with honor. From the point of view of the artist-historian, this is a medieval redemptive sacrifice to the New Age, when a person, moving away from God and faith, acting “autocratically”, thereby destroys himself and interrupts his family.

The historical story "Taras Bulba" at a superficial glance does not seem to be organic enough in "Mirgorod". It differs from other things in this book both in its content and style. In fact, Taras Bulba is a very important part of Mirgorod. Moreover, the inclusion of this story in the collection was necessary. It allowed to look at the heroes of other stories of the same book from some other, essential side. We have long been accustomed to call "Taras Bulba" a story. And, of course, there are good reasons for this. According to many of its objective genre characteristics, Taras Bulba is a historical story.

This story has become part of our lives forever. We often say it in words, as in the words of a proverb: “The trace of Tarasov was found!” This should be understood as follows: never eradicate the fighters for the Fatherland and the Russian people.

3.2.3. Fantastic and real in the story "Viy".

The idea of "Viya" can be attributed to the time of work on "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka": he is closely connected with them in terms of folklore, as well as genre and thematically - unlike other stories of "Mirgorod". Perhaps Gogol had this idea in mind in the autumn of 1832, when he spoke of some kind of continuation of Evenings. Researchers usually date the beginning of work on the story in 1833, but its untitled draft autograph in the workbook is entered last, moreover, starting from an odd page, and this could only be after the previous draft version of Taras Bulba was completed. The peculiarities of the handwriting in the draft "Viya" allow us to say that Gogol worked on it in the autumn-winter of 1834, simultaneously with some works of "Arabesques".

The second time during the life of Gogol "Viy" was published in 1842, in the second volume of his collected works. At the same time, some scenes were redone again and the details in the description of the monsters were eliminated.

In terms of its historical and folklore-literary orientation, “Viy” is the only story in the cycle that really “serves as a continuation of Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” as a mythologized narrative about the past in the forms and images of the past itself. At first, we are talking about the Kiev “bursa”, it is shown what the bursaks were like, which indicates the “Little Russian story” of V.T. Narezhny "Bursak", known to the reader of that time. And then the reader could expect a story about the same adventures of a simple-hearted, strong, brave and quick-witted hero, similar to the adventurous love adventure of the bursak Andriy Bulba. However, in his adventures, the hero "Viya" more resembled not a fabulous young simpleton, but a dyak-beer cutter, a character in folk interludes - this is the type of schoolboy, seminarian who is fond of subjects alien to strict spiritual science: he takes care of both merchants and panns, drunk, indulges in risky scams.

Also in the story "Viy" the motives of the novel by E.T.A. Hoffmann's "Elixirs of Satan", where the story of the criminal monk Medard is based on the gothic novel by Lewis "The Monk". This is, first of all, the night “jump” of the hero with the twin behind him, from which he gets rid only at dawn, while he sees the “beam of sunshine” and hears the sounds of the “monastery bell”. The visions and feelings of the characters are similar: Medard sees in his nightmares a fantastic mixture of people, birds and insects; he sometimes hears the twin's voice, indistinguishable from his own, and when he thinks about his sister he experiences "languid" sensations, which in romantics marked incestuous motives. Finally, the “radiant beauty”, the likeness of Venus, with whom the artist Francesco lived in a sinful connection, after death turns into a “disgusting disfigured dead woman” - an old woman.

The real in Gogol's stories coexists with the fantastic throughout the writer's work. But this phenomenon is undergoing some evolution - the role, place and methods of including a fantastic element do not always remain the same. In the story “Viy”, the fantastic comes to the forefront of the plot (wonderful metamorphoses, the appearance of evil spirits), it is associated with folklore (Little Russian fairy tales and legends) and with romantic literature, which also borrowed such motifs from folklore.

