What is "Khlestakovism"? (an essay based on the comedy "The Government Inspector"). Make an associative series to the concept of Khlestakovism

In the famous work of N.V. Gogol (summary) contains a lot of human vices, which the author repeatedly ridicules. He even somewhat distorts reality, drawing attention to the injustice and conniving attitude of local officials. How many deceivers, thieves and liars are among them! But almost all of these negative features are concentrated in Khlestakov. And it’s not for nothing that this name has become a household name.

Khlestakov is a hero who happened to be at the right time and in the right place. He goes to the Saratov province to his father, where he is accidentally mistaken for an auditor. He, for some time not understanding the reasons for the respectful attitude of officials towards him, takes advantage of his position and begins to borrow large sums. Having guessed that he is not being taken for who he really is, he begins to really use this opportunity and, accordingly, get used to the role. He adapts to the most diverse and unexpected situations, alternately putting on the masks of one or the other hero. He himself is an absolutely empty person, absolutely deprived and uneducated. He is wasteful: he loses money at cards, and also has a lot of debts. Moreover, when they refuse to feed him in a tavern, he is absolutely sincerely surprised, believing that everything should be free of charge. At the moment when Khlestakov is mistaken for an auditor, he absolutely thoughtlessly manages money.

Khlestakov is a rather cowardly and weak-willed person. Having not settled with the owner of the hotel, he is terribly afraid of punishment for his misconduct. In addition, the protagonist of the work "The Government Inspector" is a terrible liar. He tells officials about his friendship with Pushkin, lies about his love of literature and writes poetry with great pleasure. Especially his tendency to lie is manifested in communication with women. He openly flirts with the mayor's daughter and his wife. He does not skimp on compliments and high-flown words "How I wish, madam, to be your handkerchief to hug your lily neck ...".

Khlestakov likes it when they curry favor with him, they are afraid of him, they please him in everything. “I love cordiality, and, I confess, I like it better if they please me from a pure heart, and not out of interest ...”.

After analyzing the main character traits of the protagonist of the work of N.V. Gogol's "Inspector General", one can conclude that "Khlestakovism" is a whole set of negative qualities, including an irresponsible attitude to money, cowardice, stupidity, immorality, a tendency to lie and boast. It is not for nothing that this surname has become a household name in the modern world. How many of these "Khlestakovs" surround us today.

Essay reasoning briefly

N.V. Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" tells about the events that unfolded in the city of N in connection with the imaginary arrival of the auditor, in the role of Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov. The author, with his characteristic irony, denounces the vices of bureaucracy, and many of the problems he raised are relevant in our time.

According to the plot of the work, Khlestakov is a squandered young man suffering from a lack of livelihood. He and his servant, Osip, survive on the last piece of bread while a solution to their problems is found: the officials of the city of N take him for an inspector who has come with a check. The young man, quickly orienting himself in the situation, plays a performance in front of them, as if everything is so.

Let us turn to the famous scene when the drunken Khlestakov finds himself in the living room of the Governor. The young man instantly "unties the tongue." He makes up all sorts of fables about his origin, education, wealth. It suddenly turns out that in St. Petersburg he is "on a short footing with Pushkin" and the soup is brought to him on a steamer "directly from Paris." The easier officials believe in his lies, the more cheeky it becomes. Khlestakov makes a reservation, gets confused in his own stories, attributes masterpieces of world literature to his authorship, but the fear that seized the officials in front of a person they considered high-ranking does not allow them to doubt his words. Khlestakov and Osip are equally excellent in their art of lying and embellishment, the servant supports the owner and worries that their plan is not revealed. Having collected money "on loan" from the city officials, Khlestakov disappears from the life of the inhabitants of the city N as quickly as he appeared in it.

