Like in the comedy N.V. Gogol's "The Inspector General" sounds like the author's "laughter through tears"?

Positive ideal N.V. Gogol in the comedy “The Inspector General” sounds in all the pathos of the narrative, in the structure and style of the comedy, in author's respect to what is being described. And the author himself wrote: “It’s strange: 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.”

Gogol conceived a “social” comedy in the spirit of Aristophanes, where we see a combination of crude comedy and political satire. At the same time, the writer sought to create a comedy that was national in spirit, conveying all the absurdity of real Russian life. “I wanted to collect everything bad in Russia in one pile and at one time... laugh at everyone,” wrote Gogol.

Researchers and critics noted the originality of this work - there was no love element in it, there were no positive characters. But this play was seen as a sharp social and moral satire. And she only benefited from this. What techniques does the writer use?

One of them is the use of alogisms based “on seemingly absurd conclusions.” And we see this already in the very beginning. Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky came to Gorodnichy with their message that a young man had been living in the hotel for two weeks, was not paying money, was looking into the plates of visitors, and his travel card was registered for him in Saratov. From all these facts, the officials and the Mayor conclude that this is an auditor. Here we see the use of such illogic.

Gogol's satire is also manifested in his depiction of the images of city officials. And here, indeed, the author’s laughter “through tears” is embodied. There is unrest in the city, theft and arbitrariness are all around. The mayor takes bribes from merchants and the parents of recruits, embezzles money intended for the construction of a church, subjects the non-commissioned officer's widow to the rod, and does not provide food to the prisoners. On the streets of the city - “tavern, uncleanliness.” The judge, who has held this position for 15 years, takes bribes like greyhound puppies. In his papers, “Solomon himself will not decide what ... is true and what is not true.” The trustee of charitable institutions, Zemlyanika, believes that a simple person “if he dies, he will die anyway; If he gets well, he’ll get well.” Instead of oatmeal soup, he gives the sick only cabbage. Postmaster Shnekin opens other people's letters and leaves them with him. In a word, each of the officials has sins behind them, which give rise to a feeling of fear in their souls. Nepotism, nepotism, bribery, careerism, veneration for rank, a formal attitude to business and failure to fulfill one's direct duties, ignorance, low intellectual and cultural level, disdainful attitude towards the people - these features are characteristic of the world of city officials in Gogol's comedy.

To create these images, the writer uses various artistic media: author's remarks, letters (in Chmykhov's letter some personal qualities Mayor, in Khlestakov’s letter to Tryapichkin a derogatory description of all officials is given), comic situations (Anton Antonovich puts on a paper case instead of a hat). The speech of the characters is individualized. Thus, the Mayor often uses clericalism, vernacular, swear words, and idiomatic expressions. Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky’s language is bright and figurative in its own way; sometimes ironic intonations are heard in his speech (“until now... we’ve been approaching other cities”, “I’ve reached Alexander the Great”, “I’ll give pepper”, “what bullets are cast!”).

Researchers have noted that the internal spring that holds together and develops the relationships of the heroes is the desire of the heroes (Khlestakov and Gorodnichy) to become taller. Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky directly tells the audience about his dream; Khlestakov also wants, according to Gogol, “to play a role higher than his own.” And this unity of Khlestakov and Gorodnichy creates the tragicomic grotesque of the play and makes possible the exceptional situation of the presence of a false inspector in the city. The scene of Khlestakov’s lies is indicative in this regard. Many critics consider it the climax, since the hero actually confirmed that he is an important official. However, the author exposes his character with one small remark. Noticing that he “will be promoted to field marshal tomorrow,” Khlestakov slipped and “almost fell on the floor.” This is how the author’s position is revealed to us: N.V. Gogol laughs at the fact that a dummy was mistaken for a significant person.

Thus, the author’s position is manifested in the fact that there are no positive characters in the play. Laughter often sounds in comedy, but the critical, satirical, accusatory pathos of comedy is the author’s sad view of Russian reality, this is laughter “through tears.”

