Year of writing: 1833

Genre of work: play

Main characters: Agafya Tikhonovna, Ivan Kuzmich Podkolyosin, matchmaker Fyokla Ivanovna the groom's friend Kochkarev

In Gogol's works, questions of the maturity of the individual are often raised, this can be seen by reading the summary of the play "Marriage" for the reader's diary.

Plot

Agafya is the daughter of a merchant, who has sat up in brides. She has 6 suitors to choose from. The matchmaking process takes place under the control of the matchmaker. The bride is determined in favor of Podkolesin, who is long overdue to start a family. Other candidates Agafya kicks out.

The future groom doubts the need to tie the knot. On the one hand, the years go by, on the other hand, he is afraid of family life. The hero likes the bride, but, in the end, Agafya's friend Kochkarev makes an offer for him.

Left alone, while the future wife is preparing to leave, Podkolesin realizes that he is still not ready to marry, and runs away through the window. Everyone rushes in search of the fugitive. Agafya remains in the cold - the groom chosen by her fled, and she kicked out the rest.

Conclusion (my opinion)

How the story ended, the reader can guess. The author left the play open. The main idea of ​​the story is that each person must be responsible for his decisions and actions.

The play "Marriage" by Gogol was written in 1835. The work, which at one time caused a lot of talk and gossip, is considered the first Russian household comedy. With the help of heroes - petty officials and merchants - the writer reflected the lifestyle of St. Petersburg in the 30s of the 19th century.

For a reader's diary and preparation for a literature lesson, we recommend reading the online summary of "Marriage" by action. You can check your knowledge with the test on our website.

main characters

Ivan Kuzmich Podkolyosin- an official, a court adviser who decided to marry.

Ilya Fomich Kochkarev- a friend of Podkolesin, who decided to help him in matchmaking.

Agafya Tikhonovna Kuperdyagina- a beautiful girl, bride, merchant's daughter.

Other characters

Arina Panteleimonovna- Aunt Agafya Tikhonovna.

Fekla Ivanovna- matchmaker, nosy, cunning woman.

Ivan Pavlovich Fried eggs- an official, an important, serious man.

Nikanor Ivanovich Anuchkin- a retired infantry officer, a pleasant person to communicate with.

Baltazar Baltazarovich Zhevakin- a retired sailor, a poor groom.

Act one

Court adviser Ivan Kuzmich Podkolesin decided to marry. To do this, he turned to the matchmaker for help, who had been dealing with this issue for three months now. Podkolyosin ordered a black tailcoat from a tailor, choosing the most expensive fine cloth, bought the best wax to give the boots a mirror shine. Tired of worries, Ivan Kuzmich came to the conclusion that "marriage is a troublesome thing, damn it."

The matchmaker Fekla Ivanovna came to Podkolesin, who began to praise the virtues of the bride, the merchant's daughter Agafya Tikhonovna, who dreamed of marrying a nobleman. She had a decent dowry: "a stone house in the Moscow part", two outbuildings, a large garden.

Thekla suggested that Podkolesin should not waste time and get acquainted with a marriageable girl. Such an enviable bride has other contenders for the hand and heart, but Ivan Kuzmich "looks gray hair in his head." Hearing this, the man was seriously alarmed, and rushed to the mirror to examine his hair.

Kochkarev ran into the room. Having learned about the upcoming marriage of a friend, he decided to deal with this issue on his own. He began to convince Podkolesin to immediately go to the bride, but he was not yet ready to part with his single life so quickly. Kochkarev began to persuade him, describing all the delights of marriage. He managed to convince a friend, and they went to the Kuperdyagins.

Meanwhile, Agafya Tikhonovna was guessing on the cards. She passionately dreamed of marrying a nobleman, but Aunt Arina Panteleymonovna recalled that her late father despised those who were ashamed of their merchant title. The woman was sure that Thekla would not find a worthy groom for her niece, since she was a big liar.

Thekla appeared to warn Agafya Tikhonovna about the imminent visit of the suitors whom she managed to find. Six people will come - and all the nobles, but if they don’t like it, they will leave.

