Khlestakov

Accidentally hitting a deaf provincial town and completely losing the cards, the Petersburg dandy Khlestakov found himself at the center of random errors. From the received letter, city officials find out about the arrival of an incognito auditor from St. Petersburg to their city - and take Khlestakov for it. And now, from all sides, the city heads are courting him, and they smile at him, and show all possible involvement in his problems, and are ready to lend money, and the ladies fall in love with him, and all please him. And he also tries to be polite and to please everyone.

We get the first idea of ​​Khlestakov from the description of Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky : “a young man of not a fair appearance in a particular dress” who “walks around the room, and in the face of a sort of reasoning ... physiognomy ... deeds, and here (turns his hand around his forehead) many, many Total". Which, moreover, “takes everything to the account and does not want to pay a penny.” Then we understand why Khlestakov certifies himself so “strangely” when Osip reads about himself himself: “He meets people passing through, and then in a game of cards - that's what you played!” Khlestakov himself appears only in the second phenomenon of the second act. From the very first minutes of his appearance on the scene, we see his manner of dealing with serfs : he calls Osip "a fool", "cattle", "rude animals". Khlestakov knows how to podolsya. Wanting to get dinner in debt, he very politely treats the tavern servant, calling him "brother", "amiable." But, having received dinner, he scolded the servant and master with the last words: “Scammers! Canal! ”,“ Scoundrels! Loafers! ” With the mayor, who represents power in the city, Khlestakov is emphasizedly polite. Wanting to impress Anna Andreevna and Marya Antonovna, Khlestakov speaks the language of the beau monde. Knowing two or three French words (“Bonton”, “Moveton” and “Complain Vu”), he easily achieves a goal: Marya Antonovna exclaims with delight: “You speak metropolitan!”.

Khlestakov for several scenes does not realize that he is being given bribes . At the first meeting with the governor, he eagerly exclaims: "Give, lend me, I'll pay the price with the innkeeper now." The mayor with a trained gesture “screwed” 400 rubles instead of 200 for him. In the fourth act, Judge Lyapkin-Tyapkin tries to stick a bribe to Khlestakov, but, over agitated, drops money on the floor. Khlestakov, seeing the money, he asks the judge for a loan, and it somehow breaks off from his tongue. Having received a loan, he considers it necessary to explain to the judge that “he has completely lost his way”, and promises that he will send him a debt from the village, sincerely believing in it. Seeing how easy it was with the judge, Khlestakov began to borrow money from everyone: from the postmaster, from Artyom Filippovich, from Luka Lukich, and tells everyone about the "strangest case" that "completely exhausted the way". Even Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky (who, it would seem, there is no need to bribe the auditor) Khlestakov asks for a loan, moreover he does this “suddenly and abruptly”, and does not even refer to the “strange case”. Only when the merchants “break with the brow at the mayor” break through to Khlestakov and want to pay him in kind ( with sugar and wine ), it suddenly comes to Khlestakov that he was given bribes, and he refuses with pathos. And he agrees to 1000 rubles in banknotes , which he still considers loaned. And only after the intervention of Osip, who is clearly smarter than his master (and he understands that nature and money are all bribes), Khlestakov silently agrees that Osip would take everything.

Khlestakov is not at all an insidious bandit or a cunning intriguer, he has no malice or treachery, he gets into the game of circumstances and as a very cute, polite and well-educated member of his society, a scion of a noble family, “not able to live without Petersburg, ”supports what is expected of him, fully fitting into the range of proposed circumstances, when any metropolitan rogue and stranger passing by can be accepted in a provincial town of Russia with its centralization - a pyramid or a vertical bureaucratic power for the omnipotent omnipotent bureaucrat.

Khlestakov lives according to the laws of high society, because he has never seen anything else. He was taught to respect the ranks - and he respects. He was taught to care for the ladies - and he cares. From him want to hear the tale of the capital of St. Petersburg luxurious life - he does not blink. Khlestekova doesn’t even think seriously about his own words and be responsible for them - after all, in the light he isn’t taken seriously, he’s just a sweet and beloved little talker-prankster. He does not understand that he accidentally collided with another Russia, where everything is cruel and wild, and these two different worlds cannot understand each other.

