Why did Chichikov buy dead souls? Did Chichikov fulfill his father's wishes? (based on the poem by N.V.

An enterprising young landowner from N.V. Gogol's poem came up with an unusual way to get rich. He buys up dead peasants who are still alive on the lists.

Historical reference

To understand why Chichikov needed “dead souls”, you will have to look into history. The landowner dreams of acquiring the souls of men who died but were not included in the audit fairy tale. Then he offers them to the Guardian Council and receives money as if they were alive. The benefits are obvious. The problem arises: why do we need men without land? But even here Chichikov finds a solution: he will offer the peasants to leave, withdraw. Dead souls will migrate to the lands that are offered for settlement. It is necessary to pay for the land, but it is necessary to provide residents. These actions are incomprehensible to the modern reader of the poem. We'll have to figure out their essence.

What are Revision Tales

The census of serfs was called a revision tale. It was not held every year. Several years could pass between censuses of those living on the estates. Landowners paid taxes for workers. They suffered losses if the number of deaths became high. Children growing up during this period did not equalize the loss figures. Especially noticeable losses were suffered by those who managed poorly.

In the 19th century, the Board of Guardians managed financial resources. He gave money to the landowners - loans, but it was necessary to pledge serfs as collateral. That is, the peasants became property that made it possible to obtain a loan. Chichikov, who bought dead peasants cheaply, imagines that he is mortgaging them as if they were alive and receiving 200 rubles in pure money for each. Calculating the benefit is easy. How many times more expensive does a dead soul become in the hands of a swindler? If the lending conditions are known – 6% per annum. The term of the trial is 2 years.

Conclusion of the peasants

Chichikov has no estate. He sold what he inherited to move to the city. The state has figured out how to help those who decided to settle down and become land owners. Two provinces - Tauride and Kherson - were offered for free settlement. It was in the Kherson region that Chichikov decided to move his goods.

Chichikov's benefit

The landowner acquired an unknown number of dead souls. The author does not say the exact number - approximately 400:

At Manilov's - no one knows how much for free.
Korobochka has 18 “men” for 1 ruble 20 kopecks.
Plyushkin has 198 souls for 32 kopecks.
Sobakevich has about 100 souls for 2 rubles 50 kopecks.
The enterprising Pavel Ivanovich will receive about 200 thousand rubles, acquire land with a real estate and become a landowner, practical and strong. A profitable purchase will allow him to live comfortably into old age.

The classic certainly did not carry out mathematical calculations. They are not that important. Those who trade in them become dead souls. One can imagine what Chichikov would do if he moved away from the city of N. To what remote places will the landowner’s desire for profit take him? How many soulless gentlemen will make a deal with Chichikov? One can only guess, but it is certain that Pavel Ivanovich will win.

The image of Chichikov - the so-called "throughout hero" - is the most complex and multifaceted in the poem. First of all, Chichikov stands out from the general background with activity and activity. This figure of the entrepreneur is new in Russian literature.

Compositionally, this image is constructed in such a way that first, having become acquainted with him and forming our opinion about him, we get the opportunity to find out how his character was formed. This compositional feature of the poem and its meaning is very accurately commented by Yu.V. Mann: “Although we understand from the very beginning that we are witnessing a scam, what its specific purpose and mechanism is becomes completely clear only in the last chapter. From the same chapter, another, not announced at the beginning, but no less important, “secret” becomes clear: what biographical, personal reasons led Chichikov to this scam. The story of a case turns into a story of character."

The image of Chichikov is deliberately complicated: every now and then features appear in him that would seem alien to him. The author's reflections often turn out to be not only the author's, but also Chichikov's, as, for example, about balls, about Sobakevich, about the governor's daughter... In Chichikov, the unpredictability and inexhaustibility of a living soul is most clearly revealed - even if it is not God knows how rich, even if it is dwindling , but alive.

The eleventh chapter is devoted to the history of Chichikov’s soul. His biography begins from the moment of birth, when life immediately looked at the man who was born “sourly and unpleasantly, through some muddy, snow-covered window: no friend, no comrade in childhood!” And then the poor material and spiritually poor life of a boy is briefly described, doomed to repeat the inconspicuous, meaningless path of his father and sink into obscurity. Is it not from this inferiority that Chichikov’s furious protest, his desire to ensure the material well-being of his future children at all costs, so that they do not despise their father, so that they remember him with gratitude?!

