The gallery of “dead souls” ends in the poem with Plyushkin. The origins of this image are found in the comedies of Plautus, Moliere, and in the prose of Balzac. However, at the same time, Gogol’s hero is a product of Russian life. “In an environment of general extravagance and ruin... in the society of the Petukhovs, Khlobuevs, Chichikovs and Manilovs... a suspicious and intelligent person... should involuntarily be seized by fear for his well-being. And so stinginess naturally becomes the mania into which his frightened suspiciousness develops... Plyushkin is a Russian miser, a miser out of fear for the future, in the organization of which the Russian man is so helpless,” notes the pre-revolutionary critic.

Plyushkin's main traits are stinginess, greed, thirst for accumulation and enrichment, wariness and suspicion. These features are masterfully conveyed in the portrait of the hero, in the landscape, in the description of the situation and in the dialogues.

Plyushkin's appearance is very expressive. “His face was nothing special; it was almost the same as that of many thin old men, one chin only protruded very far forward, so that he had to cover it with a handkerchief every time so as not to spit; the small eyes had not yet gone out and ran from under their high eyebrows, like mice, when, sticking their sharp muzzles out of the dark holes, their ears alert and their noses blinking, they look out to see if the cat is hiding somewhere...” Plyushkin’s outfit is noteworthy - greasy and a torn robe, rags wrapped around the neck... S. Shevyrev admired this portrait. “We see Plyushkin so vividly, as if we remember him in a painting by Albert Durer in the Doria Gallery...” the critic wrote.

Small running eyes, similar to mice, indicate Plyushkin’s wariness and suspicion, generated by fear for his property. His rags resemble the clothes of a beggar, but not of a landowner with more than a thousand souls.

The motif of poverty continues to develop in the description of the landowner's village. In all the village buildings, “some kind of special dilapidation” is noticeable; the huts are made of old and dark logs, the roofs look like a sieve, and there is no glass in the windows. Plyushkin’s own house looks like “some kind of decrepit invalid.” In some places it is one floor, in others it is two, there is green mold on the fence and gates, a “naked plaster lattice” can be seen through the decrepit walls, only two of the windows are open, the rest are closed or boarded up. The “beggarly appearance” here metaphorically conveys the spiritual poverty of the hero, the severe limitation of his worldview by a pathological passion for hoarding.

Behind the house stretches a garden, equally overgrown and decayed, which, however, is “quite picturesque in its picturesque desolation.” “The connected tops of trees growing in freedom lay on the celestial horizon like green clouds and irregular, flutter-leaved domes. A white colossal birch trunk... rose from this green thicket and rounded in the air, like... a sparkling marble column... In places, green thickets, illuminated by the sun, diverged...” A dazzling white marble birch trunk, green thickets, bright, sparkling sun - in the brightness of its colors and the presence of light effects, this landscape contrasts with the description of the interior decoration of a landowner's house, recreating the atmosphere of lifelessness, death, and grave.

Entering Plyushkin's house, Chichikov immediately finds himself in darkness. “He stepped into the dark, wide hallway, from which a cold breath blew, as if from a cellar. From the hallway he found himself in a room, also dark, slightly illuminated by the light coming out from under a wide crack located at the bottom of the door.” Further, Gogol develops the motif of death and lifelessness outlined here. In another room of the landowner (where Chichikov ends up) there is a broken chair, “a clock with a stopped pendulum, to which the spider has already attached its web”; a chandelier in a canvas bag, thanks to the layer of dust, looking “like a silk cocoon in which a worm sits.” On the walls, Pavel Ivanovich notices several paintings, but their subjects are quite definite - a battle with screaming soldiers and drowning horses, a still life with a “duck hanging head down.”

