Nikolay Gogol and his book "Dead souls"
"Dead Souls" is a highlight in Gogol's creative development, the highest manifestation of his mastery as a writer. Together with the comedy Revizor, this Gogol's work fully affirms the method of critical realism in the development of Russian literature. Compared to western writers, this method acquires a special appearance in Gogol, since it is directed not so much against the bourgeois phenomena in life but as against the dominant feudal-fortress system still in Russia. With "Dead Souls," Gogol expands the understanding of nationality in literature. While in Pushkin it is largely covered by the concept of national identity, Gogol's work has a certain social focus. The national character of the work manifests itself above all in the acute criticism of those public forces that stop the country's development, which suppresses and stifles its creative powers. The nationalist position of the author is revealed in his belief in the creative forces of the people, in the consciousness that he expresses the spiritual power of the nation.
The novel is conceived as a trilogy, but only the first two parts are completed. The author defines his work as an "epic poem in prose". Russian writer Pushkin gives Gogol an idea of the story of the novel. Gogol had the intention of writing a trilogy that realistically replicated the situation in Russia. Gogol had the purpose in the three parts of his work to describe successively the bad sides (in volume 1), the contrast between good and bad (volume 2) and the beautiful homeland that he thinks should be (the unsigned 3 volumes). Only the first part - Dead Souls - has been realized from this concept. The author worked on the work from 1835 to 1841, and it was published in 1842. Dead Souls was defined as a novel poem. It is novel because it has the scale and the universality of the described phenomena. It is poem because it is full of lyrical apostasies, having poetic tone and patheticity. The novel "Dead Souls" does not feature a complex compositional structure. For his back serves the travel of Chichikov to the estates of the different landowners. All events are grouped around these visits. Each of the paintings (chapters) of the work shows on one side the activity of Chichikov for the purchase of the dead souls (the lists of the deceased peasants), reveals some essential feature of his character, at the same time reveals the character of a landlord. The first chapter plays the role of exposition (introduction) in the action. It outlines the general situation, some of the features of the officials and landlords with whom Chichikov will work in the future, and hints lightly on the fantastic idea of buying dead souls.
The last three chapters of the first volume draw the clerical world, telling the mistresses of Chichikov in different institutions. There is also the past of the "hero", and thus the reader is given the opportunity to fully understand the features and actions described in the work so far, and to develop a general idea of his character and appearance. Gogol has achieved tremendous success in "Dead Souls" in the construction of human characters. They are not much, but their appearance is brilliant, yet too sparing. The heroes are taken with such features and from the sides of them that make them unique and unforgettable for the reader. Each of them has a brightly defined personal appearance. He is seriously serious, in his own way, on his own misfortune, has his own unique destiny. It is not possible to mix Chichikov with Sobakovich, Nozdryov with Plushkin, or with Manilov. At the same time, everyone is typical, that is, combines the features of a certain category of people in their most essential form and manifestation. All of them enter into a series of immortal images of Russian and world literature. Gogol uses a number of well-established techniques of the realistic individualization of images - the portrait and speech characteristic, the home environment as a means of clarifying the image, the author's characteristic, etc. for the characterization of his characters. However, they receive a new conceptual design and a new artistic expression. The writer skillfully applied them as a tool for the satirical exposing of Russian domination, showing the comical contradiction between his leading social position and his spirituality. The natural portrait harmonizes with the psychological content of the face everywhere
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