Thekla began to describe the virtues of the suitors. So, Baltazar Baltazarovich Zhevakin "served in the Navy" and loved brides in the body, but was poor. Ivan Pavlovich Fried eggs - “so important that there is no attack,” but Agafya Tikhonovna did not like his last name. Nikanor Ivanovich Anuchkin was distinguished by his delicacy and gentle nature, he wanted the bride to be "pretty, well-bred, so that she could speak French." But he was of a thin build, and Agafya Tikhonovna preferred large men. Akinf Stepanovich Panteleev is a pleasant, quiet, modest, but drunk official. Fekla didn’t even want to talk about Podkolesina - “it’s too heavy to climb, you can’t lure out of the house.”

The first to appear was Ivan Pavlovich Yaichnitsa, who immediately began checking the bride's dowry with his notes. Following him appeared Anuchkin, who mistook the fat, elderly Yaichnitsa for "daddy" Agafya Tikhonovna.

The next guest was Zhevakin, who talked with Anuchkin about Sicily. When meeting Ivan Pavlovich, Zhevakin thought that he had a bite of scrambled eggs.

Then came Kochkarev and Podkolyosin. Agafya Tikhonovna, embarrassed, disappeared into her room, and the grooms began to discuss the merits and demerits of the bride. Kochkarev promised Podkolesin to ward off all suitors if he seriously decided to marry.

Action two

It was not easy for Agafya Tikhonovna to make a choice between four suitors. If only she could, she would take the best qualities from each of the men - that would be the ideal husband. Her thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of Kochkarev. He began to convince the girl to opt for Podkolesin, since all the other suitors are “rubbish against Ivan Kuzmich”. However, Agafya Tikhonovna was "somehow ashamed" to refuse other suitors. Kochkarev advised them to simply say: "Get out, fools!".

Hearing a knock on the door, Kochkarev disappeared from the house along the back stairs. Fried eggs turned out to be the first visitor in order to have time to talk with Agafya Tikhonovna about the case. However, she refused him, saying that she was still too young and "not in the mood to get married yet."

Their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Zhevakin and Anuchkin. Fried eggs, as a "man of office" and very busy, demanded an immediate answer from Agafya Tikhonovna. The bride, in dismay, drove everyone out, and immediately hid in her chambers, afraid that the Fried Egg would beat her.

At that moment, Kochkarev and Podkolesin appeared in the house. Fried eggs asked them, "the bride is a fool, or something." Kochkarev, pretending to be a distant relative of Agafya Tikhonovna, said that she was strange "from the very beginning." And besides, she does not have a penny to her name, and the house has long been mortgaged. Kochkarev told Anuchkina that the bride did not know “not a belmes” in French.

The hardest thing was to drive Zhevakin away from the bride, who was not even embarrassed by lies about her poverty. Kochkarev promised him to find a suitable girl if he agreed to immediately leave this house.

So the cunning Kochkarev managed to ward off all the suitors, and he told Podkolesin that the bride was simply crazy about him: “Such a passion - it’s so simple and boils! ". He advised his friend to take advantage of the opportunity and propose to Agafya Tikhonovna.

Left alone with the girl, Podkolesin struck up a non-binding conversation with her. He managed to make the most pleasant impression on Agafya Tikhonovna.

Kochkarev was annoyed - he was sure that his friend had opened his heart, and the lovers would immediately go down the aisle. Podkolesin, in turn, could not make an important decision so quickly. Kochkarev on his knees began to beg him not to delay the marriage. He helped him make an offer, and Agafya Tikhonovna accepted him.

When the bride retired to her chambers to change clothes, Podkolesin began to talk about the advantages of family life. At the last moment, he was afraid of responsibility, and disappeared from the bride's house through the window.

No one in the house could understand where the groom had disappeared. Upon learning that he had jumped out the window and left in a cab, Arina Panteleymonovna began to accuse Kochkaerv of unprecedented meanness: “It can be seen that you have enough nobility only for dirty tricks and fraud!” Kochkaerv promised to return the groom, but the matchmaker said that you can return the one who left through the door, and did not jump out the window.