In the corner of the room, a huge pile of old rubbish is piled on the floor; through a huge layer of dust, Chichikov notices a piece of a wooden shovel and an old boot sole. This picture is symbolic. According to I.P. Zolotussky, the Plyushkin pile is “a tombstone above the materialist ideal.” The researcher notes that every time Chichikov meets one of the landowners, he makes an “examination of his ideals.” Plyushkin in this case “represents” fortune, wealth. In fact, this is the most important thing that Chichikov strives for. It is financial independence that opens the way for him to comfort, happiness, well-being, etc. All this is inextricably fused in Pavel Ivanovich’s mind with home, family, family ties, “heirs,” and respect in society.

Plyushkin takes the opposite route in the poem. The hero seems to reveal to us the other side of Chichikov’s ideal - we see that the landowner’s house is completely neglected, he has no family, he has severed all friendly and family ties, and there is not a hint of respect in the reviews of other landowners about him.

But Plyushkin was once a thrifty owner, he was married, and “a neighbor stopped by to have lunch with him” and learn housekeeping from him. And everything was no worse with him than with others: a “friendly and talkative hostess”, famous for her hospitality, two pretty daughters, “blond and fresh as roses”, a son, a “broken boy”, and even a French teacher. But his “good mistress” and his youngest daughter died, the eldest ran away with the captain, “the time has come for his son to serve,” and Plyushkin was left alone. Gogol carefully traces this process of disintegration of the human personality, the development of his pathological passion in the hero.

The lonely life of a landowner, widowhood, “gray hair in his coarse hair,” dryness and rationalism of character (“human feelings...were not deep in him”) - all this provided “well-fed food for stinginess.” Indulging in his vice, Plyushkin gradually ruined his entire household. Thus, his hay and bread rotted, flour in the cellars turned into stone, canvases and materials “turned to dust.”

Plyushkin's passion for hoarding became truly pathological: every day he walked the streets of his village and collected everything that came to hand: an old sole, a woman's rag, an iron nail, a clay shard. There was so much in the landowner’s yard: “barrels, crosses, tubs, lagoons, jugs with and without stigmas, twins, baskets...”. “If someone had looked into his work yard, where there was a stock of all kinds of wood and utensils that had never been used, he would have wondered if he had ended up in Moscow at the wood chip yard, where efficient mothers-in-law and mothers-in-law go every day. ..make your household supplies...,” writes Gogol.

Submitting to the thirst for profit and enrichment, the hero gradually lost all human feelings: he ceased to be interested in the lives of his children and grandchildren, quarreled with his neighbors, and drove away all the guests.

The character of the hero in the poem is entirely consistent with his speech. As V.V. Litvinov notes, Plyushkin’s speech is “one continuous grumbling”: complaints about others - about relatives, peasants and abuse with his servants.

In the scene of buying and selling dead souls, Plyushkin, like Sobakevich, begins to bargain with Chichikov. However, if Sobakevich, not caring about the moral side of the issue, probably guesses the essence of Chichikov’s scam, then Plyushkin does not even think about it. Having heard that he could make a “profit,” the landowner seemed to forget about everything: he “waited,” “his hands trembled,” he “took the money from Chichikov in both hands and carried it to the office with the same caution as if would be carrying some liquid, every minute afraid of spilling it.” Thus, the moral side of the issue leaves him by itself - it simply fades under the pressure of the hero’s “surging feelings.”

It is these “feelings” that take the landowner out of the category of “indifferent”. Belinsky considered Plyushkin a “comical person,” disgusting and disgusting, denying him the significance of his feelings. However, in the context of the author’s creative plan and the hero’s life story presented in the poem, this character seems to be the most complex among Gogol’s landowners. It was Plyushkin (together with Chichikov), according to Gogol’s plan, who was supposed to appear morally reborn in the third volume of the poem.

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In Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" all the characters have collective and typical traits. Each of the landowners whom Chichikov visits with his strange request for the purchase and sale of “dead souls” personifies one of the characteristic images of the landowners of Gogol’s modernity. Gogol’s poem, in terms of describing the characters of landowners, is interesting primarily because Nikolai Vasilyevich was a foreigner in relation to Russian people, Ukrainian society was closer to him, so Gogol was able to notice the specific character traits and behavior of certain types of people.

