The main features of the bureaucracy of the district city. Officials of the city NN (according to the poem N

Gogol's comedy is a mirror in which all the vices and pictures of abuses characteristic of all Russian life during the times of the author were reflected. In fact, these vices were, are and will always be. The ruler of the state is not interested in the life of district and provincial towns. Bribery and robbery of the population in the form of taxes flourish there; gradually such a town will become mired in debt, and again the ordinary population will have to pay. Only there are no such daredevils as Gogol to ridicule these vices, to make people think about how and what they live with.

I like Gogol’s works, I read them with pleasure, I learn something new.

But the work “The Inspector General” did not make me wonder how anyone could live like this! Modern people are so accustomed to this, these vices are something ordinary for us, we encounter injustice every day. Alas, the current generation is so corrupt that it takes such atrocities for granted! The mayor's phrase: "There is no person who does not have some sins behind him." is still relevant today.

So, the time of writing and action of the comedy “The Inspector General” itself is the first half of the 19th century. At that time, it was still possible to somehow influence people, to shame them. That's why Gogol wrote a satirical comedy without a single positive hero to open people's eyes to their way of life.

The officials of the district town collected all possible sins: bribery, self-interest, greed, vulgarity, addiction to gambling, burning money, lust for power, flattery, duplicity, and this is far from full list. The duplicity of officials manifests itself when they conduct a conversation with lower or higher rank people. They mock someone, don’t consider them human, and bow at the feet of someone. But nevertheless, many of these heroes are reasoners! They really love to conduct moralizing discussions, although first of all they should look at themselves. Officials are incredibly stupid; all their knowledge boils down to knowing how much to take in bribes. That's why they were so alarmed when they learned about the news about the auditor. If they were at least a little smarter, they would definitely notice Khlestakov’s features, which a real auditor cannot have. The fear of losing their place and rank drives them to paranoia. In every phrase of Khlestakov they are looking for hidden meaning, try to appease him, as a result of this they get into trouble. First, they lost their money. Secondly, the bad reputation about them will spread throughout the state and will certainly reach the emperor. And here a real auditor will see all their sins, catch them red-handed, then the officials of the city of N will be in trouble.

Gogol's new comedy caused a flurry of criticism among his contemporaries. I think because the majority recognized themselves in the heroes. But in my opinion, Nikolai Vasilyevich’s efforts were not in vain; he managed to fulfill his idea of ​​a comedy “with anger and salt.” Still, “The Inspector General” became popular, which means people took a closer look, listened and changed for the better.

And yet I don’t like to judge people, yes, the officials are wrong. But we should look at ourselves, because we also have enough vices. This is not necessarily bribery and stinginess, because there are still many bad sins. Unfortunately, we now lack a “new Gogol” who, through art, would ridicule the vices of people and show how impoverished Russian souls have become.

Gogol’s characterization of officials in “The Inspector General” is given at the very beginning with the help of a folk proverb, which served as an epigraph to the comedy: “There is no point in blaming the mirror if your face is crooked.” This capacious image allows us to penetrate into the essence of the multiple “faces” of bureaucracy, as the force that filled the Russian space of the first half of the 19th century and enslaved it. The comedy was supposed to become a kind of “mirror” in which one could see all the nuances of social ugliness. As a true artist, Gogol understood that it was best to indicate the scale of this disaster not by directly condemning it, but by placing it in a context where it would always be accompanied by laughter.

All officials in the auditor are united by an immoderate passion for acquisition, and it does not matter what: money, power, undeserved respect. These are insignificant parts of “little thanks”, so small that they are not worth talking about. Traction Russian society to traditional values ​​gave rise to a situation where it was tradition that bought off one’s conscience. Bribery, as ancient as the world, itself became a world whose laws should be inviolable. In such a world it is easy to deceive and be deceived, which makes honesty seem offensive. The bureaucracy in The Inspector General looks grotesque also because the absurdity of their life is filled with “pretension” and righteous anger: it does not forgive anything or anyone for the disrespectful attitude towards themselves, which should be almost internal to every Russian citizen.