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“In comedy, I decided to collect everything bad in Russia and laugh at everyone at once,” wrote N.V. Gogol, the author of the play “The Inspector General.” Indeed, the plot of this comedy reflects the whole of Russia at the beginning of the 19th century.
From the very first words of the characters, the whole house of city life is described: lawlessness, dirt, lies. Each phenomenon reveals to us the atmosphere of those times.
N.V. Gogol took as a basis a district town, from where “even if you gallop for 3 years you won’t reach the entire state.” The city is governed by the mayor - a man of advanced age, not stupid in his own way.

Having a high rank, he turns a blind eye to what is happening in the city. His “retinue” includes: a trustee of charitable institutions, a judge, a superintendent of schools and other high-class officials.

Everyone sees the devastation, but thinks first about their prosperity. Geese with goslings under their feet, laundry at every step, a hunting arap in the court building, where people go, sincerely hoping for help; dirty patients fed cabbage in hospitals - all this would have remained unchanged if not for one tricky moment - the auditor arrives! In the voices of those present one can discern confusion, trembling, but most of all fear

For its convenience and luxury.

In order to leave everything as before, they are ready to do anything just to get rid of the guest from St. Petersburg. Without knowing it, the officials, the mayor, his wife and daughter become entangled in a tangle of closely related situations based on lies. An ordinary visitor from the northern capital becomes the owner of a high rank.

As they say: “Fear has big eyes,” and therefore every word, every gesture of the false auditor sharpens their imagination more and more.
Khlestakov, who did not understand anything, was noticeably surprised by such close attention. He himself is a man with a weak will, who is not averse to playing cards with his last money or flirting with young ladies. Having quickly grasped the current situation, he cleverly uses it to his advantage and is no different from the mayor and his associates, because he finally got the opportunity to show off. Knowing a few catchphrases, Khlestakov skillfully proved his metropolitan persona with speeches, but still sometimes marks time in the most elementary sentences.

Getting more and more entangled in the wheel of events, Khlestakov desperately believes in his lies. It's funny to see how absurdly he gets out of situations resulting from his false stories. Balls, dinners from Paris, his writings in famous magazines - the limits of the dreams of any 25-year-old guy of that time, and here, where they believe him, where he believes in himself, you can even more embellish your nature.
An important point is the unrest in the city, bribery. Each official at the beginning justifies his sin, believing that greyhound puppies are, to put it mildly, a gift for the specified service. The maid walks around in fear about the non-commissioned officer's wife he flogged (which is strictly prohibited) and about the merchants who may report the injustice of his service.

He wants to solve all the problems in the city by repairing some streets. Khlestakov, presented as a skilled actor, openly borrows money from everyone who comes. He doesn’t care about the city’s problems caused by unjust power and corruption, because he will leave here in a couple of days forever, without looking back at the terrible picture in the city.
Everyone lost in this fight for the sweet life. It cannot be built on someone else’s misfortune, because all the people of the planet are connected by thin threads life paths. Studying the history of Russia, the knife rejoices in my heart at the inhumanity in the country.

With each new generation, feudolism and despotism dragged our compatriots into darkness, turning Russians into savages who fought for a warm place in the sun. The mayor, addressing the audience, says: “Why are you laughing? You’re laughing at yourself!” Yes, laughter, but through bitter tears of despair.

Russia, which gave the world so many truly great people, lived in darkness for many centuries. But this is our Motherland, and now it’s our turn to prevent these messes, to live in harmony and peace.

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He preaches love
With a hostile word of denial...
N. A. Nekrasov

One of the main features of N.V. Gogol’s work is humor. Lunacharsky called Gogol “the king of Russian laughter.” Rejecting “dissolute” laughter, born “from the idle emptiness of idle time,” Gogol recognized only laughter, “born from love for a person.” Laughter is a great tool for educating a person. Gogol therefore believed that one should laugh not at a person’s “crooked nose,” but at his “crooked soul.”

Laughter in the poem “Dead Souls” is a merciless weapon of evil. Such laughter, which had enormous moral potential, was “enthusiastic.” Gogol himself, who assessed the main feature of his talent, saw it in the ability to “look at the whole of enormously rushing life, look at it through laughter visible to the world and invisible tears unknown to him.” Belinsky wrote that Gogol’s comedy is a consequence of “a sad outlook on life, that there is a lot of bitterness and sorrow in his laughter.” That is why Gogol’s works are “first funny, then sad.”

