The Government Inspector: In Falsehood, We Trust Nikolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector is a satirical play taking place in Russia during the nineteenth century. In the Government Inspector, harmonious and fantastical facades were created by the mayor, a representation of the town as a whole, and pseudo-inspector in order to deceive one another. The multitude of facades leads to a further diminution of morality. Ultimately, the privation of morals that not only detriments the psyche of a person to the point of blasphemy, but forces the character to find and amend one’s self.
In a quaint town located in Russia during the nineteenth century, the mayor, otherwise known as Anton Antonvich, receives an unsettling letter that an inspector belonging to a higher societal status will be traveling through the town, incognito. This strikes fear into Antonvich’s heart because he recognizes that he is guilty for unjust practices, such as bribery, and being an incompetent mayor who does not maintain the responsibilities that his position encompasses. Upon receiving the letter, the superintendent of school asks why their town has been the target of an incognito investigation and the mayor states, “Why! It’s clear why. Fate! (sighs) so far, they’ve been snooping around other towns. Now it’s our turn.” (Gogol 56). The diction of “fate” is crucial in terms of displaying the guilty conscious of the mayor; he deems the arrival of the inspector to be stressful due to the fast he has been unable to keep the town in a pristine condition and that is now coming back to haunt him and remind him of his absence of morals.
Upon the arrival of the pseudo-inspector named Khlestakov, a chain of facades were set off into motion, both by the townspeople and the ...
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... motives, but eventually losing themselves along the process and forcing them to reflect upon what is and isn’t just.
Gogol’s, The Government Inspector, was indeed a battle of the facades that were fought in harmony; the fronts created by the characters were compatible with one another and only led to development of the facades. Somewhere along this process, the lack of moral responsibility was abused and, ultimately, the loss of self-perseverance. Jose Ortega Y Gasset once said, “Indeed it is of the essence of man...that he can lose himself in the jungle of his existence, within himself, and thanks to his sensation of being can react by setting energetically to work to find himself again.” Human nature has the ability to lose itself under many circumstances, yet this is the only time when one can propagate and discover the true meaning of what it means to be human.
The short story, “Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt”, explicates the life of a man named Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka. We see him briefly in his young years, followed by his life in the army, and his return to the farm where his strong characterized aunt resides. We can see immediately that this man lives in constant cleanliness and dutiful paranoia; these are some of his desires that he wishes to exhibit to others. We can also see his fears, which reside in the confiscation of his masculinity and independence. This short story has many elements that resemble others in the Nikolai Gogol collection.
'An Inspector Calls' is a morality play - a form of play developed in the late middle ages in which a Christian moral lesson was brought out through the struggle between the forces of good and evil - set in 1912, and revolves around the questioning of a family by Inspector Goole about the suicide of a young woman (Eva Smith) that the family knew.The author, J.B. Priestley is trying to show us what some people's arrogance and selfishness can cause without them even noticing. Priestley was a socialist, therefore by writing this play he was drawing attention to the bad things about capitalism. The Inspector was intending to teach the Birlings that ?...we have to share something. If there?s nothing else, we?ll have to share our guilt? Act One. By saying this, he is telling them they are all as guilty as each other of the suicide of Eva Smith, this also links to Priestley being a socialist because he is putting the Birlings to shame.
...he destitution and demoralization of the citizens of Petrograd. Andrei, the character with the most honor and virtue, still finds ruin because of his affiliation with the immoral politic. All morality is beaten out of the characters with the most potential for it by the dire circumstances of their lives. An excellent, emotionally moving story, this novel leaves no doubt as to the author's feelings about the path of destruction down which socialism leads.
Without people in the world to call him Gogol, no matter how long he himself lives, Gogol Ganguli will, once and for all, vanish from the lips of loved ones, and so, cease to exist. Yet the thought of this eventual demise provides him no sense of victory, no solace. It provides no solace at all…
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment begins with Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov living in poverty and isolation in St. Petersburg. The reader soon learns that he was, until somewhat recently, a successful student at the local university. His character at that point was not uncommon. However, the environment of the grim and individualistic city eventually encourages Raskolnikov’s undeveloped detachment and sense of superiority to its current state of desperation. This state is worsening when Raskolnikov visits an old pawnbroker to sell a watch. During the visit, the reader slowly realizes that Raskolnikov plans to murder the woman with his superiority as a justification. After the Raskolnikov commits the murder, the novel deeply explores his psychology, yet it also touches on countless other topics including nihilism, the idea of a “superman,” and the value of human life. In this way, the greatness of Crime and Punishment comes not just from its examination of the main topic of the psychology of isolation and murder, but the variety topics which naturally arise in the discussion.
In the late 1930’s while the United States was going through The Great Depression the Soviet Union was going through its own turbulent times. This would be known as the Moscow Show Trials, which took place under the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The book Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler takes place during this time period. The main character Nicholas Rubashov has been imprisoned even though he always has been loyal to the goals of the party (Koestler). This showed a shift that was happening in the country and an attempt by Stalin to eliminate any possible opposition even if they were heroes in the revolution. In the text two different concepts come to light vivisection morality where the party comes before the individual and anti-vivisection morality where the individual is sacred. Rubashov in the beginning does not embrace individualism however throughout the novel he begins to adopt individualism that he refers to as grammatical fiction. Vivisection morality is never a justifiable political system. Suppressing the rights of human beings is not only inhumane but also counter productive in creating an effective and wealthy society.