The images of officials in the comedy “The Inspector General” are as funny as they are monstrous, because they are true and widespread in all spheres of the then public life. Mayor Skvoznik-Dmukhatsky, of course, is not stupid, like a gray gelding; he is well aware of the unsightly situation of the inhabitants of his city, the deplorable state of medicine and education. But deriving one’s own benefit prevails over everything for the mayor, and the arrival of the auditor was supposed to block the process of absorbing resources and patching up holes after that. Fear blinds the mayor so much that he mistakes Khlestakov’s cowardice and emptiness for the subtle deceit with which a passing person passes himself off as an auditor. Skvoznik-Dmukhatsky never experiences a feeling of not only guilt, but even awkwardness at the moments when he is “thanked,” because the ghost of supposedly God’s providence has long justified everything. No one dares to go against the divine will, except perhaps some Voltaireans. Among the venerable officials of the district city there should under no circumstances be such a shame. He's not there!

The absence of Voltairian shame also frees one from intelligence and education. Ignorance is so invincible that no amount of enlightenment can budge it, like that of a city judge who takes bribes with greyhound puppies for a future hunt. Several books that he read throughout his life “and-send-here-Lyapkin-Tyapkin”, of course, gained him the reputation of a freethinker, but added absolutely nothing to his meager consciousness. He is not only unable to do the job, but also bear responsibility for his judgments, which have long been, and perhaps from the very beginning of his career, abolished by his superiors with something like: “a lot of intelligence is worse than not having one at all.”

Among the officials of the city of N in The Inspector General, Strawberry is clearly visible, who is zealously patronized by charitable institutions. He is a terrible weasel and knows how to speak to the hearts of those in power, which always ensures him brilliant success. The trustee considers flattery the most indispensable and unmistakable means of penetrating someone else's soul and uses it on the widest scale. He curries favor with both the mayor and Khlestakov, subtly capturing the nature of their pride and fear. The caretaker of the schools, Khlopov, is inferior in flattery to Strawberry; he does it not so skillfully, but with great success he submits complaints to the mayor about teachers who allegedly spread a free spirit among the growing youth, they are too offensively hot and educated. That’s why all the officials from “The Inspector General” are so representative, so brilliant in their stubbornness, because each of them is part of a bribery system that kills everything human, original and reasonable.

The images of officials in the comedy “The Inspector General” are complemented by such characters as Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, roguish gossips who are in an endless search for amazing news. They scurry through the whole comedy as pampers and buffoons, whom no one cares about, but they endure everything - for the opportunity to be the first to find out an interesting incident, no matter what it concerns. One of them always accompanies the mayor to Khlestakov, then showers himself with pleasantries in front of Anna Andreevna, or obsequiously stutters in front of the auditor. Ultimately, in all guises they do not change, demonstrating the lowest level of mental poverty and insignificance - a petty official who, due to his position, is affectionate, but if you put power in his hands, he will tear anyone to pieces. Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky themselves experience almost pleasure from the awe of power, for “fear still pervades you when you speak with a nobleman,” and this fear does not seem humiliating at all. It is perceived as a source of low pleasure.

And, finally, Khlestakov himself is an embodied clerical emptiness, who lost at cards and, due to circumstances, took on the role of an auditor. Khlestakov is subject to filling by his very nature, so it doesn’t matter to him who he will be in the next moment, because the mayor’s intentions do not immediately reach his consciousness. He accepts admiration and generously gives everyone his attention as a person who does not need to be told about his irresistibility. His threats are funny and boyish, but this is precisely what arouses Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky’s suspicion, and then confidence - this newcomer is simply skillfully cunning, he is the auditor!

In these relations we see the end point of the absurdity of the bureaucratic world: fear of the powerful force paralyzes a person, makes substitution possible and gives prosperity to ignorance. Only cleansing laughter, the only positive character in Gogol’s comedy, can help you escape from this circle.