The only thing his father could give Pavlusha was half a piece of copper and an instruction presented as a spiritual covenant: “See, Pavlusha, study, don’t be a fool and don’t hang around, but most of all please your teachers and bosses. If you please your boss, then even If you don't have time in science, and God didn't give you talent, you'll use everything and get ahead of everyone. Don't hang out with your comrades, they won't teach you any good; and if it comes to that, hang out with those who are richer, and most of all, take care and "Save a penny: this is the most reliable thing in the world. A comrade or friend will deceive you and in trouble he 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, you will ruin everything in the world with a penny."

That's it - short and clear. And the reasoning of Chichikov Sr. reminds us of something? Well, of course! - Molchalina:

My father bequeathed to me:

First, please all people without exception -

The owner, where he will live,

The boss with whom I will serve,

To his servant who cleans dresses,

To the doorman, janitor, to avoid evil,

To the janitor's dog, so that it is affectionate.

Just like Molchalin, Chichikov actively seeks material well-being, trying to please all bosses with “moderation and accuracy.” And how the “bosses” respond to these talents! Remember, for example, the teacher Pavlushi: “It should be noted that the teacher was a great lover of silence and good behavior and could not stand smart and sharp boys...”

But despite all the closeness to the “Molchalin” type, Chichikov is much deeper and more complex than his predecessor: “It cannot be said, however, that the nature of our hero was so harsh and callous and his feelings were so dulled that he knew neither pity nor compassion; he felt both, he would even like to help, but only so that it would not involve a significant amount, so as not to touch the money that should not have been touched; in a word, his father’s instructions: take care and save a penny - off for future use."

The peculiarity of Molchalin is that he is completely devoid of moral principles. Gogol deepens the analysis of the “Molchalin type”. Chichikov is not unprincipled, in his own way he is capable of sympathy, in his own way he worries that stupidity and injustice triumph. But the basis of the tragedy and, at the same time, the comedy of this image is that all of Chichikov’s human feelings exist insofar as, and he sees the meaning of life in acquisition, in accumulation. This is not yet Plyushkin’s mania for getting rich for the sake of getting rich. For Chichikov, money is a means, not a goal. He wants prosperity, a worthy free life. But this is precisely the trap: with moral illegibility, money very soon turns into an end in itself, and a person only deceives himself, considering it a means. There will never be enough of them, you need to accumulate more and more - this is a direct path to Plyushkin...

Let us give one more judgment about the main character of the poem, in which, it seems to us, the nature of the Chichikov phenomenon is deeply revealed. These are the thoughts of V. Nabokov from his essay “Nikolai Gogol” (New World. 1987. No. 4.)

“Dead Souls provides the attentive reader with a collection of bloated dead souls that belonged to vulgarities and vulgar women and are described with purely Gogolian gusto and a wealth of eerie details that raise this work to the level of a gigantic epic poem,” it was not for nothing that Gogol gave “Dead Souls” such an apt subtitle. In vulgarity there is some kind of gloss, some kind of plumpness, and its gloss, its smooth outlines attracted Gogol as an artist. The colossal spherical vulgarity Pavel Chichikov, who pulls a fig out of milk with his fingers to soften his throat, or dances in his nightgown, causing things on the shelves shudder to the rhythm of this Spartan jig (and in the end, in ecstasy, he hits himself on his plump bottom, that is, on his real face, with his bare pink heel, thereby as if pushing himself into the real paradise of dead souls) - these visions reign over the smaller the vulgarities of wretched provincial life or petty little officials... But a vulgarity, even of such a gigantic caliber as Chichikov, certainly has some kind of flaw, a hole through which a worm is visible, a miserable shriveled fool who lies huddled in the depths of a vacuum saturated with vulgarity. From the very beginning, there was something stupid in the idea of buying up dead souls - the souls of serfs who died after the next census: the landowners continued to pay a poll tax for them, thereby endowing them with something like an abstract existence, which, however, was very concretely encroaching on the pocket their owners and could have been just as “specifically” used by Chichikov, the buyer of these phantoms. A small, but rather disgusting stupidity was hidden for some time in a tangle of complex manipulations. By trying to buy dead people in a country where living people were legally bought and pawned, Chichikov hardly sinned seriously from a moral point of view. Despite Chichikov's unconditional irrationality in an unconditionally irrational world, the fool in him is visible because from the very beginning he makes one mistake after another. It was stupid to trade dead souls with an old woman who was afraid of ghosts, and it was unforgivable recklessness to offer such a dubious deal to the braggart and boor Nozdryov.<…>Since Chichikov’s guilt is purely conditional, his fate is unlikely to touch anyone’s heartstrings. This once again proves how ridiculously wrong Russian readers and critics were, who saw in “Dead Souls” a factual depiction of life at that time. But if you approach the legendary vulgar Chichikov as he deserves, that is, to see in him an individual created by Gogol, who moves in a special, Gogol whirlwind, then the abstract idea of \u200b\u200bthe fraudulent trade in serfs will be filled with a strange reality and will mean much more than what we would see if we consider it in the light of the social conditions that prevailed in Russia a hundred years ago. The dead souls he buys are not just a list of names on a piece of paper. These are the dead souls that fill the air in which Gogol lives with their creaking and fluttering, the absurd animuli (little souls (Latin)) of Manilov or Korobochki, the ladies from the city of NN, the countless gnomes jumping out of the pages of this book. And Chichikov himself is just a low-paid agent of the devil, a hellish traveling salesman<…>The vulgarity that Chichikov personifies is one of the main distinguishing properties of the devil, in whose existence, it must be added, Gogol believed much more than in the existence of God. The crack in Chichikov's armor, this rusty hole, from which comes a vile stench (like from a broken can of crabs, which some scumbag mutilated and left in the closet) is an indispensable chink in the devil's visor. This is the original idiocy of worldwide vulgarity.