Thus, "Khlestakovism" is a concept meaning a phenomenon in which a person boasts of things that do not correspond to reality, boasts and lies. "Khlestakovism" in the work affects not only the young arrogant Petersburger Khlestakov, but also each of the inhabitants of the city of N, in particular, the mayor, who dropped "it's nice to be a general" while his daughter has not even married yet. The only means that can save people from this phenomenon is an ironic attitude towards it. City officials should not have taken Khlestakov seriously, but because of their own fear, they did not see in him a simple St. Petersburg dandy who knows how to pretend well and compose competently. We conclude that Khlestakov's share lives in every person, but it is important to ensure that it does not develop into a complete deception that reigns in comedy.

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What is Khlestakovism? (According to N. V. Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General") The appearance of the comedy "The Inspector General" in 1836 evoked an elevated, exciting feeling in society. This spring gave the audience a meeting with a real masterpiece. More than 160 years have passed since then, but the comedy "The Government Inspector" has not lost its relevance and its sound today. You don't have to look far for examples. Let us recall the negative heroes of the popular "police" series than Gogol's heroes, who only became more cold-blooded and cruel. Gogol himself noted that Khlestakov is the most difficult character in the play. In the recommendations for the actor who played this role, Gogol quite deeply reveals the nature of this character. Khlestakov accomplished all his exploits in the county town absolutely unintentionally. Khlestakov can be compared with a ballet dancer moving through the space of the play, he enlivens the course of the whole action, acts as a real engine for the plot development of the comedy. Khlestakov brilliantly played the role of an auditor in front of county officials, only by the middle of the fourth act did he begin to realize that he was being mistaken for a somewhat "statesman". What the false auditor feels at the same time It seems nothing. Khlestakov's behavior amazes all the officials of the county town. In their opinion, the auditor is very cunning and dodgy and you need to keep your eyes open with him. It is characteristic that it never occurred to anyone that Khlestakov was just a desperate liar. In each of the created situations, he behaves like a brilliant actor. One can imagine how difficult it was for the theater actor, who for the first time played the role of Khlestakov, the actor playing the auditor. Khlestakov should not be regarded as an evil or cruel person. By itself, he is completely harmless, and those around him can make anything out of him, even incognito from St. Petersburg, and even with a secret order, even an insignificant metropolitan official. The originality of the character, more precisely, the lack of Khlestakov's character lies in the fact that he has practically no memory of the past and reflection on the future. Khlestakov is focused on the present minute, and within this minute he is able to achieve the highest artistry. He changes his appearance with ease and even some grace. Among county officials completely written off from life, this absolutely fictional character makes an unforgettable impression. It can probably be said that for county officials such a terrible event as the arrival of an auditor from the capital looked like a kind of holiday, creepy, but interesting. Khlestakov is terrible to them and arouses their admiration by the fact that he does not at all look like a person capable of cruelly punishing the guilty. Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was well aware of the life of the petty Petersburg bureaucracy, "which allowed him to give in the image of Khlestakov an exaggerated and collective type of superficially educated fanfaron. Khlestakov gladly uses for the beauty of the style French words picked up from someone and misunderstood, clichés of the then fiction. At the same time, vulgar expressions are also found in Khlestakov's speech. Gogol made Khlest's remarks "Khlestakov, like a soap bubble, inflates under the influence of favorable circumstances, grows in his own eyes and in the eyes of officials, becomes bolder and bolder in boasting ... " The influence of the comedy "The Government Inspector" on Russian society was enormous. Stokovism began to be called any unbridled phrase-mongering, lies, shameless boasting, combined with extreme frivolity. Gogol managed to penetrate into the very depths of the Russian national character, extracting from there the image of the false auditor Khlestakov. According to the author of the immortal comedy, every Russian person at least for a moment becomes Khlestakov, regardless of their social status, age, education, and so on.

An original and unusual Gogol character is a petty official from St. Petersburg. Khlestakov became a generalized image and a prominent representative of a bureaucratic society. Accordingly, Khlestakovism is a special phenomenon in the Russian bureaucratic system. Therefore, Gogol's work "The Government Inspector" is the best creation of a brilliant and talented author. Dramaturgy has never known such a work.