Fantasy is a special form of displaying reality that is logically incompatible with the real idea of the world around us. It is common in mythology, folklore, art, and in special, grotesque and "supernatural" images expresses a person's worldview. In literature, fantasy developed on the basis of romanticism, the main principle of which was the image of an exceptional hero acting in exceptional circumstances. This freed the writer from any restrictive rules, gave him the freedom to implement creative possibilities and abilities. Apparently, this attracted N.V. Gogol, who actively used fantastic elements in his works. National flavor and fantasy, appeal to legends, fairy tales, folk legends testify to the formation in the work of N.V. Gogol of a national, original beginning.

This feature of the writer is most clearly reflected in his story "Viy".

Gogol's fantasy is built on the idea of two opposite principles - good and evil, divine and diabolical (as in folk art), but there is no good fantasy proper, it is all intertwined with "evil spirits".

It should be noted that the fantastic elements of N.V. Gogol is not an accidental phenomenon in the writer's work. On the example of almost all of his works, the evolution of fantasy can be traced, the ways of introducing it into the narrative are being improved.

In the story "Viy" fantastic imagery is realized with the help of a number of forms and techniques.

Firstly, this is what can be called actually fantastic - when a writer invents entities or properties that do not exist in nature. This happens, for example, in the story "Viy", where all kinds of unclean forces operate, which do not exist in nature.

Secondly, in this story there is a form of allegorical fantasy, which is based on the realization in the depicted world of one or another speech trope. Most often, this form of the fantastic is based on hyperbole (inconceivable visions, gigantic animals, etc.), litotes (dwarfs, gnomes). The character Viy himself is a creature from fantasy world, which exists only in the mythical legends of the Slavs. However, in Gogol, this is the main character, who appears at the end of the story, but keeps us in suspense throughout the entire plot.

The next technique that we will consider is the grotesque - the combination of the fantastic and the real in one image, and the grotesque is characterized by the combination of the fantastic not just with the real, but with the mundane, everyday, everyday. So, Pannochka - an ordinary earthly girl turns into a terrible old woman, then into a beautiful witch.

In the spirit of the grotesque, for example, the episode in which the old witch flies on Khoma is also sustained.

The historical realities mentioned in the story allow us to judge the time of action. Thus, the image of a “theologian, not much shorter than the Kiev bell tower” means the main bell tower of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, more than 96 meters high, erected in 1731-1744 according to the project of I. Shedl, which during the life of Gogol was the tallest building in Kyiv. And the post of centurion (and other Cossack foremen) was abolished in 1784. That is, the time of action is determined by half a century (1740-1780s), when the slow destruction and destruction of the Cossacks took place, and is opposed to the era of its rise in the first half of the 17th century as the time of action in the previous story "Taras Bulba",

Names and nicknames play a special role in the characterization of the Bursaks. So, Khoma is the Ukrainian form of the name Thomas, which can be associated with “Unfaithful Thomas” (on behalf of the apostle) - that is, a person who is incredulous, prone to doubt, rustic, bad, lethargic. The orphan hero, who did not know his parents, did not even have a surname, so Brutus, apparently, is a student nickname, consonant with Ukrainian. brud - "dirt". There were several Brutus in Ancient Rome, but the most famous is Mark Junius Brutus - the killer of Caesar, a Roman politician, a supporter of the republic. In 44 BC he, along with Cassius, led a conspiracy against Caesar, who was considered his father, and, according to legend, was one of the first to stab him with a dagger. Therefore, his name has become a household name for a treacherous friend.