Chichikov is doomed from the very beginning and is sliding towards his death, wobbling slightly with his backside, with a gait that only to the vulgar and vulgar people of the city of NN could seem delightfully secular. At the decisive moments, when he bursts into one of his moralizing tirades (with a slight interruption in the sweet-voiced speech - a tremolo on the words "beloved brothers"), intending to drown his true intentions in high-flown molasses, he calls himself the pathetic worm of this world. Oddly enough, his insides are actually gnawed by a worm, and if you squint a little, looking at its roundness, you can distinguish this worm. I remember a pre-war European poster advertising tires; it showed what looked like a human being made entirely of rubber rings; So the rounded Chichikov seems to me like a tight, ringed, flesh-colored worm.”

Chichikov builds his well-being on the misfortunes of others: he insulted an old dying teacher, deceived the police officer and his daughter, takes bribes, uses government money, indulges in scams at customs... We do not like the teacher, the old police officer is unpleasant, we understand that the state has not become impoverished especially from the Chichikov customs "negotiations". But that’s not the point; it is important that the essence of his actions is the same - deception, betrayal, fraud. And one can neither imagine Chichikov as Robin Hood, taking away the loot, nor excuse his actions by the unsympathetic nature of the victims. The end does not justify the means - and Chichikov violates this basic moral law, allows himself to do mean things, justifying himself: “I didn’t make anyone unhappy: I didn’t rob a widow, I didn’t let anyone go around the world, I used it from excess, I took where everyone would take ..."

It is clear that this is a very convenient philosophy: it simplifies life so much! A criminal robbed a widow. But you robbed the treasury and took it “from the surplus,” so you’re a shrewd business man. Chichikov creates for himself a special system of moral values, opposed to Christian morality, creates a system of self-justification - all this is degradation, the path of spiritual impoverishment, for a person constantly facilitates his conversation with his own conscience and ultimately justifies his crime. This is the path to the abyss - Gogol warns against it.

The city, living on gossip, considers Chichikov to be the kidnapper of the governor’s daughter, Napoleon, the Antichrist, and Captain Kopeikin. This characterizes the life of the city, the way of thinking of officials and their wives. In their own way, these projections also characterize Chichikov. This is a petty, small, vulgar Napoleon, achieving his goal by any means; he is a de-romanticized robber “like Rinald Rinaldin”; This is not the Antichrist, but a petty demon...

Special mention must be made of the projection of the image of Chichikov onto the image of Captain Kopeikin. At the very beginning we said that censorship banned the “story”. For Gogol, this was a terrible blow: “... I admit, the destruction of Kopeikin confused me a lot. This is one of the best places. And I am not able to patch up this hole that is visible in my poem.” And Gogol decides to rework the “story”. In the censored version, Kopeikin receives a small amount to survive until the issue of benefits is resolved. But amidst the temptations of the capital, he instantly spends this money and comes to demand new ones. It was then that he was expelled from St. Petersburg, and he went to rob. As you can see, Gogol completely removed the motive of a person forced to die of hunger: in the new edition, Kopeikin does not need money for his daily bread: “I need, he says, to eat a cutlet, a bottle of French wine, to entertain myself, too, to the theater, you know.” That is, there is no direct exposure, the hero turns out to be almost an impudent extortionist. Why did Gogol still leave the “story”?