In “Dead Souls,” the funny is tragic in nature, that is, just like in life: the serious merged with the funny, the tragic with the comic, the insignificant with the vulgar, the great and beautiful with the ordinary. This interweaving was reflected in Gogol’s definition of the genre of the work and its title: on the one hand, it is a poem, that is, a sublime perception and depiction of life, on the other hand, the title of the work is at the level of farce and parody. All characters are presented in two dimensions: first we see them as they seem to themselves, and then we see them as the writer sees them. The characteristics of each character are necessarily given through a certain circle of things: Manilov is inseparable from the gazebo with blue columns and the inscription “Temple of Solitary Reflection”; The box is always surrounded by many small colorful bags with coins; Nozdryov with a barrel organ constantly straying from one music to another, which cannot be stopped; , resembling a medium-sized bear surrounded by bulky furniture that bears a strange resemblance to it; Chichikov, the owner of a thousand peasants, in a torn robe and a strange cap on his head. The poem begins with a description of the chaise in which Chichikov arrived, and the reader already knows something about this hero. Gogol gave great importance to all these little things in everyday life, believing that they reflect a person’s character.

All characteristics of the characters are accompanied by the author's commentary, making the reader smile ironically. So, Manilov, when talking about dead souls makes such an expression “which, perhaps, has never been seen on a human face, except on some too smart minister, and even then at the moment of the most puzzling matter.” Korobochka, in a dispute with Chichikov, says Gogol, suddenly has a “turn of thoughts”: suddenly they (dead souls) “will somehow be needed on the farm.” And Sobakevich, when he realized what he was talking about we're talking about, asked Chichikov “very simply, without the slightest surprise, as if we were talking about bread.”

Chapters characterizing the characters, as a rule, end with a detailed author's commentary, which removes the seriousness and introduces a satirical stream. So, reflecting on the character of Nozdryov, who was “pushed” more than once for cheating and lying, but after that everyone met with him “as if nothing had happened, and he, as they say, is nothing, and they are nothing.” Such a strange thing, Gogol concludes, “can only happen in Rus' alone.” About Sobakevich he remarks somehow in passing: “It seemed that there was no soul in this body at all, or that it had one, but not at all where it should be.” Gogol ends his characterization of Plyushkin with a conversation with an imaginary demanding and distrustful reader: “And a person could condescend to such insignificance, pettiness, disgustingness! Could have changed so much! And does this seem true? And the author sadly replies: “Everything seems to be true, anything can happen to a person.” The characteristics of officials and ladies of the city of NN are more generalized. The object of satire here was not individuals, but the social vices of society. We just see a governor who likes to drink; the prosecutor who constantly blinks; ladies - simply pleasant and ladies - pleasant in all respects. The one who gets the most from Gogol the satirist is the prosecutor, who, having learned about the appointment of a new governor, came home and gave his soul to God. Gogol is ironic: now they only realized that the prosecutor had a soul, “although, out of his modesty, he never showed it.”

The landowner and bureaucratic world is populated by scoundrels, vulgarities, and slackers, whom Gogol exposed to general ridicule. Gogol's “laughter through tears” expanded the boundaries of humor. Gogol's laughter aroused disgust for vice, it exposed all the ugliness of the police-bureaucratic regime, undermined respect for it, clearly revealing its rottenness and inconsistency, and fostered contempt for this regime.

The common man stopped looking at the powers that be with respectful apprehension. Laughing at them, he began to realize his moral superiority. A few days after Gogol’s death, Nekrasov dedicated a poem to him, which very accurately defines Gogol’s personality as a writer:

Feeding my chest with hatred,
Armed with satire,
He goes through a thorny path
With your punishing lyre...

