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Very often in literature, authors present only fragmentary biographies of their characters, focusing readers’ attention only on a certain moment in the hero’s life. N.V. Gogol did not follow this trend in his story “Dead Souls”. He describes in detail the life of his main character in the story, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, allowing the reader to trace all the stages of the formation of this character.
Chichikov's childhood
As a child, Chichikov lived in a simple hut, where the windows did not open at all, even in summer. Chichikov had no friends as a child, which significantly aggravated his already joyless existence. His father was sick all the time, which also significantly affected the financial condition of the family. The Chichikov family owned only one family of serfs. This did not allow them to ensure a comfortable existence. In general, Chichikov himself has too few memories of his childhood.
However, Pavel Ivanovich’s situation was not hopeless - his parents had sufficient finances to send their son to study. Therefore, despite his childhood, bordering on the life of ordinary peasants, Chichikov had the opportunity to escape from poverty.
Studying at school
As Pavel Ivanovich grew older, the main issue became obtaining the proper education and skills that would allow him to take a good place in life.
Soon the decision was made, and Pavel Ivanovich became a student at the same school. He lived with his distant relative. This made it possible to provide decent living conditions and at the same time save a significant amount of money.
Chichikov was not a particularly gifted student - his knowledge and talent did not allow him to stand out from the crowd of students just like him. In this case, Chichikov was saved by his diligence and diligence.
Over time, he learned to please his teachers, which played an important role in his education and created the illusion of a good and exemplary student. Chichikov never saw his father again. They always had a tense relationship - the father did not know how to be affectionate with his son, he always behaved strictly and harshly towards his son, leaving his home only strengthened these feelings of distance. Chichikov's father died while Pavel Ivanovich was still a student. There was no special inheritance left from his father, so Chichikov decides to sell everything he had. After the sale, he was able to receive a thousand rubles, which was, of course, a small amount, but allowed the thrifty Chichikov to make a start in life.
Pavel Ivanovich learned to treat money with care in his youth. During his studies, he tried in every possible way to find an opportunity to earn money; he usually did not spend the accumulated money, which allowed Chichikov to amass a small personal capital. First, Pavel Ivanovich sculpted birds from wax and painted them, then he trained a mouse and was also able to successfully sell it.
Dear readers! We invite you to follow in Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”
At school, Chichikov also failed to find a friend; the reason for this was, most likely, his stinginess and greed. Pavel Ivanovich was not liked in the team.
Chichikov's service
After graduating from college, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov began civil service. His first job and position were the most ordinary and simple - after making a lot of effort, he got a job as an employee in the treasury chamber.
However, he did not stop looking for a more profitable place. Soon such a position was found and Chichikov began to serve, where he had the opportunity to make significant savings through dishonest means. However, nothing lasts forever - the new authorities managed to expose Chichikov.
After this incident, Chichikov has no choice but to start all over again. He works in small, insignificant positions in different cities until he gets the opportunity to become a customs worker, which Chichikov takes advantage of.
His service begins to develop quite successfully and Chichikov even receives a promotion to collegiate adviser. However, this did not last long.
His unpleasant story at his previous duty station taught him nothing - Chichikov again gets involved in a scam, this time he interacts with smugglers. This business turns out to be very profitable and Pavel Ivanovich soon has significant savings, which is true not for long - his scam was cashed out and Chichikov again loses everything.
Left with nothing, he has no choice but to start all over again - Chichikov begins his career for the third time. This time he starts working as an attorney. At the same time, Chichikov is ripening a plan for his next scam, which will allow him to get rich from scratch - he plans to buy up “dead souls” in order to get rich by reselling them. In the hope of realizing his plans, Chichikov takes his only two servants, a chaise and all his savings - 10 thousand and goes to the district to buy.
N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls” was written in the late 40s of the 19th century. In this work, Gogol depicts the Russian society of that time, all the shortcomings of autocratic-serf Russia. The main character of the poem is the nobleman Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov. Whether he came from the pillars or personal nobles - we do not know. He received a modest education, but due to his “excellent” abilities he was promoted, although he did not stay in one place for long.
Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov's parents belonged to a bankrupt
The nobility and lived far from the city on their abandoned estate. Chichikov spent his entire childhood at home - “he didn’t go anywhere or go anywhere.” His life went very dimly and unnoticed. His father, a sick man, always told him: “Don’t lie, obey your elders and carry virtue in your heart.”
So nine years passed. One spring morning, on an old nag, Pavlusha’s father takes Pavlusha to the city to study in classes. This is where our hero’s independent life begins.