First of all, let's pay attention to the style of the "story". It is told by the postmaster, and this hero explains himself in his style. And in his presentation everything takes on a special look. Yu.V. brilliantly analyzes this aspect. Mann: “The awkwardly comical manner of narration ... casts a shadow on what is being said - on the subject of the story. Not the high commission, but “in some way the high commission.” Not the board, but “the board, you know, sort of” The difference between the nobleman and Captain Kopeikin was transferred to the money account: “ninety rubles and zero!” Through such and such a dense network of words “in a way,” “sort of,” “can you imagine,” etc., the royal capital is seen. And on her monumental face (and on everything that happens in the “story”) some kind of motley, wavering ripples fall. By making the reader laugh, Gogol deprived the royal institutions and institutions of the priesthood.

The question arises: could anything like this be in the thoughts of the postmaster, the narrator of the “story”? But that’s the point: his tongue-tied manner of narration is so naive, so sincere, that admiration in it is inseparable from evil mockery. And if so, then this manner is capable of conveying the caustic mockery of the author of “Dead Souls” himself.

It is in this manner that the changes in the characterization of the “boss” and captain Kopeikin that the writer was forced to make are neutralized and nullified” (Yu. Mann. The Courage of Invention. M., “Children’s Literature”, 1979, pp. 110-111) .

So, “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” introduces the theme of the capital and the highest circles of power into the poem. Researchers noted that it is one of Gogol’s St. Petersburg stories, as if “inserted” into Dead Souls. This is true, but there is a feeling of foreignness of the story in the fabric of the poem. Is it really needed only for the “St. Petersburg theme”? No, of course, not only for this, although Gogol’s very goal - “to show all of Rus'” - required the inclusion of this topic.

And yet the story is mainly connected with the deep layers of the poem.

Look how the postmaster's version compares with all the other versions: it is just as ridiculous as they come. This creates a general atmosphere of madness, the inconsistency of everything with everything, total blindness and stupidity. And finally, the most important thing. The story contains one of the main motives of Gogol’s work: the motive of revenge, or rather, the motive of the immorality of revenge.

“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” was written around the same time as “The Overcoat” - one of Gogol’s most important stories, one of the central ones in Russian literature. Remember the words of Dostoevsky: “We all came out of Gogol’s “Overcoat”! The little official Akaki Akakievich cuts himself in everything in order to sew a new overcoat. For him, this overcoat is something immeasurably more than just warm, comfortable clothes. It is a symbol of his human dignity, his "independence". And in the very first days on the street, robbers took off his overcoat! Having not achieved justice, Akaky Akakievich despairs and dies. And then on the outskirts of St. Petersburg a terrible ghost appears, pulling off people's coats, especially their overcoats. What is this story about? Let's think about it , after all, Akaki Akakievich could take revenge precisely on the robbers who took his overcoat. Why doesn’t he limit himself to this? That’s the point - and this is one of Gogol’s fundamental ideas - that the measure of revenge will always exceed the measure of the offense inflicted. In revenge, it is never justice triumphs - revenge blinds, makes you see enemies in everyone around you. Protest is also the awakening of a living soul, the measure of patience of which is not limitless. But protest, pushing for revenge, inciting violence, is a terrible path of awakening, leading to the abyss, to destruction.

In both the first and second versions of “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin,” the main thing is preserved: power is always late with justice. The defender of the fatherland (after all, Captain Kopeikin is a hero of the war of 1812) turns into an enemy of the fatherland.

Of course, Chichikov is not Captain Kopeikin. But what brings them together is that Russia will not allow its citizens to become virtuous and improve themselves. All abilities are channeled into bad channels, turned into evil in this country of absurdity, distorted moral values, triumphant stupidity and vulgarity.

“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” is a terrifying picture of the rapid transformation of the defender of Rus', who shed blood for his cause, into her adversary. This is Gogol’s warning to his contemporaries, a call to wake up, to awaken from their sleepy march into the abyss.

Bibliography

Monakhova O.P., Malkhazova M.V. Russian literature of the 19th century. Part 1. - M., 1994.