Conclusion

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Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol

"Marriage"

The court adviser Podkolesin, lying on the sofa with a pipe and thinking that it would not hurt to get married, calls on the servant Stepan, whom he asks both about whether the matchmaker has come in, and about his visit to the tailor, about the quality of the cloth put into the tailcoat and not did the tailor ask why the master's tailcoat was of such fine cloth and whether, they say, the master wanted to marry. Turning then to waxing and discussing it in the same detail, Podkolesin laments that marriage is such a troublesome thing. The matchmaker Fyokla Ivanovna appears and talks about the bride Agafya Tikhonovna, a merchant's daughter, her appearance (“like refined sugar!”), Her unwillingness to marry a merchant, but only a nobleman (“such a great man”). Satisfied Podkolesin tells the matchmaker to come the day after tomorrow (“I will lie down, and you will tell”), she reproaches him for laziness and says that he will soon be unfit for marriage. His friend Kochkarev runs in, scolds Thekla for marrying him, but, realizing that Podkolesin is thinking of marrying, he takes the most active part in this. Having asked the matchmaker where the bride lives, he sees Thekla off, intending to marry Podkolesin himself. He paints the delights of family life to an unsure friend and was already convincing him, but Podkolesin again thinks about the strangeness of the fact that "everyone was unmarried, and now suddenly married." Kochkarev explains that now Podkolesin is just a log and does not matter, otherwise there will be “sort of little canals” around him, and everyone looks like him. Already quite ready to go, Podkolesin says that tomorrow is better. With abuse, Kochkarev takes him away.

Agafya Tikhonovna with her aunt, Arina Panteleymonovna, fortune-telling on the cards, she commemorates the late father Agafya, his greatness and solidity, and thereby tries to attract the attention of her niece to the merchant "on the cloth line" Alexei Dmitrievich Starikov. But Agafya is stubborn: he is a merchant, and his beard grows, and a nobleman is always better. Thekla comes, complains about the troublesomeness of her work: she went all the way home, went through the offices, but six people found suitors. She describes the suitors, but the displeased aunt will quarrel with Thekla about who is better - a merchant or a nobleman. The doorbell is ringing. In terrible confusion, everyone scatters, Dunyasha runs to open it. Entered Ivan Pavlovich Yaichnitsa, an executor, rereads the painting of the dowry and compares it with what is available. Nikanor Ivanovich Anuchkin appears, slender and "great", looking for knowledge of the French language in the bride. Mutually concealing the true reason for their appearance, both suitors wait further. Baltazar Baltazarovich Zhevakin, a retired lieutenant of the naval service, comes, from the threshold he commemorates Sicily, which forms a general conversation. Anuchkin is interested in the education of Sicilian women and is shocked by Zhevakin's statement that everyone, including men, speaks French. Fried eggs are curious about the physique of the local men and their habits. Discussions about the strangeness of some surnames are interrupted by the appearance of Kochkarev and Podkolesin. Kochkarev, who wants to immediately evaluate the bride, falls to the keyhole, causing Fekla's horror.

The bride, accompanied by her aunt, comes out, the grooms introduce themselves, Kochkarev is recommended by a relative of a somewhat vague nature, and Podkolesin is put forward almost as the head of the department. Starikov also appears. The general conversation about the weather, interrupted by a direct question from Yaichnitsa about what service Agafya Tikhonovna would like to see her husband in, is interrupted by the embarrassed flight of the bride. The grooms, believing to come in the evening "for a cup of tea" and discussing whether the bride's nose is big, disperse. Podkolesin, having already decided that her nose is too big, and she hardly knows French, tells her friend that he does not like the bride. Kochkarev easily convinces him of the incomparable virtues of the bride and, having taken the word that Podkolesin will not back down, he undertakes to send the rest of the suitors away.

Agafya Tikhonovna cannot decide which of her suitors to choose (“If Nikanor Ivanovich’s lips were put to Ivan Kuzmich’s nose ...”), and wants to cast lots. Kochkarev appears, urging him to take Podkolesin, and decisively only him, because he is a miracle man, and the rest are all rubbish. After explaining how to refuse suitors (saying that she is not yet married, or simply: get out, fools), Kochkarev runs away after Podkolesin. Fried Eggs arrives, demanding a direct yes or no answer. Zhevakin and Anuchkin are next. Confused, Agafya Tikhonovna blurts out “let’s get out” and, frightened by the sight of Fried Eggs (“Wow, she’ll beat you! ..”), runs away. Kochkarev enters, leaving Podkolesin in the hallway to fix his stirrup, and explains to the taken aback suitors that the bride is a fool, she has almost no dowry, and in French she is not a belmes. The suitors scold Thekla and leave, leaving Zhevakin, who did not hesitate to marry. Kochkarev also sends him away, promising his participation and undoubted success in matchmaking. To the embarrassed bride, Kochkarev certifies Zhevakin as a fool and a drunkard. Zhevakin eavesdropped and was amazed at the strange behavior of his intercessor. Agafya Tikhonovna does not want to talk to him, multiplying his bewilderment: the seventeenth bride refuses, but why?