What is present in N.V. Gogol’s comedy “The Inspector General”? Of course, this is humor, behind which the essence of this comedy is hidden. The small town reflects the whole of Russia, in which such disorders as embezzlement, bribery, ignorance and tyranny are happening. We observe all these vices in the course of the comedy.
In the city, the highest leader is the mayor. He is to blame for most of the mistakes made, which caused the audience to “laugh through their tears...”. After the announcement of the arrival of the auditor, the mayor immediately gives orders to his subordinates to take urgent measures in the hospital, court, and schools. It’s funny to listen to the thoughtful opinion of the most “enlightened and free-thinking” person in the city, Ammos Fedorovich Lyapkin-Tyapkin, who explains this visit for political reasons, because Russia wants to wage war. This scene gives an idea of ​​the state of affairs in the city. There is chaos and dirt everywhere. In court, the watchman raised geese, of course, this is not permissible in such an establishment, but this does not mean that the judge can just let them in for lunch without asking the watchman. In this we see one of the listed vices - arbitrariness. Let us remember how readily the postmaster accepts the mayor’s request to “print out a little and read” each letter arriving at the post office.
Many interesting and funny moments are associated with Khlestakov. This young man is essentially nothing, but what is striking is how inspiredly and artistically he lies, and the officials believe his every word and do not notice the holes in this lie. But not only Khlestakov lies, but also all the heroes of the comedy, trying to impress the auditor. The mayor claims that he is disgusted by card games; in his opinion, better time spend “for the benefit of the state.” But he acts completely differently.
Then we see another vice - bribery. All officials give bribes to the auditor, and Khlestakov willingly accepts them, each time asking for more and more: “You don’t have money, can you borrow a thousand rubles?” The mayor’s wife and daughter are actively preparing for the arrival of the “capital thing”; upon his arrival, they flirt with him, and Khlestakov, not knowing whom to choose, rushes to one lady, then to another. Leaving, he promises to marry Marya Antonovna, and, of course, everyone believed. And the mayor and his wife are already fantasizing with might and main about life in St. Petersburg and about the appointment of the mayor to the post of general.
One of the vices of comedy helps to find out the truth about Khlestakov and the auditor “I see a letter, and the address is on Pochtamtskaya Street from the auditor. I took it and printed it out.” Khlestakov reveals the whole truth about the officials in this letter. But instead of understanding and improving, officials are angry with him and grieve for their money. At the end, a real auditor arrives, and we can say that fate judged everyone fairly.

Essay on literature on the topic: Laughter through tears

Other writings:

1. “In comedy, I decided to collect everything bad in Russia and laugh at everyone at once,” wrote N.V. Gogol, the author of the play “The Inspector General.” Indeed, the plot of this comedy reflects the whole of Russia at the beginning of the 19th century. From the very first words of the characters Read More......
2. There is a famous saying relating to Gogol’s work: “laughter through tears.” Gogol's laughter... Why is it never carefree? Why is the ending ambiguous even in “Sorochinskaya Fair,” one of Gogol’s brightest and most cheerful works? The celebration of the wedding of young heroes ends Read More......
3. N.V. Gogol entered literature as an unsurpassed master of laughter. Gogol's stories, his poem “Dead Souls” are simple in plot, transparent in their characterization. But there is an unsolved and unsolved mystery of Gogol and the mystery of this laughter. N.V. Gogol laughs Read More ......
4. N.V. Gogol entered literature as an unsurpassed master of laughter. Gogol's stories, his poem “Dead Souls” are simple in plot, transparent in their characterization. And yet, there is an unsolved and unsolved mystery of Gogol and the mystery of this laughter. N. Read More......
5. In “The History of One City,” M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin rose to the top of the government: at the center of this work is a satirical depiction of the relationship between the people and the authorities, the Foolovites and their mayors. The author is convinced that bureaucratic power is a consequence of “minority,” the civil immaturity of the people. The book satirically Read More......
6. A contemporary of Pushkin, Gogol created his works in the historical conditions that developed in Russia after the failure of the first revolutionary uprising - the Decembrist uprising in 1825. The new socio-political situation posed new tasks for the figures of Russian social thought and literature, which found Read More .. ....
7. Moliere is one of the most significant comedians of classicism. He made genuine discoveries in the field of this genre of literature. In his works, the writer first of all sought to truthfully and accurately reflect reality. Observing people, their actions, desires, passions, he created bright Read More......
8. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is an outstanding master of words, a brilliant prose writer and an unsurpassed satirist. His creations are an inexhaustible source of enchanting beauty of art, biting satire and sparkling humor. At the time when Gogol began his literary activity, the main issue of social development in Russia was Read More......