Nabokov V.V. Nikolai Gogol // New World. 1987. No. 4

To prepare this work, materials from the site http://www.gramma.ru were used

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On him. Here he is sitting in the chaise! “Not handsome, but not bad-looking, neither too fat nor too thin; I can’t say that I’m old, but I can’t say that I’m too young.”

His appearance speaks of his ability to adapt to a variety of circumstances.

All his life Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov saved money. It started from childhood. He received a good commandment from his father. “Look, Pavlusha,” he said to him, sending him to school, “don’t be stupid and don’t hang around, but most of all please the teachers and bosses... hang out with those who are richer, so that on occasion you can be useful. Do not treat or regale anyone, but

Behave in such a way that you will be treated, and most of all, take care and save a penny; this thing is the most reliable... You will do everything, and you will lose everything with a penny.”

We can say that Chichikov's life was the fulfillment of this covenant. That’s why we say that he is a “knight of a penny.” After all, he remained faithful to her to the end.

Having left the school and betrayed his teacher, Chichikov begins more difficult things. He has been courting his boss’s ugly daughter for a long time, pretending that he is going to marry her. But when the overjoyed father helps his imaginary son-in-law become a petty boss, Chichikov cleverly deceives him. Pavel Ivanovich quickly walks up the hill. Now he is already on the commission that is going to build a state building. But the members of this commission are only engaged in theft. Chichikov is not asleep either. However, the thieves are caught. Still, our hero does not give up. He becomes a customs officer and deftly exposes smugglers. And then a new scam. And it failed. Our knight has 10 - 20 thousand left and some of his former luxury. But he is stubborn: “Crying will not help the grief, we need to do something.”

And he begins a new business, brilliant in its simplicity and the possibility of making money at public expense. He buys up dead peasants who are still listed as alive in the census in order to pledge them to the Guardian Council. His desire for enrichment makes him an experienced psychologist. Everyone (even Sobakevich) speaks of him in the best possible way. He has many faces in his relationships with people, adapting to the interests and character of those he needs. His very appearance, neat, beautiful clothes, good manners - everything speaks of his elusiveness.

Chichikov loves all the delights of life, dreams of marrying a pretty “grandmother”, taking a dowry of 100 - 200 thousand, living in a big way. But in order to achieve a goal, he can deny himself many things for a long time. He is not Plyushkin or a stingy knight rejoicing in his wealth. He needs money to become the master of life, in order to “break through everything” with its help. Gogol satirically castigates his hero - a “scoundrel”, a representative of those predators who appeared in large numbers in the 30s of the last century. Patriarchal Russia was already becoming a thing of the past, and similar entrepreneurs - acquirers - began to enter the arena. This was noted by V. G. Belinsky, who said that “Chichikov, as an acquirer, is no less, if not more than Pechorin, a hero of our time.” There are many Chichikovs in our lives too!

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In the novel “Dead Souls” the image of Chichikov occupies a central place. This hero knows how to manipulate people. He is artistic, intelligent and has the ability...

... In order to get closer to the goal, they easily discard conscience, humanity and everything else.
F. Guicciardini.