Researchers of Gogol's comedy have noticed that there is not a single positive character on its pages. But most of the characters are officials who not only take bribes themselves, but for the sake of maintaining their position, are not averse to giving them themselves. All officials of the county town are stupid and ignorant, their life is empty and meaningless. But the people are also presented by the author not in the best light: the ignorance of the common people and the fear of everyone and everything.

The author makes Ivan Alexandrovich the main character, emphasizing his peculiarity. But then what is this feature? What is Khlestakovism? This name appeared from the name of the main character of Gogol's comedy. Consider the image of Khlestakov in comedy. Ivan Alexandrovich is young, lives in St. Petersburg and occupies the smallest position in the bureaucratic class. Soon the reader will learn about him that he can easily squander any amount of money, but at the same time he is also a rogue. He always needs money.

Khlestakov was lucky that he ended up in the county town just at the time when the bureaucratic county class was waiting for the arrival of a real auditor and was very afraid of this. The inspector must check the state of affairs in the city, and they are all in a state of disrepair. But officials were able to surprise Khlestakov when they begin to offer him money, show him honors that he did not even know before, and surround him with attention. But realizing that he is mistaken for someone else, the St. Petersburg official decides to use her in such a way that he himself would benefit.

Osip, the servant of the protagonist, is the first to realize that Khlestakov is mistaken for another and invites his master to use this situation, and not try to explain to others the real picture of things. But Ivan Alexandrovich likes this situation more and more every minute, and he begins to lie, talking about what a significant figure he is in St. Petersburg circles. His lies are so convincing that officials are afraid of him. And at the end of the comedy, Khlestakov becomes the winner over the officials, as he leaves the city, leaving the officials with nothing.

The image of the main character is typical for many Gogol's heroes. They all do not know how to express their thoughts correctly, their speech is incoherent, constant lies are present in their remarks. Yes, and the situation that is happening with officials is ridiculous and looks like something of an obsession. After all, the impossible happened: an experienced mayor accidentally takes a petty official for a respectable auditor. But after all, not only the mayor behaves this way. The whole city carries bribes and gifts to a random passing official, mistaking him for an auditor.

The image of the protagonist is unconventional for Russian literature. The intrigue of Gogol's comedy lies in the fact that the rogue and deceiver does not set himself any goal. Especially it was not his goal to deceive some officials of the county town, whom he did not even know before. But critics of Gogol's work noticed that the main character can be a good person, because he does not openly take bribes, but asks to lend him money. But the environment in which he ended up, they wanted to see him as a bribe taker, which is why the society of the mayor so strenuously offered them to him. The comic of the whole work of Nikolai Gogol lies in the fact that innocence and great stupidity conflict with cunning and roguery.

The main character has neither a mind nor any figure that would inspire power, he is not cunning, but unexpectedly gets his hands on luck and success. And officials, it turns out, punish themselves. But Khlestakov himself plays not only in deceiving officials. Helps to deceive and lead them to a petty Petersburg official and fear. It is he who helps to intrigue the entire comedy plot, but also general fear allows you to develop a conflict in the work. Fear does not allow officials of the county town to properly and adequately look at this situation and expose the deceiver. Indeed, in his lies, the visiting "auditor" goes very far. Therefore, they so easily confuse truth and falsehood.

But there is a lie not only in Khlestakov's speech, the mayor and other officials of this city also lie for sure. They all try to talk about their farm only from the positive side, and this is not true. But most of all the untruth comes out of the mouth of the protagonist in the mayor's house, especially at the reception, where Khlestakov tries to show himself to be an important person. From his words one can learn that he occupies such a high position that allows him to often visit the royal palace. With each word, his persona emerges more and more precisely and the deception grows. Soon he is no longer even the commander-in-chief, but the head of the department, without which there is absolutely no way to do.