Plyushkin's age and appearance

One of the landowners whom Chichikov visits is Plyushkin. Before the moment of personal acquaintance, Chichikov already knew something about this landowner - mainly it was information about his stinginess. Chichikov knew that thanks to this trait, Plyushkin’s serfs were “dying like flies,” and those who did not die were running away from him.

We invite you to read it, which reveals the theme of patriotism and love for the Motherland.

In the eyes of Chichikov, Plyushkin became an important candidate - he had the opportunity to buy up many “dead souls.”

However, Chichikov was not ready to see Plyushkin’s estate and get to know him personally - the picture that opened before him plunged him into bewilderment, Plyushkin himself also did not stand out from the general background.

To his horror, Chichikov realized that the person he mistook for the housekeeper was in fact not the housekeeper, but the landowner Plyushkin himself. Plyushkin could have been mistaken for anyone, but not for the richest landowner in the district: he was extremely skinny, his face was slightly elongated and just as terribly skinny as his body. His eyes were small and unusually lively for an old man. The chin was very long. His appearance was complemented by a toothless mouth.

The work of N.V. Gogol reveals the theme of the little man. We invite you to read its summary.

Plyushkin's clothes were absolutely not like clothes; they could hardly even be called that. Plyushkin paid absolutely no attention to his suit - he was worn out to such an extent that his clothes began to look like rags. It was quite possible for Plyushkin to be mistaken for a tramp.

Natural aging processes were also added to this appearance - at the time of the story, Plyushkin was about 60 years old.

The problem of the name and the meaning of the surname

Plyushkin's name never appears in the text; it is likely that this was done deliberately. In this way, Gogol emphasizes Plyushkin’s detachment, the callousness of his character and the lack of a humanistic principle in the landowner.

There is, however, a point in the text that can help reveal the name Plyushkin. The landowner from time to time calls his daughter by her patronymic - Stepanovna, this fact gives the right to say that Plyushkin was called Stepan.

It is unlikely that this character's name was chosen as a specific symbol. Translated from Greek, Stepan means “crown, diadem” and indicates a permanent attribute of the goddess Hera. It is unlikely that this information was decisive when choosing a name, which cannot be said about the hero’s surname.

In Russian, the word “plyushkin” is used to nominate a person distinguished by stinginess and a mania for accumulating raw materials and material resources without any purpose.

Marital status of Plyushkin

At the time of the story, Plyushkin is a lonely person leading an ascetic lifestyle. He has been a widow for a long time. Once upon a time, Plyushkin’s life was different - his wife brought the meaning of life into Plyushkin’s being, she stimulated the emergence of positive qualities in him, contributed to the emergence of humanistic qualities. They had three children in their marriage - two girls and a boy.

At that time, Plyushkin was not at all like a petty miser. He happily received guests and was a sociable and open person.

Plyushkin was never a spender, but his stinginess had its reasonable limits. His clothes were not new - he usually wore a frock coat, it was noticeably worn, but looked very decent, there wasn’t even a single patch on it.

Reasons for character change

After the death of his wife, Plyushkin completely succumbed to his grief and apathy. Most likely, he did not have a predisposition to communicate with children, he was of little interest and fascination with the process of education, so the motivation to live and be reborn for the sake of children did not work for him.

Later, he begins to develop a conflict with his older children - as a result, they, tired of constant grumbling and deprivation, leave their father’s house without his permission. The daughter gets married without Plyushkin’s blessing, and the son begins military service. Such freedom became the reason for Plyushkin’s anger - he curses his children. The son was categorical towards his father - he completely broke off contact with him. The daughter still did not abandon her father, despite this attitude towards her family, she visits the old man from time to time and brings her children to him. Plyushkin does not like to bother with his grandchildren and perceives their meetings extremely coolly.