“It is very doubtful that the readers will like the hero we have chosen... No, it’s time to finally hide the scoundrel too. So, let’s harness the scoundrel.” This is how Gogol characterized his hero.
Come on, is Chichikov really a scoundrel? What's wrong with a person wanting to get rich all his life? But no, the wise expert of human hearts, the great satirist, is mistaken. Pavel Ivanovich did not want to get rich in an honest way, ʜᴇ by enriching the fatherland and increasing its industry, like Kostan-zhoglo, but by deception, cunning and deceit.
Let's take a closer look at him.
Here he is sitting in the chaise! “Not handsome, but also ʜᴇ bad-looking”
roundness, neither too thick nor too thin; It’s impossible to say that he’s old, but it’s also true that he’s too young.”
His appearance speaks of his ability to adapt to a variety of circumstances.
All his life Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov saved money. It started from childhood. He received a good commandment from his father. “Look, Pavlusha,” he said to him, sending him to school, “be silly and hang around, and most of all please the teachers and bosses... hang out with those who are richer, so that on occasion you can be useful. Do not treat or treat anyone, but behave in such a way that you will be treated, and most of all, save and save a penny; this thing is the most reliable... You will do everything, and you will lose everything with a penny.”
We can say that Chichikov's life was the fulfillment of this covenant. That’s why we say that he is a “knight of a penny.” After all, he remained faithful to her to the end.
Having left the school and betrayed his teacher, Chichikov begins more difficult things. He has been courting his boss’s ugly daughter for a long time, pretending that he is going to marry her. But when the overjoyed father helps his imaginary son-in-law become a petty boss, Chichikov cleverly deceives him. Pavel Ivanovich quickly walks up the hill. Now he is already on the commission that is going to build a state building. But the members of this commission are only engaged in theft. Chichikov is not asleep either. However, the thieves are caught. All the same, our hero gives up. He becomes a customs officer and deftly exposes smugglers. And then a new scam. And she was a success. Our knight has 10-20 thousand left and some of his former luxury. But he is stubborn: “We cry in grief, we need to help, we need to do something.” And he begins a new business, brilliant in its simplicity and the possibility of making money at public expense. He buys up dead peasants who are still listed as alive in the census in order to pledge them to the Guardian Council.
His desire for enrichment makes him an experienced psychologist. Everyone (even Sobakevich) speaks of him in the best possible way. He has many faces in his relationships with people, adapting to the interests and character of those he needs. His very appearance, neat, beautiful clothes, good manners - everything speaks of his elusiveness.
Chichikov loves all the delights of life, dreams of marrying a pretty “grandmother”, taking a dowry of 100-200 thousand, and living in a big way. But in order to achieve a goal, he can deny himself many things for a long time. He is Plyushkin and a stingy knight, rejoicing in his wealth. He needs money to become the master of life, in order to “break through everything” with its help.
Gogol satirically castigates his “scoundrel” hero, a representative of those predators of whom many appeared in the 30s of the last century. Patriarchal Russia was already becoming a thing of the past, and such entrepreneurial acquirers began to enter the arena.
This was noted by V.G. Belinsky, who said that “Chichikov as an acquirer is less, but more than Pechorin, is a hero of our time.” There are many Chichikovs in our lives too!

Lecture, abstract. CHICHIKOV - “KNIGHT OF THE KOPEYK” - essay - concept and types. Classification, essence and features. 2018-2019.

From ancient times to the present day, there have been fierce debates about what money is: good or evil.

The famous American businessman Robert Kiyosaki, author of the game “Cash Flow,” wrote: “The first lesson we must learn is that money itself is not evil. It's just a tool, like a pencil. The pencil can be used to write a beautiful love letter or a complaint that will get you fired. It’s not about the object itself, but about the motivation of the person holding a pencil or money in his hands.”

In this statement, he touches on the problem of money as a tool in the hands of a person to achieve certain goals.

These days, this problem is very relevant, because a huge number of people living below the poverty line do not know how to increase their earnings or convert a penny into a ruble. It’s easier, of course, to scold money, say that it causes all the troubles, and do nothing to get out of poverty. But starting your own small business, falling and making mistakes, but moving forward is not easy. However, every person makes his own choice in life, this is his world and his right.

There are many heroes in fiction in whose lives money plays an important role. For example, Khlestakov, the main character of N.V. Gogol’s immortal comedy “The Inspector General,” receives a certain amount from the priest every month, and his servant Osip tells how he manages it: “.. the priest will send money, something to hold it with - and where !.. went on a spree: he drives a cab, every day you get a ticket to the hospital, and then a week later, lo and behold, he sends him to the flea market to sell a new tailcoat. Sometimes he'll take everything down to the last shirt, so all he'll be wearing is a little coat and an overcoat... By God, it's true! And the cloth is so important, English! One hundred and fifty rubles will cost him one tailcoat, but in the market he will sell it for twenty rubles; and there’s nothing to say about the trousers - they don’t suit them at all. Why? - because he’s not involved in business: instead of taking office, he goes for a walk around the precinct, plays cards.”

As we see, the available funds for the hero would be quite enough for a comfortable existence, and with a certain diligence he could achieve career growth and prosperity in life, but, having received the money, he immediately spends it on entertainment, expensive clothes, delicious food, and loses at cards . When the money runs out, he sells his last pants. And why? Yes, because he is an empty person, he has no purpose in life. Apart from entertainment, he is not interested in anything. Money for him is neither good nor evil, just pieces of paper that help him get through his life.

He doesn't know how to manage personal finances,
knows how to control his expenses.