Before leaving, Pavel Ivanovich's father gave him advice for life. They became the “prayer” of his life: “Look, Pavlusha, study, don’t be stupid and don’t hang around, but more
Just please your teachers and bosses. Don’t hang out with your comrades, they won’t teach you any good, but if that’s the case, hang out with those who are richer, so that they can be useful to you on occasion. Take care and save a penny, it will not give you away, no matter what trouble you are in. You will do everything and ruin everything in the world with a penny.” Chichikov never forgot these instructions from his father in his life, he followed them everywhere and always, they became the goal and incentive of his worthless life, for only self-interest, money and selfishness entered the heart of this man from childhood.
From the very next day, Pavlusha began going to school. He did not have any special abilities for any of the sciences, but he turned out to have completely different abilities, from the practical side. From the very first day, he began to follow his father’s instructions: he was friends only with the rich, he was the first favorite, “in class he sat so quietly that no one could sit like that for even a minute - the teachers loved him very much for this. When the bell rang, he jumped up, handed the teacher his briefcase, and then met him in the corridor five times, greeted him and bowed deeply.”
From the very first days, Chichikov was also interested in the material issue. He starts saving money. Either he makes a figure out of wax and sells it profitably either at the market or among his comrades, or he buys gingerbread and waits until his comrades’ stomachs tighten, and then he will “rip off four skins” for it. He put the money in a bag. When they reached five rubles, Chichikov sewed it together and began saving it for another.
When our hero left school, he immediately got to work. He worked day and night, slept on tables in the office rooms, dined with the guards, but at the same time always remained neat.
Chichikov was noticed by his superiors, and he was sent to an old police officer for guidance. All the time, Pavel Ivanovich pleased his mentor and became his “son”. He promised to marry the daughter of the police officer. The old official gave a recommendation to Chichikov, and he also received the rank of police officer. This is what Pavel Ivanovich needed. He stopped going to his “patron” and did not think about marrying his daughter. Chichikov became a famous official. In the service, he took bribes, and the treasury did not go unnoticed by our hero - he got there too. Now he walked around very fashionably and richly dressed. But suddenly, in place of the former head-mattress, a new military man was sent, Strict, the enemy of bribe-takers and everything that is called untruth. He quickly figured out the matter, and Chichikov was kicked out of service.
After some time, Chichikov enters the customs service. There he also “robs” people and the state, but at the same time he works very well. The authorities say about him: “This is a devil, not a man.”
When checking cases at customs, many shortcomings were found. Many officials were arrested. Seeing this, Chichikov himself leaves the service. “He has ten thousand left in money, a small chaise, two serfs,” - all that Pavel Ivanovich was able to “put together” for himself with such efforts.
Time has passed. Chichikov again lives in “beggarly conditions, walks in only a frock coat and wears dirty shirts.” One day he got lucky and got a job as an attorney, where he again carried out his scams and went into hiding.
Pavel Ivanovich is on the road again. So she brings him to the scene of the novel. Here Chichikov decided to run another business: he wants to buy dead serfs from landowners, dead souls who are listed according to the revision
fairy tale alive.
After getting to know the city, its father-officials, visiting all kinds of dinners and balls, Chichikov goes on a trip to the landowners to carry out his plan to buy dead souls.
The first of the landowners to visit Chichikov is Manilov, a sugary, sentimental man who always dreams of various fables. Then he visits the thick-headed landowner Korobochka, Nozdryov - a reckless driver and a reveler, Sobakevich - a strong owner, Plyushkin - a miser and a morally dead man. In all these houses, Chichikov behaves differently, acquiring dead souls by any means and ways. Manilov simply gives them to our hero “out of love and respect for him.” Korobochka sells souls only because she is afraid of the evil spirits with which our businessman frightened her. Sobakevich also sells dead peasants, but not out of fear, but because of his own profit. And Plyushkin sells the peasants “fearing for every penny.” Only Pavel Ivanovich does not acquire anything from Nozdryov, but instead almost falls into the hands of a drunken landowner, then, for the same reason, he hastily leaves the city of N.
That's all we know about the life of our hero. Having read Gogol's poem, we can say about its main character as a low and vile person, resourceful and unprincipled. Yes, this is not an ideal to follow. But...Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov is a typical representative of a new type of bourgeois businessman in feudal Russia in the first half of the 19th century.
Chichikov himself cannot only be blamed for his behavior (although it largely depends on the person himself). Here time itself, the course of history, plays a significant role.