Work test

“Officials of City N” - page No. 1/1

Lesson topic: “City officialsN»

The purpose of the lesson: to formulate “timely thoughts” and questions about the connection between the activities of officials and the prosperous life of the city, since the legal consciousness of schoolchildren, many of whom, after graduating from school, will solve the problems of municipal and state government, begins with the ability to “hear sadness through laughter” and with the desire to fight with everything “bad in Russia”. Consider the images of officials in the play, compose their characteristics; develop skills in expressive reading, text analysis, acting; expand and deepen the concept of literary terms: “drama”, “comedy”, “satire”, “composition”, “elements of composition”, be able to use them; develop the creative abilities of students.

Tasks:

Educational: to form completeness, awareness, systematicity, strength of knowledge, improve speech skills, the ability to conduct a conversation, training in analytical reading

Developmental: create interest in the subject; motivation for further study of literature; develop monologue speech; teach to analyze, highlight the main thing, compare, build analogies, generalize and systematize; develop memory, attention

Educational: cultivate a culture of communication; love of life, faith in the triumph of good principles.

Methods: explanatory and illustrative method (story with elements of conversation, slide show); problematic method; research

Educational technologies: educational cooperation, technology of communicative mutual learning, discussion as a technology for forming educational learning (written and oral ), information and communication technologies, research technologies, productive reading technology

Logistics and methodological support: computer, projector, screen, handouts (dictionary of literary terms, dictionary of “difficult” words from Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General”)

Literary terms: drama, comedy, satire, stage directions, exposition, plot, development of action, climax, denouement, oxymoron

Vocabulary work: fear, incognito, arbitrariness, embezzlement, fraud.

Form UUD:

Personal UUD: formation of legal culture and strong-willed qualities of schoolchildren based on the personality of N.V. Gogol and the study of the comedy “The Inspector General”; cognitive interest in the work being studied (to encourage children to independently analyze the images of officials)

Regulatory UUD: determine and formulate the goal in the lesson with the help of the teacher; plan your action in accordance with the task; ability to self-assess based on success criteria educational activities(reflection).

Communicative UUD: listen and understand the speech of others; express your thoughts orally and in writing; negotiate with classmates together with the teacher about the rules of behavior and communication and follow them, ability to work in a group.

Cognitive UUD: navigate your knowledge system; analyze episodes; ability to work with text (find answers to questions in the text, illustrations); transform information from one form to another

Planned results:

Subject - creating conditions for studying the work of N.V. Gogol, getting to know comedy as dramatic genre literature; teach to identify the idea and theme of a work, read between the lines, know the techniques of analyzing a literary work;

Meta-subject – creating conditions for the formation of communicative and cultural competencies through understanding the topic, idea and problem of the text, selecting arguments to confirm one’s own position, highlighting cause-and-effect relationships in oral and written statements; teach how to organize activities independently, working with different sources of information;

Personal – the formation of spiritual and moral qualities of an individual using the example of the characteristics of characters in literary works, to cultivate the author’s inherent literary work timeless, enduring moral values, goodwill in various communication situations

In “The Inspector General” I decided to collect into one

a bunch of everything bad in Russia that I knew then...

And laugh at everything at once...

Through laughter... the reader heard sadness…

N.V.Gogol

They will laugh at my bitter word

N.V.Gogol

During the classes:

1. Organizational moment.

Students read out democratic rules of communication during literature lessons

2. Updating knowledge

(Slide No. 1)Teacher's word : April 19, 1836 on Sunday, at Alexandrinsky Theater The original (that is, finally untranslated) comedy in 5 acts “The Inspector General” written by Nikolai Gogol was given for the first time. The author was already known to the reading public.

Gogol left his house on Malaya Morskaya and went to the theater. The eyes glowed intensely on the pale face. It’s so scary if the comedy in which he decided to “gather in one pile everything bad in Russia that he knew then, all the injustices that are being done... and laugh at everything at once,” will be taken for a funny trifle.

There are many acquaintances in the theater: V.A. Zhukovsky, to whom Gogol read “The Inspector General” in the palace, the poet Vyazemsky. Even old man Krylov came. For him, the new Russian comedy is an event during which you won’t be able to sit at home.

But Gogol bypasses everyone. He is blinded by the hall. Strange audiences are scary. What does she care about the provincial town and impoverished Russia? The boxes in the first rows of the stalls shine with the stars of dignitaries and the jewels of ladies.