The information then known to every enlightened reader made it possible to interpret both the image of the philosopher Khoma Brutus and the image of the rhetorician Tiberius Gorobets, (for Ukrainian Gorobets means “sparrow”), and the name Tiberius comes from the name of the Tiber River in Rome (that is, a Roman sparrow as a speaker): this is the name of both the fiery tribune of Tiberius Gracchus and the tyrant Tiberius, stepson and heir of Augustus. Equally absurd in meaning is the combination of the theologian Freebie (from freebie - a slob, a muddler, untidy, lethargic). These “Latin-Slavic” nicknames of the Bursaks, similar to the nicknames of the Cossacks, are contrasted with the colloquial Christian names of the Cossacks, mostly Greek: Yavtukh - “Evtukh” (“Names given at baptism”) - from Eutychius (Greek “happy, successful”) , Spirid, coll. Svirid - from Spiridion (Greek "gift of the soul"), Dorosh - from Dorotheus (Greek "gift of God"), Mikita - from Nikita (Greek "winner"), Overko - from Averius (possibly goes back to the Latin - "put to flight"). People who are not included in the circle of Khoma's acquaintances, the Bursaks and Cossacks, remain without names: the old woman, the widow, the rector, the centurion, the pannochka, the "Jewish innkeeper", the servants, the shepherd.

The uniqueness of the story "Viy" lies in the fact that in it different forms of fantasy can be combined with each other in the system of one work. So, hyperbole is combined with litotes, the grotesque is intertwined with both litotes and hyperbole. .

3.2.4. The specifics of the grotesque in "The Tale of a Quarrel"

"The Tale of a Quarrel" is written in a sharply emphasized skaz style. From the very first lines and further through its entire text, the narrator’s “I” stylistically brought to the grotesque passes; it is he who begins the story with an exclamation: “Glorious bekesha at Ivan Ivanovich! Excellent! And what a mess!” etc. It is he who so exorbitantly admires the Bekes and its owner. He is informed - both by the warehouse of his speech and by its very content - a certain characteristic, also burlesque, "travesty", like the character of the whole story as a whole: after all, his speech is parodic-rhetorical; he does not just tell, but rhetorically embellishes his speech, however, constantly breaking from this parodic “high” tone into the tone of “low” conversation with listeners familiar to him “in life”. So, starting with a series of exclamations of delight up to: “velvet! silver! Fire!" etc., he immediately inserts a parte: “He sewed it back then, when Agafya Fedoseyevna did not go to Kyiv. Do you know Agafya Fedoseevna? the same one that bit off the assessor's ear.

Below - again exclamations and delights, and suddenly - a grin of speech in an obviously everyday tone: “Yes, the little house is not very bad. I like it...”, etc., and again a conversation with the prospective listener about common acquaintances: “Ivan Ivanovich is a wonderful person! The Poltava commissar knows him too! Dorosh Tarasovich Pukhivochka, when he travels from Khorol, he always stops by to see him. And the archpriest father Peter, who lives in Koliberd ... ", etc.

The narrator - both in his rhetorical enthusiasm and in his shabby à parte and jokes - is obviously comical; he himself is not only the bearer of the story, but also the object of the image, or, moreover, satire, and satire is very serious. He does not in the least oppose his heroes, as well as the whole environment, their surrounding, vulgar, contemptible environment, which brings a person to a shameful "earthlyness". He himself is the flesh of the flesh of this environment. He is one of this whole company of Mirgorod vulgars, one of the Ivanov Ivanovichs, Nikiforovichs and more Ivanovichs depicted in the story. He - so to speak, the subject of presentation - is completely merged with his object. The two main characters of the story are given "from the outside", without revealing their psychology; but the reader is revealed a world of thoughts, or rather, thoughts, and feelings, experiences of the narrator - and these are the standard feelings and thoughts of all the heroes of the story, for whom, as well as for the narrator, the world is Mirgorod and its gentry, the highest delight and poetry - bekesha and plentifully tasty food, as for the homeland, culture, people, etc., they all have no idea about this. At the same time, the narrator is stupid, stiff, ignorant, vulgar - and these are not at all his personal traits, but the traits of the entire environment depicted in the story, the entire way of life condemned in it. This means that the narrator, very concretized stylistically, appears to the reader as if in the form of the spiritual essence of the circle of phenomena of reality that is depicted, in the form of the voice of that collective vulgarity that is described in the story. Therefore, with stiff "shame" and a dirty grin, he speaks of Gapka's children running around Ivan Ivanovich's yard, and of Gapka's virtues. Therefore, he loves his vulgar heroes so much, he is their friend (“I know Ivan Nikiforovich very well and I can say ...”), he is the same as they are. And he quite seriously disputes the gossip that Ivan Nikiforovich was born with his tail back, because “this fiction is so ridiculous and at the same time vile and indecent that I don’t even consider it necessary to refute it before enlightened readers, who, without any doubt, know that only witches, and even then very few, have a back tail, which, however, belong more to the female sex than to the male ”(this is how we learn about the degree of enlightenment of the narrator).