Kochkarev brings Podkolesin and forces him, left alone with the bride, to open his heart to her. The conversation about the pleasures of riding in a boat, the desirability of a good summer and the proximity of the Ekateriningof festivities ends in nothing: Podkolesin takes his leave. However, he was returned by Kochkarev, who had already ordered dinner, agreed to go to church in an hour and begged his friend to marry without delay. But Podkolesin leaves. Having rewarded his friend with many unflattering nicknames, Kochkarev hurries to return him. Agafya Tikhonovna, thinking that she has not spent twenty-seven years in girls, is waiting for the groom. Kicked into the room, Podkolyosin is unable to get down to business, and finally Kochkarev himself asks Agafya Tikhonovna for his hand. Everything is arranged, and the bride hurries to get dressed. Podkolyosin, already satisfied and grateful, is left alone, as Kochkarev leaves to see if the table is ready (Podkolyosin’s hat, however, he prudently cleans up), and reflects that he has been so far and whether he understood the meaning of life. He is surprised that many people live in such blindness, and if he happened to be a sovereign, he would command everyone to marry. The thought of the irreparability of what will happen now is somewhat embarrassing, and then it frightens him in earnest. He decides to run away, even if through the window, if it is impossible to go through the door, even if without a hat, since he does not have one, he jumps out the window and leaves in a cab.

Agafya Tikhonovna, Fyokla, Arina Panteleymonovna and Kochkarev, appearing one after another, in bewilderment, which is resolved by the summoned Dunyashka, who has seen the entire passage. Arina Panteleimonovna showers abuse on Kochkarev (“Yes, after that you are a scoundrel, if you are an honest man!”), He runs away after the groom, but Fekla considers the case lost: “if the groom darted out the window, then here, just my respect!”

Court adviser Podkolesin wanted to get married. He invited a matchmaker, sewed a tailcoat of fine cloth and complains to his servant that marriage is a rather troublesome business. The matchmaker Fekla Ivanovna comes to Podkolesin and tells about the bride Agafya Tikhonovna, a merchant's daughter, who is looking for a nobleman as her husband. Podkolesin asks the matchmaker to come in a day, while he lies down and thinks. The matchmaker reproaches the young master for laziness and warns that he may be late this way. Podkolesin's friend Kochkarev is not very happy that Fekla married him, but he wants to take part in the fate of his friend, so he personally deals with the marriage of a friend instead of Fekla. To begin with, he tells how wonderful family life is. Podkolesin was already about to go to the bride, but again he wants to postpone this event for a day. Kochkarev himself is taking a friend to the bride.

Potential bride Agafya Tikhonovna and her aunt Arina Panteleymonovna pass the time in fortune-telling on cards. The aunt inclines her niece to pay attention to the enviable groom of the merchant "on the cloth line" Alexei Dmitrievich Starikov. Agafya wants to see a nobleman as her husband. Thekla comes and proposes 6 suitors.

At the same time, the executor Ivan Pavlovich Yaichnitsa and Nikanor Ivanovich Anuchkin come to Agafya Tikhonovna's house at the same time. The first examines the dowry, the second wants the bride to know French. Then comes the retired lieutenant of the naval service Baltazar Baltazarovich Zhevakin. Everyone is arguing about different things until Kochkarev and Podkolesin appear. Kochkarev evaluates the bride, along the way introducing Podkolesin almost as the head of the department. Then another groom appears - Starikov. While the grooms are talking, the bride runs away. Podkolesin persuades himself that the bride has a big nose and she hardly speaks French. She tells her friend that he didn't like her. Kochkarev convinced his comrade that the bride was good, and sent Podkolesin home. He escorts the rest of the suitors himself.