In the royal box, Nicholas 1 with his heir. Only in the gallery are non-secular spectators crowded together.

But then the curtain came. Began! At first they laughed willingly. Comedy is funny. Something completely different happened in Act 4: laughter still flew from one end of the hall to the other, but it was some kind of timid laughter, which immediately disappeared; there was almost no applause; but intense attention, convulsive, intense following of all the shades of the play, sometimes dead silence showed that what was happening on stage passionately captured the hearts of the audience. At the end of the act, the previous bewilderment degenerated into general indignation, which culminated in the fifth act.

(Slide No. 2) The Tsar laughed and applauded a lot at the comedy performance, probably wanting to emphasize that the comedy was harmless and should not be taken seriously. However, left alone with his retinue, the king could not stand it and burst out: “What a play!” Everyone got it, and I got it the most!”

After the production of the comedy “The Inspector General” on the St. Petersburg stage, the newspapers wrote: “The author invented some kind of Russia and some kind of city, into which he dumped all the abominations that occasionally appear on the surface real Russia You find: how much trickery, meanness, ignorance I have accumulated.”

Students: High-ranking officials in St. Petersburg were offended when they saw in the play “an intolerable curse on the nobles, officials and merchants.” The officials saw themselves in the play.

Communicating the topic and objectives of the lesson :

(Slide No. 3) Teacher: Remember what epigraph Gogol took for the comedy. When and why?

Student: The comedy opens with an epigraph-proverb. The epigraph to “The Inspector General” appeared only in 1842, i.e. six years after the release of “The Inspector General”. This proverb concluded Gogol's work on comedy. Gogol also responded to criticism of the comedy with an epigraph. The writer claims that if the writer of a comedy managed to evoke disgust for the depicted morals, characters and events, then by doing so he showed his positive ideal. “Doesn’t all this accumulation of baseness, deviation from laws and justice already make it clear what law, duty and justice require of us?” - wrote N.V. Gogol

Teacher: Who are these heroes to whom Gogol managed to evoke disgust?

Students: City officials N

(Slide No. 4) Teacher: The topic of our lesson: “Officials of the city of N.” Today we will mentally transport ourselves to bureaucratic Russia of the 19th century and turn the pages again immortal comedy Gogol, we’ll visit the district town of N, “which you can’t get to at least three years of galloping,” we’ll take a trip through the unkempt streets of the city, repeat literary terms and do vocabulary work

Conversation with the class

Statement of a problematic question

Teacher: The epigraph to today’s lesson will be the words of Gogol himself: “In The Inspector General, I decided to collect in one pile everything bad in Russia that I knew then... and at one time laugh at everything... Through laughter the reader heard sadness..." and the words of the prophet Jeremiah, which were carved on the cross erected by Count Vorontsov on Gogol's grave: " Gorky in my word they'll laugh»

Teacher:Find keywords in epigraphs.

Students: Laughter and sadness

Teacher: What is the name of such a rhetorical figure in literary criticism?

Students: Oxymoron

Vocabulary work:

An oxymoron isstylistic figure or stylistic error - a combination of words withthe opposite meaning (that is, a combination of incompatible things).

What question will we be looking for an answer to today in class?

Students: What does Gogol laugh about and what is he sad about?

Teacher: Let us finally turn to the play itself.

Review conversation (Blitz survey)

Teacher: Who gave N. Gogol the plot of this play?

Student: A.S. Pushkin: “Do me a favor, give me some kind of story, at least something funny or unfunny, but a purely Russian joke. The hand is trembling to write a comedy in the meantime,” Gogol wrote to Pushkin on October 7, 1835.

Teacher: In what year was the comedy written?

Student: N.V. Gogol wrote the comedy in 1836, but edited it until 1842.

Teacher: What type of literature does comedy belong to?

Students: This is a dramatic work

Teacher: Remember the main features of a dramatic work. Name them.

Students: Availability of a poster - a list of characters;

division into actions, scenes, phenomena,

dialogical form of the play, stage directions,

a short period of time, the intensity of the conflict,

heroes express themselves through monologues, dialogues and actions

Teacher: Define comedy

Students: Comedy is a genre work of art, characterizedhumorous or satirical approach

Teacher: What type of comic genre can the play be classified as: satirical comedy or humorous comedy?