Immediately - and an explanation of the merits of Ivan Ivanovich's oratory, suddenly revealing both pictures of the gentry life of the narrator, and his understanding of the merits of cultural phenomena: “Lord, how he speaks! This sensation can only be compared to when you are searching in your head or slowly running your finger along your heel. You listen, you condense - and you hang your head. Nice! extremely nice! like sleep after bathing.

All these features, describing the narrator at once as a person and as the voice of the world of vulgarity, as one of the objects of satire, are accumulated especially densely in the first chapter of the story. This chapter is devoted to the characterization of both Ivans; it is also devoted to the characterization of the narrator, who is deeply merged with both Ivans in the idea of the story. The plot of non-Christian enmity between neighbors in the Mirgorod district, used by Gogol, was previously developed in the story by V.T. Narezhny "Two Ivans, or Passion for Litigation". At the same time, the characterization of the heroes reveals the motives of the works of Russian "laughter" literature about the brothers Foma and Yerema - losers in everything they undertake. And although the brothers are constantly opposed to each other, all contradictions turn out to be imaginary - it is rather a parody or a caricature of the contrast: "Yerema was crooked, and Thomas with a thorn, Yerema was bald, and Thomas was mangy." And they both die as absurdly as they lived. This plot was widely known from the popular print that had spread since the beginning of the 18th century; it was also used in the folk theater and barkers of booths.

The impact of the theater, and especially the nativity scene, directly mentioned in the story, is noticeable in the development of its plot, the dialogues of the characters, the architectonics of key scenes (a quarrel, the destruction of bread, an attempt to reconcile enemies, a meeting in a church). The features of the comic tale: its alogism, piling up of details, digressions that lead away from the action, the principles of speech characterization of the characters - in many ways reminded the reader of the well-known novel by L. Stern "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman", which has been noted more than once by critics. However, the farcical flavor of the action was determined not only by literary and folk tradition, direct and hidden quotation of Little Russian comedies by I.P. Kotlyarevsky and V.A. Gogol-father, but also the successful dramatic experiments of Gogol himself, which were pointed out by M.P. Pogodin.

The title of the story parodied the titles of adventurous and moralistic works known in Russia at the end of the 18th century, most of them translated from French - such as "A funny story about two Turks ..." or "A tale of passions or adventures ...". The titles of the chapters were clearly parodic, going back to the translated novels of G. Fielding, M. de Cervantes and the popular novel by A.R. Lesage's "The Story of Gil Blas of Santillana" or "The Ballad, which describes how one old woman rode a black horse together and who was sitting in front" R. Southey. The story also parodied the forms and language of the court papers filed by Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikifirovich against each other in the district court, reminiscent of the definitions of the hundred office in V.T. Narezhny. The similarity of these "documents" was reinforced by Gogol's reliance on examples of Ukrainian-Russian "order" paperwork from the "Book of All sorts of things" and on the then widespread clerical samples of complaints to the district court - as, for example, in the book of I.A. Morkov "General Solicitor, or Attorney, showing the forms and rituals, how and on what paper they are written ...".