Plyushkin's youngest daughter died as a child.

Thus, Plyushkin remained alone in his large estate.

Plyushkin's estate

Plyushkin was considered the richest landowner in the district, but Chichikov, who came to his estate, thought it was a joke - Plyushkin’s estate was in a dilapidated state - repairs had not been made to the house for many years. Moss could be seen on the wooden elements of the house, the windows in the house were boarded up - it seemed that no one actually lived here.

Plyushkin's house was huge, now it was empty - Plyushkin lived alone in the whole house. Because of its desolation, the house resembled an ancient castle.

The inside of the house was not much different from the outside. Since most of the windows in the house were boarded up, the house was incredibly dark and it was difficult to see anything. The only place where sunlight penetrated was Plyushkin’s personal rooms.

An incredible mess reigned in Plyushkin's room. It seems that the place has never been cleaned - everything was covered in cobwebs and dust. Broken things were lying everywhere, which Plyushkin did not dare to throw away, because he thought that he might still need them.

The garbage was also not thrown away anywhere, but was piled right there in the room. Plyushkin's desk was no exception - important papers and documents lay mixed in with trash.

Behind Plyushkin's house there is a huge garden. Like everything else in the estate, it is in disrepair. No one has looked after the trees for a long time, the garden is overgrown with weeds and small bushes that are entwined with hops, but even in this form the garden is beautiful, it stands out sharply against the background of deserted houses and dilapidated buildings.

Features of Plyushkin's relationship with serfs

Plyushkin is far from the ideal of a landowner; he behaves rudely and cruelly with his serfs. Sobakevich, talking about his attitude towards serfs, claims that Plyushkin starves his subjects, which significantly increases the mortality rate among serfs. The appearance of Plyushkin’s serfs becomes confirmation of these words - they are excessively thin, immeasurably skinny.

It is not surprising that many serfs run away from Plyushkin - life on the run is more attractive.

Sometimes Plyushkin pretends to take care of his serfs - he goes into the kitchen and checks whether they are eating well. However, he does this for a reason - while undergoing food quality control, Plyushkin manages to eat to his heart’s content. Of course, this trick was not hidden from the peasants and became a reason for discussion.

Plyushkin always accuses his serfs of theft and fraud - he believes that the peasants are always trying to rob him. But the situation looks completely different - Plyushkin has intimidated his peasants so much that they are afraid to take at least something for themselves without the knowledge of the landowner.

The tragedy of the situation is also created by the fact that Plyushkin’s warehouses are overflowing with food, almost all of it becomes unusable and is then thrown away. Of course, Plyushkin could give the surplus to his serfs, thereby improving their living conditions and raising his authority in their eyes, but greed takes over - it’s easier for him to throw away unsuitable things than to do a good deed.

Characteristics of personal qualities

In his old age, Plyushkin became an unpleasant type due to his quarrelsome character. People began to avoid him, neighbors and friends began to visit less and less, and then they stopped communicating with him altogether.

After the death of his wife, Plyushkin preferred a solitary way of life. He believed that guests always cause harm - instead of doing something truly useful, you have to spend time in empty conversations.

By the way, this position of Plyushkin did not bring the desired results - his estate steadily fell into disrepair until it finally took on the appearance of an abandoned village.

There are only two joys in the life of the old man Plyushkin - scandals and the accumulation of finances and raw materials. Sincerely speaking, he gives himself wholeheartedly to both one and the other.

Plyushkin surprisingly has the talent to notice any little things and even the most insignificant flaws. In other words, he is overly picky about people. He is unable to express his comments calmly - he mainly shouts and scolds his servants.

Plyushkin is not capable of doing anything good. He is a callous and cruel person. He is indifferent to the fate of his children - he has lost contact with his son, and his daughter periodically tries to reconcile, but the old man stops these attempts. He believes that they have a selfish goal - his daughter and son-in-law want to enrich themselves at his expense.