Student: Comedy satire

Teacher: “The Inspector General” is a satirical comedy. What is satire?

Students: Satire (lat. satira) is an accusatory work that depicts the negative phenomena of reality in a funny, ugly way.

Satire is a type of comic that differs from other types (humor, irony) in the sharpness of its exposure.

Teacher: Fazil Iskander, a Russian prose writer and poet, gave the following definition of satire:

“Satire is insulted love: for people, for the homeland or for humanity as a whole.”

Gogol, a patriot of his country, was rooting for his people, who found themselves under the rule of an entire army of officials. The characters in Gogol's comedy not only make you laugh, but also cause disgust and indignation. It was laughter through tears, angry laughter through tears of bitterness and indignation.

Teacher: What is the composition of a work of art?

Students: Composition is the construction of a work of art

Teacher: What are the elements of the composition?

Students: Commencement, development of action, climax, denouement

Teacher: Name the features of the composition of the play.

Student: Mirror composition - it all started with the message about the arrival of the auditor and ended with this event. Two endings - a letter from Khlestakov and a message about the arrival of a real auditor

Teacher: Using what technique does the author dramatic work conveys the emotional state of the hero?

Student? Using stage directions

Teacher: What is a remark?

Teacher: Where does the comedy take place? Why doesn't the city have a name? What do we know about this city?

(Slide No. 5) Students: The comedy takes place in a small county town, to which Gogol does not give a name. Uncertain location of the city. Where “even if you gallop for three years, you won’t reach any state” gives it a conventionality, allowing it to reflect all the vices of Russia. That is why Khlestakov says about this city: “What a nasty little town!”

Teacher: We can judge the life of a city by the state of affairs in its institutions. What kind of institutions in the city of N do we learn about from the comedy?

Students: Gogol shows courts, charitable institutions (hospitals), post office, law enforcement agencies.

Teacher: At the head of each institution are officials. Who are the officials and what is their role in the play?

(Slide No. 6) Student: Main characters of this comedy are officials of the county town.

According to the dictionary of S.I. Ozhegov: “An official is a civil servant who has a rank, official title”

Teacher: You know that Peter I drew up a document that defined the hierarchy of officials. Give this document a title. What class of the table of ranks did the ranks of our heroes correspond to?

Student: Table of ranks. Officials belonged to grades 7, 8, 9

Teacher: What phrase opens the play? (Gentlemen...)

Teacher: Nemirovich-Danchenko noted: “In “The Inspector General” there is one phrase... And the play has already begun. The plot is given and its main impulse is given – fear.” Who is afraid of whom?

Students: Khlestakov - officials, officials - Khlestakov

Teacher: Indeed, officials are the culprits of all events taking place in the city. We can judge the image of the city and the state of affairs in various institutions by the actions, behavior and spiritual qualities of those who manage and organize the life of the city at the beginning of the 19th century. In Gogol's comedy, we are presented with officials of all the main departments of the county town of the 19th century. It is interesting that the officials stick together throughout the entire action of the comedy. Why do you think? What connects them?

Students: Common sins and fear of the auditor.

Teacher: They are separated only in the scenes of offering bribes to Khlestakov. Who are they, officials of the city of N?

Work on the images of officials.

In preparation for today's lesson, you did your own research and compiled characteristics of comedy characters.

On the board are illustrations of officials from the comedy “The Inspector General.” Read the character's description and find the owner. (Application)

Research groups:

Student:Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol gave a broad picture of bureaucratic and bureaucratic rule in Russia in the 30s of the 19th century in the comedy “The Inspector General”. The comedy also ridiculed the everyday side of life of the inhabitants of a small county town: the insignificance of interests, hypocrisy and lies, arrogance and a complete lack of human dignity, superstition and gossip. This is revealed in the images of the landowners Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, the wife and daughter of the mayor, merchants and bourgeois women. But most of all, the life and morals of this city are characterized by its officials.
Describing officials, N.V. Gogol showed massive abuses of power, embezzlement and bribery, arbitrariness and disdain for ordinaryto people. All these phenomena were characteristic, ingrained features of the bureaucracy of Nikolaev Russia. This is exactly how civil servants appear before us in the comedy “The Inspector General”.
Group 1: “Image of the mayor”