It is necessary to explain Russian and Ukrainian names and patronymics, the meaning of which, known to readers of that time, was used to characterize the characters. So, Russian name Ivan was then the most common in Russia, a household name for an ordinary, “average” person, which means that a hero named Ivan Ivanovich is extremely ordinary, “averaged”. The patronymic of Ivan Nikiforovich adds to his name a certain “chosenness” (from Greek - the light of the people). His cohabitant Agafia Fedoseevna turns out to be the namesake of the Ukrainian girl Gapka, who lives with Ivan Ivanovich: “Gapa, Gapka - Gapusya - Agafia” (“Names given at baptism”): this is a Greek name with the meaning “good, wise”. The report of Agafia Fedoseevna - the patronymic from Fedosy (Theodosius - given by God), as it were, hints at the fact that she is destined from above for a cohabitant, despite his resistance; in addition, it is immediately said that this worthy wise woman is “the one who bit off the ear of the assessor.” The mayor Petr Fedorovich, from the former military, is the full namesake of the unfortunate Peter III, who, as you know, most of all loved the game of soldiers and military parades. Having exchanged all his property, the cowardly accustomed bears the name of the commander Anton (Greek Anthony - entering the battle), his patronymic Prokofievich is a patronymic from Prokofy (Greek Prokoy - advancing); the patron of this name, Procopius of Caesarea, was known as a model of asceticism: having distributed the estate to the needy, he himself wandered and begged. This and other heroes of the story have Christian names, originally consecrated by their bearers, but they contradict the obvious lack of spirituality and vulgarity of the meaning of their name.

All this draws attention to the chronology of the story - the only one in the cycle, the time of which is accurately dated. In the petition of Ivan Ivanovich it is said that the "mortal insult" was committed to him "this July 1810, 7 days." And before the quarrel, he tells his neighbor that "three kings have declared war on our king" and, according to his assumption, "they want us all to accept the Turkish faith." And although the facts are clearly distorted, this message has a real basis: in 1809, Russia really waged three wars: Russian-Turkish (1806-1812) and Russian-Swedish (1808-1809), and in the summer of 1809 it formally participated in the war with Austria on the side of France. It is further said that the mayor's leg was "shot through in the last campaign" of 1807 (when, according to the hero, he "climbed over the fence to a pretty German woman"). In the petition of Ivan Nikiforovich, the date of the incident was specified - “on the 7th of last month” (that is, almost a month passed until the parties began litigation), while his repeated petition, instead of the one dragged away by the “brown pig”, was “marked, recorded, numbered” in court , sewn in, signed - all on the same day, and put the case in the closet, where it lay, lay, lay - a year, two, three ”(from 1810). So, the mayor gives an "assembly" in 1813, but at the same time, in the house of a retired military man, there is no mention of Patriotic war and the Foreign Campaign of the Russian Army - the guests talk about "many pleasant and useful things, such as: about the weather, about dogs, about wheat, about caps, about stallions", finally, about a long-standing quarrel between two friends. Then, after an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile them, “a whole month” passes until Ivan Ivanovich’s “grandfather’s karbovanets” came into action, and “from that time on, the chamber informed him daily that the matter would end tomorrow, for ten years!” (until 1823). Further narration relates this total time actions with the narrator’s personal time: he ended up in Mirgorod “five years ago”, after he had not been in it “twelve years” - therefore, he left the city no earlier than 1816, when the course of the lawsuit was quite clear.

Thus, each of the parts of the collection "Mirgorod" includes two stories and opposes each other according to the principle of contrast. The genre originality of the stories in the collection is equally contrasting: the idyllic beginning is adjacent to the techniques of a sentimental story, historical facts are given through the prism of their folklore processing, the real is intertwined with the fantastic, and the grotesque becomes one of the leading stylistic devices of everyday stories.

Conclusion

The cycle of Mirgorod stories, designated by the writer himself as a continuation of Evenings on a Farm..., is faithful to the traditions of romantic aesthetics. The first collection of Gogol's short stories taught the reader to love life, nature, and good laughter. In the new cycle of stories, the author teaches moral lessons through the coverage of mostly negative aspects of life: vulgarity, cruelty, forgetfulness of Christian commandments.