Raskolnikov is an impoverished ex-student living in St. Petersburg, the grimy, plagued, and urbanized capital of the Russian Empire. He “is nothing but a poor half-crazed creature, soft in temperament, confused in intellect” (Waliszewski), a maverick who believes he must deliver society from mediocrity. Deluded, he murders Alyona Ivanovna, a pawnbroker, and her unsuspecting half-sister, Lizaveta. Throughout the story, Raskolnikov undergoes transformations in all facets of his life, many of which are attributed to his infatuation with Marmeladov’s humble daughter, Sonia. Forced into prostitution, she is seen by Raskolnikov as a fellow transgressor of morality, but also as a savior that will renew him. This new development causes him to decry his nihilistic lifestyle as desolate and insufferable and to expiate, ending his self-imposed alienation and long suffering. Notwithstanding the title, the story has little to do with the crime or the punishment; the true focus is the turbulent internal conflict of Raskolnikov - the constant doubting of his motives and the psychological torment he endures.
Akaky Akakievich is a low class man and he works hard for his money, yet his materialistic co-workers torment him because of his shabby, worn-out overcoat. Consequently he goes out and purchases a new overcoat. Quickly people begin to respect him more as he wears the new coat, and it creates for him a new identity. Akaky no longer is the blunt of office jokes, for he is now dressed more fashionably in the eyes of his colleagues. As Akaky walks down the street, he begins to see things in a new light. From the women that pass him by, to what he sees inside the store windows. Things seem to have a new meaning in his world, all because of his new overcoat. Akaky cares so much about his coat because it cost him quite a lot of money, but more importantly it made him feel more confident, more accepted by those around him. The overcoat was friend to him because it was there for him. It gave him a sense of security and it protected him in the frigid Petersburg climate.
Nikolai Gogol's masterpiece novel, Dead Souls, remains faithful to the Gogolian tradition in terms of absurdity, lavish detail, and abundant digressions. Although these three literary techniques coexist, interact, and augment each other-the focus of this analysis is to examine how Gogol (or the narrator) deviates from the plotline, the significance of it, and what aesthetic purpose comes from the digression.
...Russian society and social norms. The greatest reminder of this is found in the fact that Lopahkin, the man who Ranevsky once spoke to condescendingly, is now the family’s last hope for survival. Ironically enough, Lopahkin is often glancing at his watch, a reminder that time is changing, and a message that he, himself, is a testament to.
Ideas brought up concerning setting also helped me understand some of the author’s craft within the novel. The fact that St. Petersburg is a western city that is trying to mimic parts of Europe (particularly France) shows how it is cut off from the rest of Russia, and filled with the wealthy. This made the book make mo...
Now knowing what his actions would lead to, he would go out of his way to familiarize himself with the American traditions leaving his upbringing in the past. A new dislike for his name arises as he “hates signing his name at the bottom...Nothing to do with who he is (76).” Feeling emerge and suddenly Gogol feels as if he has no connections to his name. Only to make these feelings worse he feels humiliated by his classmates for having the name he has but in reality his name isn’t a topic of discussion to his peers. Through this phase the author emphasizes how other people 's opinion are more important to Gogol than what he thinks of himself. The opinions of others have consumed his thoughts so horribly that Gogol becomes viewing himself through the eyes of others. At this point in Gogol’s life it would be a great time for his father to tell him why he chose to give him his birth name but his dad decides to simply give his son the book that at one point saved his life. Not even remotely interested in what he now has in his possession Gogol, “puts the book away on his shelve (77).” On this shelve the book lingers for years to come. As an independent individual Gogol makes little to no effort to remain in contact with his family. Never does he question the book given to him nor does he attempt making small talk with his father about why the book was so important to him and how it influenced him to name his son after the
Dostoevsky's 1865 novel Crime and Punishment is the story of an expelled university student's murder of an old pawnbroker and her sister. The idealistic ex-student, Raskolnikov, is ultimately unable to live up to his own nihilistic theory of what makes a "Great Man" and, overcome by fits of morality, betrays himself to the police. Exiled to Siberia, suffering redeems the unfortunate young dreamer. Crime and Punishment is similar in many ways to Balzac's Pere Goriot, especially in respect to questions of morality. In Balzac, the master-criminal Vautrin lives by an amoral code similar to Raskolnikov's theory of Great Men--unrestrained by conscience, Vautrin holds that laws are for the weak, and those clever enough to realize this may overstep any boundaries they wish and dominate the rest of mankind. But where Balzac's characters act on this idea without repercussion, Raskolnikov makes a transgression and then begins immediately to question it. The result is a psychological inner battle between rationality and sentimental moralism which is as much a contest between Empiricism and Romanticism as it is a contest between good and evil, or God and the Devil.
According to Raskolnikov’s theory in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”,there are two types of people that coexist in the world; the “Extraordinary” and the “Ordinary”. The ordinary men can be defined as “Men that have to live in submission, have no right to transgress the law, because they are ordinary.”(248). To the contrary “extraordinary” men are “Men that have a right to commit any crime and to transgress the law in any way , just because they are extraordinary”(248). Dostoevsky’s theory is evident through the characters of his novel. The main character, Raskolnikov, uses his theory of extraordinary men to justify contemplated murder. There is a sense of empowerment his character experiences with the ability to step over social boundaries. He is led to believe the killing of the pawnbroker is done for the perseverance of the greater good. It is ironic that character who is shown to be powerful in the early stages of the novel subsequently go on to show many weaknesses.
In the second part of this essay expanding upon my reading of nineteenth century Russian authors, the short stories of Anton Chekhov, “The Lady with the White Dog” and the “Medical Case” will be compared. These two great authors’ whose stylistic qualities often create problems in interpretation for non-Russian speaking readers like me that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.