Nikolay Gogol
Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls, published in 1842, is a masterpiece that critiques the bureaucracy, landlords, and corrupt system of Tsarist Russia. Chichikov, a cunning civil servant, attempts to defraud the state by purchasing dead serfs ("souls") on paper and mortgaging them, driven by the dream of becoming wealthy.
The conflict between Chichikov, a polite con man who exploits a legal but absurd loophole to purchase dead serfs on paper, and the various landowners—each possessing a distinct psychological obsession (miserliness, rage, extreme naïveté, greed)—regarding their strange reactions and negotiations over these transactions.
The city of N..., an imaginary provincial center in the Russian Empire, and the various towns and manors, both poor and wealthy, scattered around it.
The first half of the 19th century (the era of Tsar Nicholas I and the years before the abolition of serfdom).
A gloomy, bureaucratic, absurd, and satirized atmosphere of a dull Russian province, where a stagnant provincial atmosphere prevails, and where ostentation and decay are intertwined.
An omniscient, intrusive third-person narrator who speaks directly to the reader, renders moral judgments, and is highly sarcastic and humorous.
People (serfs) are like commodities that can be bought, sold, mortgaged, and lost in gambling by landowners. By law, peasants who die between censuses ('revisions') are not removed from the legal register; they are considered 'alive,' and landowners continue to pay taxes on them. Social standing is strictly tied to the number of slaves one owns, official ranks, and noble titles.
A social structure where sycophancy, ostentation, and bribery in the bureaucracy are considered commonplace; where the elite affect French/German pretensions (speaking French, using foreign wares) yet the infrastructure is rooted in a decrepit and coarse Russian provincial mentality.
Characters are arranged at equal intervals on a circle; you can read the relationship type and dynamics by clicking on the lines.
Bir çizgiye tıklayarak ilişki detayını açın.
Manilov exalts Chichikov as a deep and spiritual friend and agrees to give away 'dead souls' for free out of an excessive affection. Chichikov masterfully exploits this sweet but overly naive passivity of Manilov.
Upon meeting Chichikov, Manilov acts as if he has found a soulmate, delivering speeches about 'the pathetic disasters I have endured in my life,' while gifting him the dead peasants and even covering the sales expenses.
It is a highly frustrating relationship for Chichikov. While Chichikov presents logical (to himself) arguments and threats, Korobochka constantly resists out of superstition and fear that the dead serfs 'might increase in value.' Chichikov barely manages to prevail.
When Chichikov, trying to strike a deal for fifteen rubles, sighs, 'Damn this witch of a woman, she wore me out,' the woman replies that 'other buyers might come' for the dead peasants.
Nozdryov is uninhibited and intrusive; he tries to force Chichikov into gambling and fraud. When Chichikov realizes he is being cheated, he resists; the bonds between them break completely, and the relationship turns into pure violence.
Nozdryov's order to his servants, 'Beat him! Give him a thrashing!', and Chichikov's narrow escape from the beating thanks to the sudden intervention of the police chief.
Both sides recognize each other as 'con men' or 'shrewd' deep down but do not openly attack. A cold, tough negotiation ensues. Sobakevich sets an absurdly high price for his dead serfs as if they were alive; Chichikov tries to drive the price down.
Sobakevich asking for one hundred rubles for a dead carpenter, and their cutthroat bargaining as Chichikov insists, 'I won't pay a kopek more than two and a half rubles.'
Chichikov immediately diagnoses Plyushkin's wretched state and terrible miserliness; he gains his trust with the lie of saving him money on taxes and secures the dead souls and runaways under similar terms for free.
Plyushkin showering Chichikov with compliments as a 'benevolent man' upon hearing that Chichikov will pay the sales contract expenses himself.
Chichikov gives orders, gets angry, and frequently insults; although Selifan appears obedient on the surface, when he gets drunk, he disappears into his own world, ruins things, and demonstrates a quiet passive resistance.
When the carriage turns over into the mud, Chichikov yelling, 'You wretched rascal! What road are you taking?' and threatening him with a stick.
A partnership that appears happy from the outside, woven with a constant display of affection, kisses, and a series of meaningless compliments, yet is highly unproductive and lacks domestic management.
Even though they have been married for eight years, they feed each other pieces of apple, saying, 'My darling, open your mouth.'
Mizhuev is a loyal, spineless sidekick who constantly calls out Nozdrev's lies but can never bring himself to leave him. Nozdrev treats him rudely but drags him along everywhere.
When Nozdrev lies, saying 'You lost my fifty rubles too,' Mizhuev feebly replies, 'You didn't swindle them away,' yet he still cannot disobey him.
The father is overly insecure and stingy; his daughter has entered a marriage he disapproves of. Despite the grandchildren and small gifts his daughter brings, Plyushkin punishes her by never offering her any financial support.
When his daughter Alexandra comes to visit with her two children, Plyushkin gives them only a button to play with and doesn't spare them a single cent.
Although Sobakevich conforms to them in public or official settings, he does not hesitate to claim behind their backs that they are all despicable scammers, bribe-takers, and animals.
When Chichikov praises the governor, Sobakevich shouts, 'The governor is a complete bandit; give him a knife and let him out on the street!'