Thus, Plyushkin is a terrible landowner who lives for a specific purpose. In general, he is endowed with negative character traits. The landowner himself does not realize the true results of his actions - he seriously thinks that he is a caring landowner. In fact, he is a tyrant, ruining and destroying the destinies of people.

Plyushkin is a bright character in the poem “Dead Souls”. Together with other heroes - Manilov, Korobochka, Sobakevich, Nozdryov, he creates a world of characters of Russian landowners who have no moral principles. So what is Plyushkin’s characterization in the poem “Dead Souls”?

External characteristics

Stepan Plyushkin is one of the central figures of the poem. He appears in Chapter 6, when Chichikov comes to him with an offer to buy dead souls. Gogol, introducing the reader to the character, first describes his possessions. Everything here is desolate and left to chance. The landowner’s estate can be described with the following quotes: “... He noticed some special disrepair in all the village buildings: the logs on the huts were dark and old; many roofs were leaky like a sieve; on others there was only a ridge at the top and poles on the sides in the form of ribs...", "... The windows in the huts were without glass, others were covered with a rag or a zipun; balconies under roofs with railings […] are askew and blackened, not even picturesquely…”

The work gives a detailed description of his appearance and way of life. He appears before Chichikov unkempt and dirty, wrapped in rags. This was so different from the protagonist’s idea of ​​a typical landowner that he didn’t even understand the man or woman in front of him, initially mistaking Plyushkin for a maid. Plyushkin had a large hooked nose, an unkempt and unshaven face, and it was also noticeable that the landowner was missing several teeth.

The title of the work “Dead Souls” refers not only to deceased serfs, but also to landowners, including Plyushkin. After analyzing the way of life and moral principles of this person, it becomes clear that he personifies the expression “dead souls” like no one else. Plyushkin is the most “dead soul” in the work. And his dead soul spreads death around him: the economy is falling apart, the peasants are dying of hunger, and those who are still alive do not live, but survive in inhuman conditions.

Plyushkin: the story of spiritual decay

In the poem, Plyushkin personifies miserliness and spiritual decay. With each new page, the reader observes how a once intelligent and hardworking person has turned into a “tear in humanity.” However, this was not always the case. Thirty years ago, Stepan Plyushkin was a strong business executive and a decent family man who adored his wife and three children. After the death of his wife and daughter, some kind of breakdown occurred in his soul, and life lost its meaning. The son went into the army, and the daughter fled with her lover. All human feelings in him faded away, the main purpose of his existence became accumulation. Moreover, he saved everything not for the sake of the good of the cause. His hoarding defied any logic; it seemed that he was filling his empty life with unnecessary things and products.

At some point, a plan is born in the hero’s head: he decides to give a gold watch to Chichikov, so that at least someone will remember him after death. However, these bright thoughts quickly leave his head.

The hero could devote the rest of his life to benefactors: putting villages in order, taking care of peasants and animals, growing fragrant gardens. But due to his character, he was unable to cope with the grief that had once befallen him and sank to the very bottom, losing all his human traits.

Speaking surnames in the poem “Dead Souls”

Like many heroes, Plyushkin has a telling surname. He rows everything for himself, accumulates reserves that he does not use. His barns are filled with food, and the peasants are dying one after another from hunger. It never occurs to Plyushkin to save emaciated people from hunger. The surname Plyushkina has become a household name; it means a person who is greedy and stingy to the point of impossibility.

Other characters in “Dead Souls” also have meaningful surnames. Manilov is a dreamy person, divorced from reality. His surname is associated with the verbs “to lure”, “to lure”. In Sabakevich, the author highlights the animal nature: he compares him to a bear, and also pays special attention to his gluttony. Because of a woman with the last name Korobochka, Chichikov suffers the collapse of his business. It’s as if he is falling into a trap from which there is no way out.