Therefore, many couriers are already looking for him around the country so that he can manage his department. But in fact, he is a simple copyist of documents. And he tells his new entourage that even the soldiers salute him and personally deliver the soup from Paris itself. And in this deception, the “auditor” is already difficult to stop, since every phrase exaggerates reality even more. Even in his own eyes and thoughts, he grows. He tries to seduce not only the official's daughter, but even his wife. And at the beginning of all this action, he timidly asks for a loan of money, and at the end of the comedy, he practically already demands money.

But the disappearance of Khlestakov happens as if some kind of mirage disappears. After all, no one knows, and the author does not mention this, where he is going now. And the comedy ends with a silent scene that shows what kind of shock officials fall into. Here the motive of punishment and the onset of justice is symbolic, because a real auditor comes to the city and demands a mayor. And in the whole comedy, the attitude of the author himself to this situation is clear: pain because such vices as bribes and servility, greed and cowardice, the insignificance of interests and meanness that people are capable of in order to achieve their goal flourish in Russia. This gave rise to Khlestakovism in Russian society and literature.

Realizing that he himself could not change anything, Nikolai Gogol tried to draw attention to the problems that exist in Russian society, and the heroes of his comedy helped him in this.

The concept of Khlestakovism came to us from the immortal comedy by N.V. Gogol's The Inspector General, which was written in 1835. They say that the plot of the comedy was suggested to Gogol by A.S. Pushkin, telling him a comical incident that happened to some gentleman in the Novgorod province. Arriving at a county town, this gentleman began to impersonate an important official of the ministry and managed to rob almost all the city residents. While working on the comedy, Gogol often wrote to Pushkin, informing him of the progress of writing. In January 1836, the play was finished and Gogol read it at the evening at the poet V.A. Zhukovsky, to which many writers were invited, among whom was A.S. Pushkin. After reading, the opinions of the writers differed, but Pushkin and Zhukovsky were delighted! Sam N.V. Gogol spoke about his comedy like this: “In The Inspector General I decided to put together everything bad in Russia ... and laugh at everything at once.” In the spring of 1836 in St. Petersburg, at the Alexandrinsky Theater, the premiere of the play took place, at which Emperor Nicholas I himself was present. It was an explosion! Before that, there was nothing like it in Russian dramaturgy. Not a single positive hero - only fools, liars, braggarts, bribe-takers and simply worthless people. The main character of the play N.V. Gogol called Khlestakov. So who is he, Ivan Alexandrovich Khlestakov, and why did his surname begin to be used as a common noun?

N.V. Gogol knew very well the class-bureaucratic orders of Nikolaev Russia and the life of the petty Petersburg bureaucracy. With the insight inherent in a great artist, Gogol managed to create a collective and somewhat exaggerated image of a vulgar and worthless little man. Once passing through a district town, Khlestakov plays cards and is left penniless in his pocket. Having settled in the cheapest hotel, he thinks where to get money for lunch, because. he already owes a fair amount to the owner, and he refuses to feed him on credit. His situation is truly desperate. And at that very moment, city officials come to visit him, who mistook him for an auditor from St. Petersburg. At first, Khlestakov is surprised by such behavior of officials, but then, having entered the role, he himself begins to consider himself a "significant person". Under the influence of circumstances, he grows in his own eyes, so he lies more and more boldly. From a collegiate registrar who simply rewrites papers, in a matter of minutes he grows almost to a “field marshal”, who “goes to the palace every day” and “with Pushkin on a friendly footing”. At the reception at the mayor’s, his boasting takes on truly fantastic proportions: “thirty-five thousand one couriers” are looking for him through the streets, because there is no one else to manage the department, “soup in a saucepan came right on the ship from Paris” to him, and in his front “counts and princes are pushing”. Khlestakov speaks and acts without any thought. His speech is broken and vulgar. It seems that the words fly out of his mouth completely unexpectedly. This is one of those people who are called empty, a soap bubble that inflates to an incredible size, and then bursts overnight, as if it never existed. Since then, impudent, unrestrained, falsely frivolous boasting has been disparagingly called Khlestakovism.