In the wonderful comedy “The Inspector General” N.V. Gogol easily and freely introduces the reader into the world of a provincial provincial town, remote from the capital. The measured course of life is disrupted by the “unpleasant news” about the arrival of the auditor. Such a plot was not new; there were funny jokes about such cases. Even Gogol himself was once mistaken for a secret auditor. This plot gave the wonderful satirist the opportunity to depict the entire bureaucratic Rus'.

The author builds various comic situations in the play that help to understand the evils of the bureaucratic class. The mayor is described in most detail in the comedy, thanks to his remarks and the author's remarks, the image of a fraudster, a bribe-taker and a tyrant emerges. With the arrival of the auditor, these qualities are added to wretched thinking, stupidity and cowardice. For example, in response to one of his charges reporting that the assessor “smells slightly of vodka,” he recommends that he “be advised to eat onions or garlic.”

The main object of Gogol's satire was Russian bureaucracy. The author tried to create symbolic images that personify the main vices of this social group. Each of the characters is multifaceted, but has a certain predominant character trait, which allows us to consider him the personification of a specific social evil. For example, Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin is the embodiment of an indifferent attitude to the matter, an absolute lack of understanding of the essence of his activities. At the same time, he is far from the most negative character, although he takes bribes, like all officials, he justifies himself by the fact that he receives not money, but greyhound puppies. He is an avid hunter, known in the city as a freethinker, because he has read five or six books, and this sharply sets him apart from the bureaucratic environment. It’s funny to listen to the thoughtful conclusions of the most “enlightened” person in the city, who characterizes the arrival of the auditor by saying that Russia is going to start a war with Turkey.

Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky tells the trustee of charitable institutions, Zemlyanika, to put the patients in order, pointing out that in the hospital they smoke strong tobacco, walk around without caps and generally look more like blacksmiths. A special place in the comedy is occupied by Luka Lukich Khlopov, the deathly frightened superintendent of district schools, who treats his superiors with fear: “...if anyone of a higher rank speaks to me, I have no soul and a tongue like gets stuck in the mud." In response to the mayor’s reasoning about school teachers, for example, about the one who, upon entering the department, always makes a terrible grimace, which can be misinterpreted by Mr. Inspector, Khlopov recalls how, because of such behavior of the teacher, he was reprimanded for instilling freedom-loving thoughts in young people. Isn’t such a conclusion absurd, which speaks, firstly, of the empty talk of officials and no one’s reasoning, and secondly, of the absolute limitation of their horizons? No less funny is the figure of the postmaster, who with such readiness and understanding accepts the request of the city-nothing to “print out a little and read” every letter that arrives at the post office. Shpekin without hesitation reads other people's letters, which he finds more interesting than the Moskovskie Vedomosti. He keeps the ones he especially likes for himself in order to read out the most “playful” passages to the public.

The image of Khlestakov, who was mistaken for a secret auditor, helps to expand the scope of the idea of ​​​​the outright stupidity of the heroes. The inspired lie of this character makes us no longer smile, but openly laugh. It's funny to hear about luxurious dinners delivered straight from Paris from the lips of a man leading a half-starved existence. Having lied, he impersonates a famous writer, citing the popular magazine “Moskovskie Vedomosti” as his work. His lies go so far that he assigns himself the authorship of “Yuri Miloslavsky,” and when asked by Maria Antonovna whether this is Mr. Zagoskin’s work, he replies: “Oh, yes! This is definitely Zagoskina, but there is another “Yuri Miloslavsky”, so that one is already mine.” But here a paradoxical situation arises. An ingenuous man (without a king in his head), who does not lie according to plan and therefore lets it slip, without meaning to, deceives seasoned officials who take Khlestakov’s nonsense for the truth, and his true face for a skillful mask. The remark that accidentally escaped from Khlestakov’s lips: “As you run up the stairs to your fourth floor, you only say to the cook: “On, Mavrushka, overcoat,” is taken by the listeners to be the role of a poor official skillfully played by him.

Thus, exposing the vices of civil servants to public view. Gogol scourges them with his merciless laughter: And the comic here sets off the tragic picture of bureaucratic abuses even more clearly.