He is seriously scared when things take a different turn, city residents come to him to complain about serious violations, and the money lent to him turns out to be bribes. However, he is so sure of the ease of life, that his fright is not enough for a long time. Khlestakov is an absolutely positive type, he is the ideal of what a commemorative secular young man should look like - but, as always with Gogol, in a hypertrophied development ; Gogol always sees in the small - the big. And all the stupidity and vulgarity of such goodness immediately becomes visible.

Judgments about Khlestakov

In the years that have passed since the premiere of the play, Khlestakov’s image was perceived more and more in depth, acquiring a symbolic meaning. He was argued about and continues to be argued by literary critics, venerable writers, directors, actors who play the role:

• Speaking about Khlestakov, Gogol himself emphasized the commonness of the “good small”: “ Everyone for a minute, if not for a few minutes, was made or is being done by Khlestakov .” Anticipating his play “Remarks for Masters of Actors,” Gogol explains to the future performers of the role of Khlestakov: “ The more the actor who plays this role shows frankness and simplicity, the more he will win .” V. Nabokov echoes Gogol: “He is a kind soul, in his own way a dreamer and endowed with a certain deceptive charm ...”
• Belinsky called the protagonist of the play (as opposed to the author himself) not Khlestakov, but the Mayor . Belinsky about Khlestakov: “Many worship Khlestakov as a comedy hero, her main face. This is unfair. Khlestakov is in the comedy not himself, but quite by chance, in passing, and moreover not himself ... "
• The symbolist D. S. Merezhkovsky in the 1906 article “Gogol and the devil” tries to grope the mystical beginning in a comedy: the otherworldly figure of the auditor comes for the soul of the mayor, paying for his sins. “The main force of the devil is the ability to appear not as he is,” so explains Khlestakov’s ability to mislead about his true origin. ^[2] .
• Early Soviet critic A. Voronsky : “The figure of Khlestakov: air; at any moment she is ready to blur a vague stain. He is all in the wrong flight. No wonder he appears suddenly and just as suddenly disappears. Where disappears, why? Not a man, but a shadow, a mirage, a soap bubble. He is devoid of any nucleus; he is one of whom they want to make. The cowardice of the mayor and the fear of retribution turn Khlestakov into an auditor. They want him to lie hopelessly, he lies hopelessly and inspired. Anna Andreevna and her daughter make him lovelace, the bridegroom. Osip takes him out of town. He submits in everything ” ^[3] .

First production: Alexandrinsky Theater , St. Petersburg - April 19, 1836, as N. Khlestakov . O. Dyur . The first production in Moscow: the Maly Theater - May 25, 1836, in the role of Khlestakov D.T. Lensky .

The original purpose of the play was not fully understood by the performing actors; they are accustomed to playing on the stage of vaudevil, and the name of the Gogol play, “comedy,” was perceived in the literal, literal sense of the word. Gogol was upset by this interpretation of the play and the images of the characters. Immediately after the premiere in St. Petersburg, Gogol wrote in his diary:

“The main role was lost ... Dyur did not understand what Khlestakov was. Khlestakov became something like ... a whole line of vauvilny shalun ... " ^[4] .

Gogol so hard perceived the lack of understanding of the play by Petersburg actors that he refused to come to the Moscow premiere. Before the Moscow premiere, he wrote to Shchepkin :

Pb., May 10, 1836. I forgot to tell you, dear Mikhail Semenovich, some preliminary remarks about the "Inspector". First, you must, of course, out of friendship with me, take upon yourself the whole matter of setting it up. I do not know any of your actors, what and in what each of them is good. But you may know this better than anyone else. You yourself, no doubt, should take the role of the mayor, otherwise she would disappear without you. There is an even harder role in the whole play - the role of Khlestakov. I don't know if you will choose an artist for her. God forbid, [if] it will play with ordinary farces, as play bouncers and theatrical hangers. He is simply stupid, chatting only because he sees that he is disposed to listen; lying because he had a good breakfast and drank some decent wine. Rolling it then only when approaching the ladies. The scene in which he lies, should pay special attention. Every word of his, that is, a phrase or utterance, is an impromptu completely unexpected and therefore must be expressed abruptly. It should not be overlooked that by the end of this scene begins to disassemble it, little by little. But he should not stagger at all; he should only blush and express even more unexpectedly and, further, louder and louder. I am very afraid for this role. She was executed badly here, because she needs decisive talent. ^[five]

The image of Khlestakov is one of the most "played" on the Russian scene. Soon there will be two hundred years, as he does not descend from the theatrical stage and is always solved adequately to the time of a particular production.