This article will help schoolchildren write an essay on the topic “Characteristics of Plyushkin.” The article gives a detailed description of Plyushkin, his estate, and also names the reasons for his degradation as a person. He is a typical Russian landowner of that time. Sobakevich, Manilov, Korobochka and Plyushkin are dead souls!

Work test

In the famous poem “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol, the characters of people are clearly presented using the example of landowners. Their features show all the weaknesses that a person may have. One of these expressed weaknesses is stinginess and greed. These two features form the basis of Plyushkin’s image.

Plyushkin is portrayed as a landowner who has neglected not only himself, but the entire village. His stinginess left its mark on everything, including the furnishings of the house. When Chichikov found himself in Plyushkin’s room, it seemed to him that it was uninhabited. There was a large layer of dust on everything, there were broken objects, small pieces of paper written on them - everything had an unkempt appearance. And in the very corner of the room there was a large pile of garbage. And this pile perfectly reflects Plyushkin’s character. He put everything he came across there, any little thing that he then didn’t use anyway. This is how all misers behave - the heap reflects the fact that they accumulate various rubbish just so that they simply have it. So they feel richer materially because such people do not enrich their inner world, cluttering it with unnecessary things and thoughts.

Plyushkin’s stinginess was not always so visible: he had a family that restrained these character traits. When he was left alone, he had no one to take care of, to try to somehow develop his character, and only one goal appeared for him - to accumulate as much as possible. Stingy people don’t care what they save - everything is not enough for them, stinginess becomes more and more, and they no longer look at what they save. Thus, stingy people try to fill the lack of human feelings - love, friendship, understanding. Because when Plyushkin remembered his friend from his youth, the expression on his face changed - he was able to feel the emotions that he had in childhood and youth. But no one wants to communicate with such people, there is nothing to talk about with them, and therefore they become more and more greedy.

Perhaps if Plyushkin had someone close to him who would not talk to him about money, but would try to develop his inner world, then he would not be so greedy and stingy. Because when his daughter came to him, the conversation still returned to money. It turns out that Plyushkin was not interested in anyone as a person, and because of this he becomes indifferent to the feelings of others and values ​​only material things. If there was a person with him who would strive to help him, to improve his character, then Plyushkin would be a kind and fair landowner.

Option 2

A year ago he was a completely different person. Very happy and kind. He had a wonderful loving family, wife and children. Plyushkin was a wonderful friend and comrade. His estate flourished, he managed it well. The workers had great respect for their employer. But his wife suddenly dies of illness. And this crippled the main character. His wife was his main support and muse. After all, she inspired Plyushkin to work. But he gathered his strength into a strong man's fist, and somehow he stayed afloat. After some time, his beloved daughter runs away from her parents' house. And with whom, with the officer, Plyushkin hated the army to death. And this is the next blow to the heart of the main character. And the son refuses civil service and goes to serve in the regiment.

Plyushkin completely gives up, but finishes him off with the death of his beloved youngest daughter. And his existence is over, he has lost the meaning of life, all his loved ones have died and betrayed him. If before he worked for the benefit of his family, now Plyushkin is going crazy. Now he has directed all his forces in one direction, collecting all the goods and making warehouses. He no longer needs his workers, I work and do well. He doesn't pay any attention to them.

When Chichikov drove around Plyushkin's estate, he was horrified by how everything was slowly disintegrating and fading. A rickety fence, the houses are about to fall. But these people who lived there resigned themselves to such a life, and Plyushkin collects tribute from them in linen and bread. People are impoverished, and Plyushkin collects goods under his roof and does not use them in any way. People watched with tears in their eyes as it all disappeared and lay like a dead weight. They lost respect for their owner, but they still worked for him. But some could not stand such mockery of themselves and about eighty people ran away from such a landowner. Plyushkin didn’t even bother looking for them, since he didn’t care about what was happening around him. His main goal is to take possession of good, and as much as possible.