Group 2: “Strawberries and Lyapkin-Tyapkin.” Comparative characteristics

Group 3: Postmaster Shpekin

Group 4: Luka Lukich Khlopov

(Slide No. 7) What vices are officials accused of? (write in notebook)

Trial of the mayor

Teacher: To officials in the cityN managed to avoid punishment for their sins. Today we will try to correct this injustice and examine at a court hearing the case of at least one accused, namely Mr. Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, the mayor from the comedy. (Application)
Research paper (Appendix)

Teacher: Students in the class conducted an election campaign and tried to find out which of the officials could lay claim to the role of mayor
Checking homework

Analysis of 4 action comedy
4. Knowledge control
Let's return to the question at the beginning of the lesson: “What is Gogol laughing about and what is he sad about?”
(Slide No. 8) And I would like to end our lesson with the words of N.V. Gogol:

“I’m sorry that no one noticed the honest face that was in my play.

Yes, there was one honest, noble person who acted in her throughout her entire life. This honest, noble face was full of laughter.”

(Slide No. 9) Let's read Gogol's statements:

• 
  “Oh laughter, a great thing! There is nothing a person fears more than laughter.”
• 
  “...even those who are no longer afraid of anything in the world are afraid of ridicule.”
• 
  “Why are you laughing? You’re laughing at yourself!”

Students: Laughter points out flaws in the characters' characters; with the help of laughing at themselves, people can improve.

(Slide No. 10) Teacher: N.V. Gogol hoped to shake the human heart to the core with laughter, so that, seeing itself in the mirror of satire, it would be horrified at what had become of it, and, horrified, would tremble, wishing for a different, better fate.”

Let us remember what a high civic goal Gogol set when creating a comedy (Collect all the bad things and laugh at everything at once). So, comedy is not slander, but a mirror. Don’t blame him, don’t reproach him for distortion, but take a closer look at his reflection. The epigraph sounds sharp and bold.

The meaning of comedy. Chernyshevsky: “Gogol was the first to introduce us to us in our true form, the first to teach us to know our shortcomings and to abhor them...”

But for almost 177 years now, comedy has lived on theater stages. What does it give to the modern viewer, the reader, besides the fact that we find out how it was?

Are there in ourselves, around us, some features of the Khlestakovs, Gogol’s ladies, the mayor, Strawberry, Lyapkin-Tyapkin, Derzhimorda, Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky?
Guys, everyone has flaws. We often notice them in other people, but, unfortunately, not in ourselves. We often laugh at others... And at ourselves?

How can we make the world around us cleaner, kinder, more beautiful?

First of all, you must learn to laugh at yourself, look into yourself and see your shortcomings... Start changing the world with yourself...

Task to choose from:
Task No. 1 Give a written answer to the question: “What is Gogol sad about?”

Task No. 2 Test on the comedy “The Inspector General”
5. Reflection:

Filling out the card “My achievements in the lesson”

Before going to the landowners, Chichikov spent some time in the city of NN. Here he had the opportunity to meet officials and learn about their way of life. N.V. Gogol called his poem " Dead Souls“Not because Chichikov wanted to pull off a scam to buy up “dead” peasant souls. This name is due to the fact that the writer wanted to draw attention to landowners and officials, whose souls had long since died.

Officials in the city are presented as a selection. Both the governor and the prosecutor - they are all spiritually impersonal people. Chichikov, when he approached the officials, immediately learned that in order to achieve something from them, he had to pay a bribe. Otherwise, you can't hope for anything. Officials must help people; this is their main responsibility. However, this is not important to them, they do not care about people, they only think about personal gain.

The wives of officials do not work anywhere, and do not do anything at all. They only think about having a good time, and their husbands fully support them in this. Chichikov was even in the same house where officials were meeting. They played cards from three o'clock in the afternoon until two o'clock in the morning. This is what people whose job it is to help people and resolve serious issues do.