Agafya Tikhonovna is also in thought: which is better? Kochkarev convinces the young lady that Podkolesin is the best and teaches her how to refuse everyone else. Agafya Tikhonovna tells everyone “Get out!”, the suitors scold Fekla. Everyone left, but Zhevakin did not change his mind about marrying.

Kochkarev brought Podkolesin and forced him to stay with his bride in order to confess his love. A pleasant conversation, a boat trip and wishes for a good summer come to nothing - Podkolesin leaves. Kochkarev returns his friend, because he has already agreed on dinner, arranged a trip to the church. Podkolesin does not listen to his persuasion, he leaves.

Agafya Tikhonovna reflects that she spent only 27 years in girls. Kochkarev pushed Podkolesin with a kick into the room and himself, on behalf of a friend, asks for the hand of Agafya Tikhonovna. While Kochkarev resolves issues, Podkolesin first reflects on how happy he is, then he believes that everyone must definitely get married, but then, frightened by the ceremony, he runs away through the window and leaves, stopping the cab.

Dunyasha saw how everything was, so she told Agafya Tikhonovna, Fekla and Arina Panteleymonovna. The latter scolded Kochkarev and he ran away for the groom. Thekla now considers this case to be lost, “if the groom darted out the window, it’s already here, just my respect!”

Year of writing:

1835

Reading time:

Description of the work:

The comedy The Marriage was written between 1833 and 1835 by Nikolai Gogol and published in 1842. The full title of the play is "Marriage, or an Absolutely Incredible Event in Two Acts". Initially, the comedy was called "Grooms".

The history of the comedy Marriage is that in May 1835 Gogol read some parts of the play "The Provincial Groom" to M. Pogodin, and although the action took place in the village, the main characters and the storyline were determined. Then the comedy was called Marriage, and the action was moved to St. Petersburg.

Read below a summary of the comedy Marriage.

The court adviser Podkolesin, lying on the sofa with a pipe and thinking that it would not hurt to get married, calls on the servant Stepan, whom he asks both about whether the matchmaker has come in, and about his visit to the tailor, about the quality of the cloth put on the tailcoat and not did the tailor ask why the master’s tailcoat was of such fine cloth and if, they say, the master wanted to marry. Turning then to waxing and discussing it in the same detail, Podkolesin laments that marriage is such a troublesome thing. The matchmaker Fyokla Ivanovna appears and talks about the bride Agafya Tikhonovna, a merchant's daughter, her appearance (“like refined sugar!”), Her unwillingness to marry a merchant, but only a nobleman (“such a great man”). Satisfied Podkolesin tells the matchmaker to come the day after tomorrow (“I’ll lie down, and you will tell”), she reproaches him for laziness and says that he will soon be unfit for marriage. His friend Kochkarev runs in, scolds Thekla for marrying him, but, realizing that Podkolesin is thinking of marrying, he takes the most active part in this. Having asked the matchmaker where the bride lives, he sends Thekla out, intending to marry Podkolesin himself. He paints the delights of family life to an unsure friend and was already convincing him, but Podkolesin again thinks about the strangeness of the fact that "everyone was unmarried, and now suddenly married." Kochkarev explains that now Podkolesin is just a log and does not matter, otherwise there will be “sort of little canals” around him, and everyone looks like him. already quite ready to go, Podkolesin says that tomorrow is better. With abuse, Kochkarev takes him away.

Agafya Tikhonovna and her aunt, Arina Panteleymonovna, are guessing on cards, she commemorates the late father Agafya, his greatness and solidity, and thereby tries to attract the attention of her niece to the merchant "on the cloth line" Alexei Dmitrievich Starikov. But Agafya is stubborn: he is a merchant, and his beard is growing, and a nobleman is always better. Thekla comes, complains about the troublesomeness of her work: she went all the way home, went through the offices, but six people found suitors. She describes the suitors, but the disgruntled aunt quarrels with Thekla about who is better - a merchant or a nobleman. The doorbell is ringing. In terrible confusion, everyone scatters, Dunyasha runs to open it. Entered Ivan Pavlovich Yaichnitsa, an executor, rereads the painting of the dowry and compares it with what is available. Nikanor Ivanovich Anuchkin appears, slender and "great", looking for knowledge of the French language in the bride. Mutually concealing the true reason for their appearance, both suitors wait further. Baltazar Baltazarovich Zhevakin, a retired lieutenant of the naval service, comes, from the threshold he commemorates Sicily, which forms a general conversation. Anuchkin is interested in the education of Sicilian women and is shocked by Zhevakin's statement that everyone, including the peasants, speaks French. Fried eggs are curious about the physique of the local men and their habits. Discussions about the strangeness of some surnames are interrupted by the appearance of Kochkarev and Podkolesin. A roaring tussock, wanting to immediately evaluate the bride, falls to the keyhole, causing Thekla's horror.