N.V. Gogol showed in “Dead Souls” the face of Russia at that time, when the nobility as a class is degrading, when new people come to the first place in life - businessmen-acquirers, people whose thoughts are low, in whose hearts there is nothing human left, except for profit, personal gain.
In his poem, the writer exposes feudal Russia (Chichikov, landowners, officials), whose life is measured only by money, where the dead are bought, where the living are sold. And all this is ruled by “dead souls” - people without souls and hearts. “Where are you rushing, Rus'-troika, what are you striving for if you are dead and only the dead live among you?” - Gogol asks his readers. Gogol wrote his poem, trying to revive Russia and protect it from Chichikov and others like him.
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The biography of the main character Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov is moved by the author to the end of the poem. The reader learns about all the adventures of the landowner in the city of NN, but still does not know how such thoughts could appear in the man’s head, where the strange idea of buying “dead souls” came from.
Origin of the hero
Pavlusha Chichikov was born into the family of an impoverished nobleman. It is not known what origin the parents were: pillar nobles or personal ones. According to Gogol, the origins of the enterprising man were “dark and modest.” It is surprising that the classic says nothing about Pavel’s mother. This has a deep meaning. It is difficult to imagine the character of a mother who could create such a soulless and secretive creature. One can speculate why a woman could die so early in life, why she did not leave holiness and respect for the afterlife in her soul.
The father is a poor and sick man. The family does not have the usual noble mansion. The hero lives in an old peasant house. Everything in it is small: windows, rooms (burner). The wretchedness of the interior is easy to imagine: the windows were not opened either in summer or in winter. How and when did the family become poor? The closest thing is the image of Manilov. Idleness may have led to the loss of the estate.
Ivan Chichikov sighed constantly, walked around the room and spat in the sandbox that stood in the corner. There are no other descriptions of the house where Pavlush spent his childhood. The relationship between father and son was tense. The sick old man did not know how to be affectionate. He behaves strictly and harshly, perhaps the reason for this was illness, or perhaps resentment at fate and lack of funds.
Years of study
As befits nobles, at a certain age the father sent his son to the city school. This means that my father still had some finances. Paul gets the opportunity to escape poverty by getting an education. The father left his son with a relative and went to the village; they never saw each other again. Living with relatives, albeit distant ones, allowed the boy to learn economy and frugality.
Pavel studies diligently. He does not have the talent and genius of an excellent student, but he does have diligence, patience and practicality. Boy's special skills:
- Sitting quietly on the bench.
- Shows no wit.
- Skillfully maintains silence.
- Doesn't move his eyes, doesn't move his eyebrows, even when pinched.
- Gives the treuk to the teacher.
- He bows to the teacher, getting in his way several times.
Chichikov starts earning money. First he makes a bullfinch from wax, then sells it. Pavel trains a mouse and also sells it.
The ability to curry favor with teachers helps to successfully graduate from college.
The character of the young man could be discerned already here. When the strict teacher was kicked out, the students collected some money for him. Pavel gave a nickel of silver, which his comrades refused. The teacher, having learned about this, uttered the phrase:
“I cheated, I cheated a lot...”
It is on deception and the search for profit that the life of the hero of the poem will be built. Pavel Chichikov receives an excellent certificate, which states in golden letters that the student is trustworthy in behavior and exemplary in diligence. It is interesting that the young man has no friends either in his father’s house or at school. Chichikov is selling his inherited house. The proceeds of a thousand rubles became the initial capital.
Chichikov's career
Pavel sets a goal to earn enough money for a decent future for his family. He goes through ups and downs:
Treasury chamber. The position was obtained with difficulty, but these were the first steps of the bureaucratic service. The boss here was an old military officer, to whom no one could find an approach. The young man moved into his house and managed to please his daughter. The father believed and won a favorable position for the “future son-in-law.” As soon as “the matter was successful,” Chichikov moved away from the man whom he had already called “daddy,” and he did it secretly and quickly. The deceived man said the same phrase as the teacher:
“He cheated, he cheated, you damn son!”
"Bread place" This is where the opportunity to take bribes arises. A change of boss leads to a decline in career.
Minor positions in another city. Chichikov tries to show himself as selfless and hardworking. This attitude towards service was noticed by the authorities.
Place at customs. Chichikov receives the rank of collegiate adviser for his diligence. Having gained power, he gets involved with a criminal group involved in smuggling. The dirty deed brought excellent income, but the result is disastrous. Chichikov loses his position and place in customs, and the money is confiscated.