They do not develop in any way, and they are not interested in anything except card games. They, like the landowners, have long been impoverished in soul. Other people's problems are alien to them; they have “dead souls.” Officials do not hesitate to rob not only the population, but also the state. They feel their impunity and this situation resembles our country now. Therefore, Gogol’s work is more relevant than ever.

Gogol's works cover the 40s of the 19th century - a time of bureaucratic arbitrariness, a time of brutal exploitation of a powerless and oppressed people. He, the first in Russian literature, decided to openly ridicule bureaucrats and officials. He authored several works in which bribery and sycophancy became central theme, - the poem “Dead Souls”, the stories “The Nose” and “The Overcoat”, the comedy “The Inspector General”, which will be discussed in this article.

Satire on bureaucratic Rus'

“The Inspector General” is a realistic work that reveals the world of small and medium-sized Russian officials. Gogol wrote about the comedy “The Inspector General” that he decided to collect “everything bad” here and laugh “at one time” at what is happening in Russia. The action takes place in a small provincial town, the measured flow of life of which is disrupted by the news of the arrival of the auditor. Having learned about the upcoming visit of the inspector, officials directed their efforts to maintain external decency. Instead of doing pressing problems city, they clean the streets along which the inspector will pass, they remove the hunting arapnik hanging in plain sight.

The plot conceived by the author made it possible to reveal the vices that afflicted the bureaucratic environment. The comedy introduces not only the district officials, but also Khlestakov, who came from St. Petersburg, whom everyone took for an auditor. Let's look at the image of officials in Gogol's comedy in more detail. Let's start with the main character of the comedy - Khlestakov.

"Inspector"

Main character comedy - “about twenty-three,” “thin, skinny,” “not bad-looking” young man. Khlestakov is not dressed in a service uniform - “in a private dress”, made of “important, English” cloth. By rank, he is only a collegiate registrar, but “judging by his suit” and “St. Petersburg physiognomy” he was mistaken “for a governor general.” “It would be” “something worthwhile,” his servant Osip despises, “otherwise he’s a simple little elistrat.” A naive and empty darling nobleman, burning through his father’s money. As the servant puts it, “father sends money,” but Khlestakov “doesn’t do business”—he “plays cards” and walks “around the place.”

In the images of officials in the comedy “The Inspector General,” the author showed widespread bribery and embezzlement, contempt for the common people and abuse of power. A bribe-taker, a gambler and a serf owner - Khlestakov has no idea what good and evil are, and can commit any meanness. The servant is starving, but he doesn't care. Khlestakov easily moves from arrogance to humiliation, from bragging to cowardice. He lies uncontrollably, and everyone sees in this the fulfillment of their desires and is not at all embarrassed when, having lied, Khlestakov has enough to spare. All the hero’s actions are guided by vanity; the most important thing for him is to show off.

Khlestakov is a dummy “without a king in his head,” who has “extraordinary lightness” in his thoughts. He is the personification of emptiness, stupidity and fanfare, like an empty vessel that can be filled with anything. Perhaps that is why the officials of the city of NN mistook him for an important person. According to their ideas, this is exactly how a bribe-taking official should behave. In the comedy “The Inspector General,” the image of the main character is not only one of the most striking, but also completely new in literature. His surname became a household name. Unbridled boasting and lies are called “Khlestakovism.”

Head of the city NN

One of the main characters is the mayor Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky. Using the example of this hero, the author reveals “everything bad” that characterizes officials of that time. Anton Antonovich is “concerned” only about “not missing” anything that “floats into his hands.” Unlike Khlestakov, the mayor is cunning and calculating in all matters. He feels like a sovereign master in this city. Bribery is quite normal for him. For a bribe, he frees the merchant's son from recruitment, and instead sends the husband of the locksmith Poshlepkina.

There are no moral standards for him: in order to collect more taxes, he celebrates his name day twice a year. He goes to church and is sure that he is “firm in the faith.” But this did not stop him from putting money for the construction of the church in his pocket, and in the report from writing that it “burned down” as soon as it “began to be built.” In communicating with his subordinates, the mayor is rude and despotic. He behaves differently with Khlestakov. He constantly pleases him, manages to “screw” him money, speaks ingratiatingly and respectfully. Using the example of this hero, the author shows bribery and veneration of rank, typical traits of a Russian official.