The Khlestakovs have always been, at all times. But only after the release of The Inspector General, this phenomenon received a name, got into dictionaries. In the Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language, edited by Ozhegov, we read: “Khlestakovism is shameless, unbridled boasting.” So what is the essence of this vice? This phenomenon is tenacious and very many-sided. Khlestakovism is stupidity, spiritual emptiness, primitiveness, opportunism. Such people like to splurge, they want to seem more significant than they really are. These are braggarts, braggarts and fanfarons. Probably, we are all sometimes whiplash, because we so want to seem more significant, to grow in our own eyes. Gogol himself wrote: “Everyone, even for a minute ... has become or is becoming a whiplash ... In a word, rarely will anyone not be at least once in their life ...”

Comedy NV Gogol's The Inspector General had a huge impact on Russian society of that time. The emperor himself, after watching, said: “Well, the play! Everyone got it, but I got it more than everyone! ” More than a century and a half has passed since then, and the Khlestakovs still exist today, this concept has not become archaic, which means that the comedy of the great writer is still relevant today.

Rereading the classics

The comedy of Nikolai Vasilyevich was presented to the public in the distant 1836. Since then, almost two centuries have passed and several historical eras have changed. But the situation and the characters depicted in this work have not gone away. As such a phenomenon as Khlestakovism, this is something phenomenal when a nonentity feels a fine hour given to him by fate. And enjoys unexpected happiness. Gogol's comedy is still relevant. And not only because every year schoolchildren are offered to write essays on the topic of Khlestakovism?" The "Inspector" contains the answer to this question. But a simple attempt to re-read this well-known work from the school curriculum inevitably leads to the question of whether anything has changed in Russia over the years, except for the names of the positions of officials? Of course, it has. they take bribes today not only with greyhound puppies.

How was this comedy created?

It is generally accepted that the idea of ​​this work was suggested to Gogol by Pushkin. But in the very plot of the comedy "The Government Inspector" there is nothing special. Such plot constructions, based on the fact that a person is mistaken for who he really is, are more than enough in world literature. But being transferred to the realities of the Russian Empire, such an intrigue simply could not but affect the foundations of the state foundations existing in it. Contemporaries testify that the idea of ​​"Inspector General" arose from Pushkin when he traveled around the Orenburg province, collecting materials about the uprising of Emelyan Pugachev. Some county officials mistook the poet for an inspector from the capital, traveling solely to collect information compromising them. Pushkin was in no hurry to dissuade them from this error.

With the highest approval

Everyone who was involved in the creation of this comedy could not help but understand that her stage fate would not be easy. Since it was impossible not to notice the fact that the Khlestakovism displayed in it is, among other things, also a dashing mockery of the state bureaucratic machine. The staging of this play on the stage became possible only after the personal appeal of Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky to the Sovereign Emperor. The poet managed to convince that the comedy is not directed against the foundations of the state, but only ridicules the stealing provincial officials. The sovereign allowed himself to be convinced that such a satire could bring nothing but good to the administrative system. But before the audience, the work appeared in an abbreviated form.

Main character

Ivan Alexandrovich Khlestakov, an official from St. Petersburg, by chance turned out to be a very significant person. Of course, in the depths of his soul, he guesses that something is wrong here, and he, most likely, was confused with someone ... But what does it matter when everyone around him froze in front of him with a sense of sacred horror and awe? And the petty clerk from the capital's office swells like a soap bubble to incredible proportions. As a result, the reader and the viewer are presented with a clear answer to the question of what Khlestakovism is. This is a narcissistic nonentity who has reached the pinnacle of greatness in his understanding. But Ivan Alexandrovich is carried by a wave of inspiration, and he enters the role of an important person to such an extent that he himself believes that he was at the top not by chance. What is Khlestakovism? This is a phenomenon of loss of shores and detachment from reality. But at the same time, it is also a willingness to perceive any insolent rogue as an important state person.