Gogol described his hero as death, since whatever falls into the hands of the landowner is immediately buried in darkness. Because of his indifference and indifference, the estate turned into a huge dump of goods. The landfill belongs to only one person. But people hope that after Plyushkin’s death his daughter and son will return to their native nest. They will put the estate on its feet, and life will flow with a new stream.

Essay Characteristics of Plyushkin Grade 9

In Gogol’s work “Dead Souls” there is a very interesting character, his name is Stepan Plyushkin. Unfortunately, people like him often come across in life.

And so this is not an old, tall man at all. He is dressed in a rather unique way; if you don’t look closely, you might think that he is an elderly woman. Stepan is a rich landowner, he has a huge estate, many souls, but at first glance at the environment around him, you might think that the man is in cramped circumstances. There is terrible devastation around, the clothes of both the master himself and his servants should have been changed to new ones long ago. Despite the rich harvests and crowded barns, he eats breadcrumbs, what can we say about the servants who die of hunger like flies.

Plyushkin was not always so greedy and stingy. With his wife, he simply tried to save, but after her death, every year he became more and more suspicious, greed and hoarding took possession of him more and more. Now Stepan not only saved, but also saved money and did not spend it even on necessary needs. For him, children ceased to exist, and grandchildren, only the goal of profit moved him. Trying to save more, he simply fell out of life. He no longer understood why he was saving and for what. As he gets older, he becomes more and more indifferent to people. He doesn’t give money to his daughter or son; there is some kind of cruelty in him towards his own children. Stepan not only became a petty and insignificant person, but lost his self-esteem and subsequently the respect of his neighbors and his peasants.

There are things that he does not care about at all, although they are the ones that require primary attention, but he strictly monitors the decanter with liqueur. Plyushkin has not lived for a long time, but lives out his life in terrible despondency and the desire to profit even more. True, there are still glimpses of humanity. Having sold dead souls, he expressed a desire to help the buyer draw up a bill of sale, was this awakened kindness or an understanding that he was not the only one engaged in enrichment?

How important it is when tragedies happen in life to have someone nearby. He supported me not only financially, but also morally. Many, fixated on their grief, like Plyushkin, begin to degrade. Stepan Plyushkin should be pitied, not despised and condemned.

Meeting with Plyushkin

In the work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol “Dead Souls” in the 6th chapter, the main character comes to the estate of Stepan Plyushkin. The author says that he used to be curious about exploring an unfamiliar place and its owners. This time he arrives indifferently. At the same time, the writer describes in detail everything that the character sees.

All the village buildings were dilapidated: the roofs were leaky, the windows were without glass. Then Chichikov saw two rural churches, which were empty and worn out. Next comes the manor house. Outwardly, he is old and weather-beaten. Only two windows were open, and the rest were closed or boarded up. In the text we learn that there was a terrible mess inside, it felt cold, as if from a cellar. It is known that a house is a reflection of its owner. From the description of the estate it follows that Plyushkin is an old man, which is also proven by his words about being in his seventh decade. In addition, Gogol tells us about the stinginess of the landowner. He collects absolutely everything he sees and puts it in one pile. On the way to Plyushkin, Chichikov learned about the nickname “patched.” In one word, the people described the appearance of the landowner and his entire household.

At first glance, he looks poor and pitiful, but the main character knows that this man has more than a thousand souls. He was a thin old man with a protruding chin. He has small eyes and high eyebrows. The look seems suspicious and restless. Dressed in greasy and torn clothes. We also learn about his past. It turned out that he changed dramatically after the death of his wife.

When Chichikov finally decided to talk about the deal, the landowner showed us his soul. He reproaches the peasants for absolutely everything, and also does not trust them. Every year people run away from him. There is a lot of food rotting in Plyushkin’s barns, which he does not give to anyone. He believes that peasants are gluttonous. He goes to them to eat, under the guise of caring. In addition, he is hypocritical, as evidenced by his words about his good nature.