Central characters of the work

In the comedy “The Inspector General,” the characteristics of officials show that ministers from the town of NN can hardly be called honest people working for the glory of their homeland, which, in fact, should be the goal of civil servants. The superintendent of schools is intimidated to such an extent that he “shys away” only on behalf of the superior officer. Luka Lukich admits that if someone “of a higher rank” “speaks” to him, he immediately has “no soul” and “his tongue is stuck.” Khlopov gives preference to teachers who match himself - albeit stupid, but not allowing free thoughts. He does not care about the quality of education and the educational process - as long as everything is outwardly decent.

Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin carries out all judicial and legal procedures in the city. The image of officials in the comedy “The Inspector General” and the “talking” surname Lyapkin-Tyapkin perfectly conveys, and is quite consistent with his attitude towards the service - everything there is so confusing, saturated with slander and denunciations that it’s not worth looking into court cases. Place and position provide Ammos Fedorovich with power in the city. He can not only communicate freely with the mayor, but also challenge his opinion. Moreover, he is the smartest in the city - he has read several books in his entire life. His favorite pastime is hunting, he devotes not only all his time to it, openly takes bribes, but also sets himself as an example: “I take bribes. But with what? Puppies. This is a completely different matter." Long-term bribes and red tape - such is the court in the city of NN.

NN City Officials

There are several other bright characters in the comedy “The Inspector General”. Characteristics of officials will help to understand that minor characters no less interesting. The “fat” and “clumsy” trustee of charitable institutions is a weasel and a rogue. Artemy Filippovich does not care about the institution entrusted to him, nor about the patients. Strawberry waved his hand at the hospitals: “If they recover, then they will recover; if they die, then they will die.” His main “talent” is denunciations. He denounces his colleagues to the imaginary auditor.

Postmaster Shpekin is engaged in a completely “harmless” activity - he reads other people’s letters, but does not see anything wrong with it: “I like to find out what’s new in the world.” A simple-minded and naive man, through letters he looks at a world he has never seen. It is Shpekin who is the first to find out that Khlestakov is not who they take him for.

City landowners Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky are city gossips; they live only to tell everyone about something. As the author wrote, these characters suffer from “tongue itch,” “speak in a patter” and “help with gestures and hands.” It was they who convinced everyone in the city of NN that Khlestakov was the inspector.

The bailiff Ukhovertov, the policemen of Derzhimord and Svistunov only emphasize the nature of what is happening, and personify the gross tyranny, lawlessness and drunkenness reigning in the city.

Satire in Gogol's comedy

Describing the world of bribe-takers and embezzlers, the author uses artistic techniques with which he managed to create vivid, unforgettable images. On the very first pages of the work, the reader, having read the names of the district doctor and private bailiff, already has an idea about them. In addition to techniques satirical image officials, in the comedy "The Inspector General", the author gave critical characteristics to his characters, which help to understand the characters. For example, the mayor “takes a bribe, but behaves respectably”; Khlestakov “without a king in his head”; the postmaster is “simple-minded to the point of naivety.”

Vivid characteristics and exposure of the vices of officials in the comedy “The Inspector General” are also given in Khlestakov’s letters to his friend. He openly calls, for example, Strawberry “a pig in a yarmulke.” Main artistic device the author is a hyperbole. As an example, here we can name the doctor Gibner, who cannot even communicate with patients, because he does not know Russian perfectly. The plot itself is hyperbolic, but as the plot develops, hyperbole gives way to grotesqueness. Grasping at Khlestakov as a saving straw, officials cannot appreciate the absurdity of what is happening, and pile absurdities one on top of another.

The denouement comes quickly: Khlestakov’s letter gives a simple explanation for everything. Further, the author uses a technique that has become very popular and shows that the action of the comedy goes beyond the stage and, in fact, is transferred to the vast expanses of Russia - the hero addresses the audience from the stage: “Why are you laughing? “You’re laughing at yourself!”