The bride, accompanied by her aunt, comes out, the grooms introduce themselves, Kochkarev is recommended by a relative of a somewhat vague nature, and Podkolyosin is put forward almost as the head of the department. Starikov also appears. The general conversation about the weather, interrupted by a direct question from Yaichnitsa about what service Agafya Tikhonovna would like to see her husband in, is interrupted by the embarrassed flight of the bride. The grooms, believing to come in the evening "for a cup of tea" and discussing whether the bride's nose is big, disperse. Podkolesin, having already decided that her nose is too big, and she hardly knows French, tells her friend that he does not like the bride. Kochkarev easily convinces him of the incomparable virtues of the bride and, having taken the word that Podkolesin will not back down, he undertakes to send the rest of the suitors away.

Agafya Tikhonovna cannot decide which of the suitors she will choose (“If Nikanor Ivanovich’s lips were put to Ivan Kuzmich’s nose ...”), she wants to cast lots. Kochkarev appears, urging him to take Podkolesin, and decisively only him, because he is a miracle man, and the rest are all rubbish. After explaining how to refuse suitors (saying that she is not yet married, or simply: get out, fools), Kochkarev runs away after Podkolesin. Fried Eggs arrives, demanding a direct yes or no answer. Zhevakin and Anuchkin are next. The confused Agafya Tikhonovna blurts out “let's get out” and, frightened by the sight of Fried Eggs (“Wow, they will kill you! ..”), runs away. Kochkarev enters, leaving Podkolesin in the hallway to fix his stirrup, and explains to the taken aback suitors that the bride is a fool, she has almost no dowry, and in French she is not a belmes. The suitors scold Thekla and leave, leaving Zhevakin, who did not hesitate to marry. Kochkarev also sends him away, promising his participation and undoubted success in the matchmaking. To the embarrassed bride, Kochkarev certifies Zhevakin as a fool and a drunkard. Zhevakin eavesdropped and was amazed at the strange behavior of his intercessor. Agafya Tikhonovna does not want to talk to him, multiplying his bewilderment: the seventeenth bride refuses, but why?

Kochkarev brings Podkolesin and forces him, left alone with the bride, to open his heart to her. The conversation about the pleasures of riding in a boat, the desirability of a good summer and the proximity of the Ekateriningof festivities ends in nothing: Podkolesin takes his leave. However, he was returned by Kochkarev, who had already ordered dinner, agreed to go to church in an hour and begged his friend to marry without delay. But Podkolesin leaves. Having rewarded his friend with many unflattering nicknames, Kochkarev hurries to return him. Agafya Tikhonovna, thinking that she has not spent twenty-seven years in girls, is waiting for the groom. Kicked into the room, Podkolyosin is unable to get down to business, and finally Kochkarev himself asks for Agafya Tikhonovna's hand in his place. Everything is arranged, and the bride hurries to get dressed. Podkolesin, already satisfied and grateful, is left alone, since Kochkarev leaves to see if the table is ready (Podkolesin’s hat, however, he prudently cleans up), and reflects that he has been up to now and whether he understood the meaning of life. He is surprised that many people live in such blindness, and if he happened to be a sovereign, he would order everyone to marry. The thought of the irreparability of what will happen now is somewhat embarrassing, and then it frightens him in earnest. He decides to run away, even if through the window, if it is impossible to enter the door, even without a hat, since it is not there, he jumps out the window and leaves in a cab.