The writer calls for the fulfillment of the customs of antiquity and rituals, he opposes attachment to wealth and against greed, his innermost thought is about the republic of free and equal people, his cherished dream is about unity, brotherhood, comradeship as the highest moral virtues.

The collection consists of two parts; Each has two stories. The first volume begins with "Old World Landowners", the second - "Viem". The theme and, so to speak, the thesis of the whole book are given in each of these two stories at once, in their entirety; these are, as it were, figurative formulas of the entire book. The second stories of each part, "Taras Bulba" and the story about Ivan, each give one aspect of that contradiction, which forms the meaning of the whole book.

In the structure of the Mirgorod cycle of Gogol's stories, three stories can be distinguished that are close in their embodiment of the vulgarity of a vulgar person: in one of them, this vulgarity is expressed in the primitivism of life (“Old-world landowners”), in the other, it is supplemented by bestial manifestations of carelessness (drunkenness, theft) and ignorance (“Viy”), in the last (“How Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich”), the vulgarity of life, attitude, and behavior is brought to its culminating expression.

The artistic originality of the stories of the Mirgorod cycle is primarily determined by their genre and species diversity. At the same time, an essential feature of each of these genres is the nature of Gogol's laughter, Gogol's humor, or, in the words of Belinsky, "humor". From the cheerful and good-natured laughter of his "Evenings on a Farm ..." the writer goes to the laughter-irony that permeates the "Old World Landowners" and "Viy", and then to the satirical ridicule of the heroes of "The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich."

The heroic story "Taras Bulba" is more characteristic of another
style manner. Violating the author's sequence in the arrangement of the stories of the Mirgorod cycle, it is necessary to single out the story "Taras Bulba".

The story "Taras Bulba" is not only a heroic epic, it is also a deepening of the author's understanding of the essence of Man, his beauty, which is impossible without goodness and humanity. Therefore, the first part of the Mirgorod collection, revealing characters close to nature, not only provides samples good people in the story "Old World Landowners", beautiful, brave patriots in "Taras Bulba", but makes you think about the negative traits of their characters, about such aspects of their life and acts that reduce the positive coverage of these Gogol characters.

The composition of the collection is built with such a setting that first
reveal the positive and feel the shortcomings in people close to nature,
not experienced the destructive influence of civilization. It concerns
local nobility in the "Old World Landowners" and Zaporozhye
Cossacks in "Taras Bulba". The second part of the collection is devoted to the image of representatives of the "educated" part of society: pupils of the bursa in the story "Viy" and nobles - provincial inhabitants in "The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich."

Consequently, the stories of this collection are arranged in terms of
deepening the content of the concept of "man", revealing its social and moral essence. The creation of the collection "Mirgorod" by Gogol marked the establishment of realistic tendencies in the writer's work.

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Acquaintance and further friendship with Pushkin inspired Gogol with a vengeance, with an amazing desire to take up literary activity. At the age of four, from 1832 to 1836, he wrote a number of remarkable works, including the collection Mirgorod, which was a continuation of Evenings on a Farm. 8 this collection includes the stories: "Old-world landowners", "Taras Bulba", "Viy", "The Tale of how Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich." Gogol showed an enormous exertion of forces during this period. His life experience expanded immeasurably. Petersburg, his working life, new meetings and acquaintances enriched his amazingly observant mind with a huge supply of new impressions, new images and thoughts that required expression in words. From the wonderful world of youthful dreams, I had to turn to dry and callous worldly prose. This transition happened gradually. In the collection "Mirgorod" there is no longer a cheerful storyteller who knows how to present the poetic side in a living picture folk life; here is a serious and thoughtful artist, whose laughter and tears flow from a deep understanding of life and, as a result, often border on each other so closely that you don’t know where laughter ends and where tears begin.