Monologue

Most vividly in a comedy, the protagonist himself narrates about himself. He does it with self-denial and inspiration. To such an extent that he himself believes in the nonsense that frightened officials carry. Insignificance felt its power over the audience and in its monologue is revealed with maximum frankness. Khlestakov is not at all mediocre when he broadcasts about the imaginary significance and greatness of his person. So, among other things, Khlestakovism is also a poetic inspiration. Without this kind of drive and courage, the adventurer would simply not have taken place. The whole plot intrigue of Gogol's comedy is based on the fact that in a narrow place the inspired nonentity and the public interested in him converged. And they found a complete understanding.

Inhabitants of the county town

But no less than Ivan Alexandrovich Khlestakov, the officials of the provincial town endowed with power are also interesting. All of them, figuratively speaking, have a "stigma in a cannon." All of them have good reason to be afraid of the appearance of a mysterious "auditor" in the settlement under their jurisdiction. No answer to the question of what Khlestakovism is is impossible without this stealing bureaucracy. Without them, this phenomenon simply could not take place, and petty nonentities would never have been able to rise above them to the pinnacle of glory and success. The city authorities and the merchants, bearing bribes and offerings to him, are no less ridiculous than the "auditor" himself. With special expressiveness, the wife and daughter of the mayor are presented in the comedy. Anna Andreevna and Marya Antonovna compete for the attention of a visiting rogue. They do not need to be deceived, they themselves are happy to be deceived.

"The mayor is stupid, like a gray gelding..."

Homerically funny and at the same time a pitiful figure is the first administrative person of the county town Anton Antonovich Svoznik-Dmukhanovsky. This is despite the fact that it simply does not turn out to be stupid to call it stupid. On the contrary, he is very smart and calculated everything in advance. He has everything under control, intelligence and counterintelligence are correctly built up, he is notified of the approach of the incognito auditor to the city long before the visit, and he has the opportunity to prepare for this event. He made a mistake, like a sapper, only once. And with this mistake, he provided several generations of Russian schoolchildren with exam tickets on the topics "The Inspector General, Khlestakov and Khlestakovism." It is enough that in Anton Antonovich some provincial governors saw a hint of themselves and in every possible way prevented the production of Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" in their cities. They had every reason to do so. Everything turned out to be very similar, down to small household details and a random coincidence of names and surnames.

silent scene

The scene, deafening in expressiveness, completes Gogol's Khlestakov and the Khlestakov region celebrated the victory, and the entire district authorities remained in complete fools. It seems that it could not be otherwise. But everything would have been as usual, if the mayor had not been mistaken about an incomprehensible guest in a city hotel. Where did the system crash occur? Is it random or regular? How did it happen that such an insignificant creature celebrated a triumph and departed with rich trophies in an unknown direction, while a large group of influential corrupt officials froze in a daze, unable to comprehend the scale of the catastrophe that had befallen them? These questions remain unanswered. One can only be sure that Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov will remember with delight this strange adventure and that small town where fate accidentally brought him to the end of his days. These were by far the best moments of his life.

Summing up

What did Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol want to convey to us with his comedy? Khlestakov and Khlestakovism as a phenomenon deserve a separate reflection on the background of the events described by the writer. How does it happen that such a number of, at first glance, completely not stupid people fall under the influence of complete insignificance? Is Khlestakovism an exclusively Russian phenomenon? Or did it flourish so brightly on Russian soil because of favorable circumstances for it? But a simple glance at the modern political sphere makes it clear that Khlestakovism is often at the basis of the success of many political leaders and lesser functionaries. To verify this, just turn on the TV. And more fun than in politics, things are only in what is called the vague definition of "show business". Gogol's Khlestakov would certainly have made a brilliant career in it.