Agafya Tikhonovna, Fyokla, Arina Panteleymonovna and Kochkarev, appearing one after another, in bewilderment, which is resolved by the summoned Dunyashka, who has seen the entire passage. Arina Panteleymonovna showers abuse on Kochkarev (“Yes, after that you are a scoundrel, if you are an honest person!”), He runs away after the groom, but Fekla considers the case to be lost: “if the groom darted out the window - here, just my respect!”

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Family play "Marriage"

The history of the creation of the play "Marriage"

Theatrical interests occupied a large place in the life of N. V. Gogol. It is not surprising that the very first attempts of the writer to turn from the romantic fiction "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" to modern reality led him to the idea of ​​​​creating a comedy. Evidence of this dates back to the end of 1832 (letter from P. A. Pletnev to V. A. Zhukovsky dated December 8, 1832). And on February 20, 1833, the author himself informs M. N. Pogodin:

“I didn’t write to you: I’m obsessed with comedy. She, when I was in Moscow, on the road [Gogol returned to St. Petersburg on October 30, 1832 - A. S.], and when I arrived here, did not get out of my head, but so far I have not written anything. The plot had already begun to be drawn up the other day, and the title was already written on a thick white notebook:

"Vladimir of the 3rd degree", and how much anger! laughter! salt!.. But suddenly he stopped, seeing that the pen was just pushing against such places that the censorship would never let through. What if the play is not being played? Drama lives only on the stage. Without it, she is like a soul without a body. What kind of master will carry an unfinished work for show to the people? There is nothing left for me but to invent the most innocent plot, which even a quarterly could not be offended by. But what is a comedy without truth and malice! So, I can’t take on a comedy ”See: Khrapchenko M.B. Nikolai Gogol: Literary Way: The greatness of the writer. - M., 1984. - S. 168 - 169 .. This testimony of Gogol speaks volumes. Here, with great force, the advanced ideas of Gogol's theatrical aesthetics are formulated and the ideological orientation of his dramaturgy is revealed. "Truth" and "malice", i.e., realism and bold, merciless criticism - this is the ideological and artistic law of comedy. Without it, it doesn't make sense. Gogol's comedy had to meet these requirements. Her critical focus went far beyond the limits of censorship. The conceived comedy was to become a vivid example of critical realism. The plot gave a full opportunity for this: the hero seeks to be awarded the order by any means, but fails due to the machinations of ambitious people like himself, and goes crazy, imagining himself Vladimir of the third degree. Gogol dealt a blow to the main vices of the bureaucratic system of that time. The written parts of the failed comedy (“Morning of a Business Man”, “Tyazhba”, “Lakeyskaya”, “Excerpt”) confirm this nature of Gogol's plan.

In search of a plot that even the quarterly could not be offended by, Gogol turns to the idea of ​​a comedy on a family and everyday theme. In 1833, he began to write "The Marriage" (the original title was "Grooms"). Through a series of intermediate revisions, Gogol only in 1841 comes to the final version of the comedy, which was released in 1842. In the last edition of the play, Gogol not only changes certain aspects of the content (for example, the original action took place in a landowner's estate and the landowner tried to get married) , but, more importantly, in accordance with the development of his aesthetic views, he frees comedy from the elements of vaudeville, from the methods of external comedy. "Marriage" becomes a social comedy from the life of merchants and bureaucrats. In the plot about the courtship of suitors differing in character and position for a merchant's daughter, the comedian ridicules the stagnation, primitive life of the depicted environment, the squalor of the spiritual world of people of this circle. With great force, Gogol showed the vulgarization of love and marriage, characteristic of this environment, so poetically depicted by him in stories from folk life (“Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”). Grotesquely sharpening the outline of the characters and the unexpected denouement (the groom's flight at the last minute through the window), Gogol gives his comedy the subtitle "An absolutely incredible event in two acts." But this is only a means, characteristic of the comic writer, of emphasizing the vitality of his work. The realism of The Marriage was opposed to the conventions of those melodramas and vaudevilles, the dominance of which in the repertoire of the Russian theater Gogol complained.

In the history of the genre of family comedy "Marriage" has an important place. The great talent of a comic writer allowed Gogol to develop and enrich the traditions of Russian comedy, which was already turning to merchant life. The genre features of such a comedy were further developed in the dramaturgy of A. N. Ostrovsky. In his very first comedy, "Our people - let's settle" the reader met with the merchant's daughter, dreaming of a "noble" groom, and with the matchmaker - an indispensable participant in the marriage deal.