The poem is not only about buying the souls of dead peasants, but also about making the reader see the souls of these people. Each of them is already dead mentally. Using the example of Plyushkin, Gogol shows stinginess, inhospitality, pettiness, insignificance, hypocrisy and greed. The landowner did not even give any money to his own children who needed his help, despite having huge reserves. It is impossible to find a common language with such people. He is ready to give even what is no longer there, for the sake of profit alone.

Sample 5

In the poem “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol, a whole gallery of landowners passes in front of us. It ends with Plyushkin.

Stepan Plyushkin is fundamentally different from other landowners. The character of the hero is given in development. Using his example, Gogol shows how man gradually became “a hole in humanity.”

Chichikov meets with Plyushkin on his estate, where everything is in disrepair. The manor's house looks like a grave crypt. Only the garden reminds of life, which is sharply contrasted with the ugly life of the landowner. Plyushkin's estate smells of mold, rot, and death.

At the first meeting of Chichikov with Plyushkin, it is not clear who is in front of him, in any case, he does not look like a landowner - some kind of figure. The landowner's appearance is such that if Chichikov had seen him near the church, he would have taken him for a beggar. It’s dark in Plyushkin’s house and it feels cold. All the rooms are locked, except for two; the landowner lived in one of them. There is chaos everywhere, mountains of garbage. Life has stopped here - this is symbolized by the stopped clock.

But it was not always so. The author shows how Plyushkin gradually degraded to such a state. Once he was a good owner, had a family, communicated with neighbors. But his wife died, the children left home, and he was left alone. He was overcome by melancholy and despair. Plyushkin becomes stingy, petty and suspicious. He does not feel the need to communicate with anyone, even with his own children and grandchildren. Sees everyone as an enemy.

Plyushkin is a slave of things. He drags everything into the house. It senselessly fills warehouses and barns, where everything then rots. Countless wealth is wasted. Plyushkin considers peasants to be parasites and thieves. They live poorly in his village and are starving. As a result of such a life, the peasants die or flee from the estate.

Chichikov's proposal regarding dead souls amazed Plyushkin. He's happy about this deal. Chichikov purchased from Plyushkin not only dead people, but also fugitives at a low price and was in good spirits.

The image of this landowner evokes sadness. Everything human in man has been destroyed. Plyushkin's soul was deadened by greed. In the person of Plyushkin, Gogol depicted spiritual degradation brought to the last line.

9th grade literature

The final part of Lermontov’s work “A Hero of Our Time” is the story “Fatalist”. The events in this chapter take place near the Cossack village, where the main character stayed for two weeks. Basically, what the officers did was play cards.

Stepan Plyushkin is a character in N.V. Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”, the fifth and last “seller” of dead souls. He is the personification of the complete death of the human soul. In this character, a bright personality was lost, consumed by stinginess. Despite Sobakevich’s persuasion not to go to him, Chichikov still decided to visit this landowner, since it is known that he has a high mortality rate among peasants. Being the owner of 800 or more souls, Plyushkin lives in a dilapidated estate, eats crumbs, wears old, patched things, and also poorly supports his charges. He picks up every unnecessary trinket that comes his way and brings it home. And the desolation and clutter of his house clearly demonstrates the disorder in the mind of Plyushkin himself.

It is known about this character that he was previously a rich and economic landowner and the father of three children, but after the death of his beloved wife he completely changed. His children left him: the eldest daughter married a cavalryman and left, the son joined the army and then lost, the youngest daughter died. The relationship with the children went wrong. Having a rich fortune, he does not want to help them with a penny. Knowing all this, Chichikov is afraid to even start talking about his “business.” However, the old man surprisingly well accepts his offer to ransom the “dead souls” and even offers help in drawing up a deed of sale in the city, since the chairman is his long-time friend. According to the author, this character is deeply unhappy. Shadow and light were forever mixed in his soul.