Left penniless, Khlestakov does not repent at all. “And with all that fear, I would like to fight it again!” - he exclaims.

The hero dreams: “It would be nice, damn it, to come home in a carriage, to ride like a devil,” but he is inactive, does not think about how to improve his financial situation.

And then, it would seem, luck smiled on him: officials of the county town mistook him for an auditor and showered him with money. And what about our hero? How did he decide to manage the finances that unexpectedly fell upon him? "Wow! has exceeded a thousand... Come on, now, captain, come on, let me catch you now! Let's see who wins!” - exclaims Khlestakov. And it is clear that he will again lose every penny and will again starve in some provincial town.

In the modern world there are many people like this: an inheritance or a big win suddenly falls on their heads, but they do not know how to spend wisely or manage their money, and therefore they soon lose everything and are left with nothing.

But Plyushkin, the hero of Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls,” has a different attitude towards money: he is greedy to the point of disgrace, every penny counts in his account, but can he be called a prosperous person?

Once upon a time he was a good host, “a neighbor came to have lunch with him, listen and learn from him about housekeeping and wise stinginess. Everything flowed lively and happened at a measured pace: mills, fulling mills moved, cloth factories, carpentry machines, spinning mills worked...” There was prosperity in everything. Plyushkin, as an experienced businessman, skillfully managed his large estate, there were always many guests in the house, his “friendly and talkative hostess was famous for her hospitality.”

This hero was thinking about how to increase his capital, how to earn more: he either sculpted a bullfinch and “sold it profitably”, then bought buns and resold them to hungry comrades (many entrepreneurs are engaged in resale of goods at higher prices in our time), then I trained a mouse, which was not easy, and also sold it. He was a hypocrite, he adapted, he was mean, which, of course, was disgusting, but, in spite of everything, he stubbornly walked towards his goal. What was Pavel Ivanovich trying to achieve? Gogol himself gives us the answer to this question: “But he had no attachment to money for the sake of money; he was not possessed by stinginess and stinginess. No, it was not they who moved him: he imagined a life ahead of him in all comforts, with all sorts of prosperity; carriages, a well-appointed house, delicious dinners - that’s what was constantly running through his head. In order to finally, in time, be sure to taste all this, that’s why the penny was saved, sparingly denied for the time being both to oneself and to others.” This hero not only saved money, but also constantly thought about how to increase his income to such an extent as to make his dreams come true. And, what is very important, he had a calculation. Why didn’t Chichikov achieve what he so strived for? Yes, because he constantly went against the law: he developed a system of bribes, he established relationships with smugglers, and he launched a scam with dead souls. He constantly violated one of the rules of the financier: you cannot enter into dangerous enterprises and transactions, so as not to lose your money. In business you need to be honest. However, what is striking is that every time his business failed and he lost his wealth, the desire for his goal did not fade away. Chichikov, with amazing tenacity, is starting everything over again and will probably come up with some other way to get rich.

What happened to the hero? What kind of person is he?
turned into a spider?

Chichikov sees him completely differently. Plyushkin became stingy and suspicious. When “they came to take away his household goods; the buyers haggled and haggled and finally abandoned him altogether, saying that he was a demon, not a man; hay and bread rotted, luggage and stacks turned into pure manure, even if you planted cabbage on them, flour in the cellars turned into stone, and it was necessary to chop it, it was scary to touch cloth, linens and household materials: they turned to dust.” He stores up both goods and all sorts of rubbish, does not spend a penny, goes hungry himself, brings his children to poverty, not to mention the serfs. Money does not bring him any income, he does not use its opportunities, he does not live himself and does not let others live, this is “dead money”, and the hero himself can be called dead, because the way he lives cannot be called life. Excessive stinginess, reaching the point of absurdity, short-sightedness, fear of selling out, and reluctance to put money into circulation lead him to collapse. What about the main character of the poem Chichikov? What is his attitude towards money? Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, in my opinion, although a swindler, is an interesting person. Dying, his father told him: “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.” And the hero began to increase his penny. Of course, many of his actions can be called immoral, but “he did not spend a penny of the half-ruble given by his father; on the contrary, in the same year he already added to it, showing almost extraordinary resourcefulness.”

Here are three completely different heroes,everyone had moneyand none of them managed to usethem for the benefit of themselves, not to mention the country.

Thus, it is safe to say that money is just a means to achieve your goals, and in order to use it correctly so that it generates income, you need to learn the lessons of financial literacy.