After losing hundreds of thousands of rubles, Pavel Ivanovich starts his career again. He had 10 thousand rubles left, a servant Petrushka, a coachman Selifan and a chaise. The new service provides legal assistance on various issues. During this period, the idea of buying “dead souls” came to him.
“Dark and humble origins...”
The hero of the poem "Dead Souls". He made the desire to please the basis of his relationships with people. “Save a penny” is a rule of life. Pavel goes towards his goal, but fate tests the young man. Shortsightedness and the desire to get rich quickly lead to losses. Dishonest deeds and adventures are born in the head after every fall. The classic shows how a businessman with a terrible and vile soul appeared, capable of buying people who have left the world of the living. The enterprising Chichikovs replace the landowners presented by the writer in the poem.
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Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
Chichikov's childhood
(Excerpt from the poem “Dead Souls”)
<…> One day, with the first spring sun and overflowing streams, the father, taking his son, rode out with him on a cart, which was pulled by a piebald horse, known among horse dealers as a magpie; it was ruled by a coachman, a little hunchbacked man, the founder of the only serf family that belonged to Chichikov’s father, who occupied almost all positions in the house. They dragged themselves on forty for more than a day and a half; We spent the night on the road, crossed the river, ate cold pie and fried lamb, and only on the third day in the morning did we reach the city. The city streets flashed before the boy with unexpected splendor, making him gape for several minutes. Then the magpie splashed along with the cart into a hole, which began a narrow alley, all sloping down and filled with mud; She worked there for a long time with all her might and kneaded with her feet, incited by both the hunchback and the master himself, and finally dragged them into a small courtyard that stood on a slope with two blossoming apple trees in front of an old house and a garden behind it, low, small, consisting only of rowan and elderberry and hiding in the depths of her wooden booth, covered with shingles, with a narrow frosted window. Here lived a relative of theirs, a flabby old woman who still went to the market every morning and then dried her stockings by the samovar, who patted the boy on the cheek and admired his plumpness. Here he had to stay and go to classes at the city school every day. The father, having spent the night, set out on the road the next day. At parting, no tears were shed from the parents' eyes; half a copper was given for expenses and delicacies and, what is much more important, a smart instruction: “Look, Pavlusha, study, don’t be stupid and don’t hang around, but most of all please your teachers and bosses. If you please your boss, then, even though you don’t have time in science and God hasn’t given you talent, you will put everything into action and get ahead of everyone else. Don’t hang out with your comrades, they won’t teach you any good; and if it comes to that, then hang out with those who are richer, so that on occasion they can be useful to you. Do not treat or treat anyone, but rather behave in such a way that you will be treated; and most of all, take care and save a penny: this thing is more reliable than anything in the world. A comrade or friend will deceive you and in trouble will be the first to betray you, but a penny will not betray you, no matter what trouble you are in. You will do everything and ruin everything in the world with a penny.” Having given such instructions, the father parted with his son and trudged home again on his magpie, and from then on he never saw him again, but the words and instructions sank deep into his soul.
Pavlusha started going to classes the next day. He did not appear to have any special abilities for any science; He distinguished himself more by his diligence and neatness; but on the other hand, he turned out to have a great mind on the other side, on the practical side. He suddenly realized and understood the matter and behaved towards his comrades in exactly the same way: they treated him, and he not only never, but sometimes even hid the received treat and then sold it to them. Even as a child, he already knew how to deny himself everything. Of the half-ruble given by his father, he didn’t spend a penny; on the contrary, that same year he already made additions to it, showing almost extraordinary resourcefulness: he molded a bullfinch out of wax, painted it and sold it very profitably. Then, for some time, he embarked on other speculations, namely this: having bought food at the market, he sat in the classroom next to those who were richer, and as soon as he noticed that a friend was starting to feel sick - a sign of approaching hunger - he stuck out his shirt to him. under the benches, as if by chance, a corner of a gingerbread or a bun and, having provoked him, he took the money, depending on his appetite. For two months he fussed around in his apartment without rest around a mouse, which he had put in a small wooden cage, and finally got it to the point where the mouse stood on its hind legs, lay down and stood up when ordered, and then sold it for a very profit. When he had enough money to reach five rubles, he sewed up the bag and began saving it in another. In relation to his superiors, he behaved even smarter. No one knew how to sit on a bench so quietly. It should be noted that the teacher was a great lover of silence and good behavior and could