There are several assumptions about why Chichikov visits landowners in this sequence

In Gogol's poem "Dead Souls" there are many puzzles, the resolution of which leads to interesting discoveries. One of them is why Chichikov visits the landlords in the same sequence that we see in the work.

Author's idea

It is known that the work was conceived as a three-volume, compositionally reminiscent of the "Divine Comedy" of Dante. In the poem of the great Italian, the hero travels through the three worlds: hell, purgatory and paradise. The plot of "Dead Souls" is also based on a journey. Chichikov travels around the landed estates with the aim of buying up deceased peasants who are listed as alive until the next census. Later Gogol wanted to present the reader with the positive characters that exist in Russia, and depict the spiritual revival of Chichikov. But in history there was only the first, widely known, part, which we could perhaps correlate with Dante's "hell."

Hells of life

Neither the county officials nor the landowners visited by Chichikov, nor Pavel Ivanovich himself, even make us happy with a hint of dignity and moral purity. Gogol, with his characteristic irony and deep spiritual pain about the spiritual mutilation of man, created a great "canvas", on which everyone could see with his own eyes how the most subtle and noble makings were distorted by stupidity, greed and deceit. The writer passionately believed in the magical power of literature, in its ability to lead to moral catharsis. This task is subordinated to the composition, which is why Chichikov visits the landlords in such a sequence.

Gallery of dead souls

Opens it Manilov, who devoted his life to empty projects, utopian dreams and laziness. Behind him, before our eyes, there is a "cudgel" Korobochka, completely absorbed in fussy efforts. Then we see the unceremonious Nozdrev, kutila, liar and drunkard, the hero of scandals. After Chichikov is at the table Sobakevich - a man down to earth, calculating and grasping. Completing this bizarre "collection" of Russian landlord types, the fallen Plyushkin.

But why does Chichikov visit the landlords in such a sequence, and not in any other?

From bad to worse

Traditionally it is believed that this order corresponds to the degree of spiritual degradation, moral necrosis. If Manilov - the first landlord visited by Chichikov, at all worthlessness cares about to look cultured and educated, the horizon of the Box is reduced to small practical interests. Nozdryov despises respect, his "noble" impulses turned into his opposite. Sobakevich, who is openly mocking enlightenment, is even less like an intellectual. Plyushkina the same author calls a "gap on humanity."

From the dead to the living

Another view on why Chichikov visits the landlords in this sequence is the opposite: from a hopeless spiritual impasse to the potential for rebirth. Manilov is unable to realize his moral squalor, because he thinks himself a highly intelligent person. His exceptionally positive testimonies about the provocative city authorities are not due to complacency, but to the dangerous confidence that this is the norm. Less "dead" is seen Korobochka, through the limitations of which you can see the features of the former cordiality. In the extravagance and excitement of Nozdryov, a broad nature is read that has strayed from the right path. Sobakevich's thoroughness and master mind and people like him could transform Russia if they were not tempted by meanness for the sake of profit. Sobakevich understands that there are "robbers and scammers" in high city posts, but he will not miss his own. Plyushkin - the only one whose biography the author considers necessary to acquaint the reader, has fled in solitude, but is not strangers to emotions when remembering. There is an opinion that it was Gogol who wanted to "bring" the second volume of the poem to resurrect a person in it.

Theory of contrast

The third assumption concerning the order of visiting the landlords does not exclude the antithesis. The restless Manilov is opposed by a fussy little box. The first does not know how many peasants he has on the farm, the second one remembers everyone by name. Her skopidomstvo, in turn, is the opposite of Nozdryov's machinations. Sobakevich contrasted him, eccentric and crazy. If one completely launched the estate, then the other it is observed to the smallest detail. In this way he is not at all like Plyushkin, who has turned everything into dust, and only the name remains from the estate. The image of Plyushkin closes the circle of depravity along which Chichikov is moving.

Dialectics of character

Concluding the review of what landlords Chichikov visited, let us express yet another hypothesis about what the great writer ciphered in the sequence of landlord portraits. Dialectics of the Russian character, if it is not permeated with the light of humanity, good and truth, develops according to a similar scenario. From a beautiful daydreaming the person moves to a limited conservatism, flaring up suddenly with extravagant inventions, stops at unscrupulousness and baseness. As a result, everything that seemed meaningful and gave hope was falling apart. But the Russian character has a completely different path, different possibilities and perspective. Gogol was eager to tell about this in his three-volume volume that had not taken place.