not stand smart and sharp boys; it seemed to him that they must certainly laugh at him. It was enough for the one who was reprimanded for his wit, it was enough for him to just move or somehow inadvertently wink his eyebrow to suddenly fall under anger. He persecuted him and punished him mercilessly. “I, brother, will drive arrogance and disobedience out of you! - he said. “I know you through and through, just as you don’t know yourself.” Here you are, standing on my knees! I’ll make you go hungry!” And the poor boy, without knowing why, rubbed his knees and went hungry for days. “Abilities and gifts? “It’s all nonsense,” he used to say, “I only look at behavior.” I will give full marks in all sciences to someone who doesn’t know the basics but behaves commendably; and in whom I see a bad spirit and mockery, I am zero to him, although he put Solon in his belt! So said the teacher, who did not love Krylov to death because he said: “For me, it’s better to drink, but understand the matter,” and always told with pleasure in his face and eyes, how in that school where he taught before, such there was silence that you could hear a fly flying; that not a single student coughed or blew his nose in class all year round, and that until the bell rang it was impossible to know whether anyone was there or not. Chichikov suddenly understood the spirit of the boss and what behavior should consist of. He did not move an eye or an eyebrow during the entire class, no matter how much they pinched him from behind; as soon as the bell rang, he rushed headlong and gave the teacher his hat first (the teacher wore a hat); Having handed over his hat, he was the first to leave the class and tried to catch him three times on the road, constantly taking off his hat. The business was a complete success. During his entire stay at the school, he was in excellent standing and upon graduation received full honors in all sciences, a certificate and a book with golden letters for exemplary diligence and trustworthy behavior.
Chichikov's childhood and family in the poem "Dead Souls"
Chichikov is a poor nobleman by birth:
“... The origin of our hero is dark and modest. The parents were nobles, but whether they were official or personal, God knows...”
It is known that Chichikov’s father owned only one family of serfs:
“... a coachman, a little hunchback, the founder of the only serf family that belonged to Chichikov’s father, who occupied almost all positions in the house...”
Chichikov received almost nothing as an inheritance from his poor father:
“... The inheritance included four irretrievably worn sweatshirts, two old frock coats lined with sheepskin, and a small amount of money. The father, apparently, was only versed in the advice of saving a penny, and he himself saved a little of it. Chichikov immediately sold the dilapidated little yard with an insignificant plot of land for a thousand rubles, and transferred a family of people to the city, intending to settle there and engage in service...”
As a child, Pavel Chichikov had neither friends nor comrades:
“... At the beginning, life looked at him somehow sourly and unpleasantly, through some cloudy, snow-covered window: no friend, no comrade in childhood!...”
The Chichikov family lived in a peasant house, in a small upper room. This house does not look like the traditional housing of nobles:
“... A small house with small windows that did not open either in winter or in summer...”
Chichikov's father was sick all the time:
“... the father, a sick man, in a long frock coat with fleeces and knitted flappers worn on his bare feet, sighed incessantly as he walked around the room and spat in the sandbox that stood in the corner...”
It is known that the father was harsh towards little Pavlusha and did not show warm feelings towards him:
“... When parting, no tears were shed from the parents’ eyes...”
“... a familiar, but always stern voice: “I fooled you again!”, echoing at the time when the child, bored with the monotony of work, attached some kind of quotation mark or tail to a letter...”
When little Pavlusha Chichikov did something wrong, his father tore his ears:
“... the ever-familiar, always unpleasant feeling when, following these words, the edge of his ear was twisted very painfully by the nails of the long fingers reaching behind him...”
Chichikov remembers few details from his childhood:
“... here is a poor picture of his initial childhood, of which he barely retained a pale memory...”
Chichikov’s education Chichikov’s upbringing and education was carried out by his father, who seriously influenced his son’s worldview. When Chichikov grew up, his father took him to the city to visit an old relative. The city was three days' drive from the village of the Chichikovs. In the city, little Chichikov entered school:
“... on the third day in the morning they reached the city [...] Their relative lived here, a flabby old woman [...] Here he had to stay and go to classes at the city school every day...”
At school, Pavlusha was not particularly intelligent. But he was a very diligent and neat student:
“... He did not have any special abilities for any science; He distinguished himself more by diligence and neatness [...] Even as a child, he already knew how to deny himself everything...”
While still at school, Chichikov learned to please his superiors:
“... In relation to his superiors, he behaved even smarter. No one knew how to sit on a bench so quietly...”
After college, Chichikov entered the service and began his career. Mr. Chichikov's career had ups and downs - mainly due to his cunning and desire to quickly and dishonestly earn a lot of capital.