In the initial drafts of The Marriage (1833), the action took place in the countryside, among the landlords. Neither Podkolesin nor Kochkarev were in the early text. Then the action was transferred to St. Petersburg and the St. Petersburg characters Podkolesin and Kochkarev appeared. V. G. Belinsky defined the essence of the final edition of this comedy in this way: Gogol's "Marriage" is not a crude farce, but a picture full of truth and artistically reproduced picture of the mores of the St. Petersburg society of the middle hand" Belinsky V.G. Full coll. op. in 13 volumes - M., 1959. - V.5, S.333.

This is not the capital Petersburg of Nevsky Prospekt, Millionnaya Street and Angliyskaya Embankment, this is provincial Petersburg - the Moscow part, Sands, Shestilavochnaya, Soap lanes, one-story wooden houses with front gardens.

The comedy is built on a paradox: everything revolves around marriage, but no one is in love, there is no trace of love in comedy. Marriage is an enterprise, a business. This attitude to marriage is familiar to Ivan Fedorovich Shponka: “... Then he suddenly dreamed that his wife was not a person at all, but some kind of woolen matter; that he comes to the merchant's shop in Mogilev. “What matter do you order? - says the merchant. “You take a wife, this is the most fashionable matter! Very kind! Everyone now sews frock coats out of it.” The merchant measures and cuts his wife. Ivan Fedorovich takes it under his arm, goes to ... the tailor "Gogol N.V. Complete works: In 14 volumes - M., L., 1939. - T. 1. - S. 320 ..

All the absurdity of marriage as a deal, nakedly shown in Ivan Fedorovich's dream, became the main theme of Gogol's comedy. Exposing the vulgarity of the St. Petersburg philistines, Gogol the playwright expanded the circle of social observations and sketches he made in Ukrainian and St. Petersburg stories. The way of thinking and feeling, the very structure of the speech of the characters introduces the reader into the limited world of the capital's inhabitants, not far removed in their development from the inhabitants of Mirgorod. And at the same time, behind the images of the merchant’s daughter Agafya Tikhonovna, her aunt Arina Panteleymonovna, the matchmaker Fyokla Ivanovna, the Starikov’s hotel palace and four grooms, there arises the image of St. cabbies who, for a dime, are driven through the whole city.

"Marriage", of course, goes far beyond the boundaries of St. Petersburg life. In this satirical comedy, as in his other works, Gogol sought to present the reader with all of Russia, in all its details.

Gogol's special attention to "The Marriage" can be explained precisely by the fact that he already saw in the play's conception the possibility of a broad social generalization - this can be traced even in its draft versions. Conceiving "Vladimir of the 3rd degree", Gogol writes that "this comedy will have a lot of" salt and anger ". This "anger" did not evaporate during the transition to "Grooms", but, on the contrary, increased.

If in “Vladimir of the 3rd degree”, in the small comedies that broke away from him, in “The Government Inspector”, Gogol was preoccupied with the public face of his characters, then in “Marriage”, Gogol’s only comedy in this sense, we are talking about personal matters, about intimate the world of people, about the arrangement of their own destiny. Officials and landowners, merchants and nobles are presented here simply as people who have exposed their most intimate feelings.

Nothing much has changed due to the fact that the action, which in "Vladimir of the 3rd degree" was supposed to unfold in St. Petersburg, was transferred to the village in "The Marriage" - the satirical intensity of the comedy has not weakened. Agafya Tikhonovna's gallery of village grooms is a vivid satire on the then society. Basically painted with the same colors as in the final edition, all of them: Fried eggs (called at one time Pot), and Onuchin (later Anuchin), and Zhevakin, and the stutterer Panteleev (who later remained only in Fyokla's stories) - they are all voluntary slaves of vulgarity, devoid of even personal virtues.

Every time when it comes to the analysis of "The Marriage", thoughts arise about the satirical intensity associated only with the denunciations of officials. This play is placed, as a rule, lower than The Inspector General and the unfulfilled plan of Vladimir 3rd degree, because there the characters are revealed in social manifestations, but here - at home. It would seem that a person is shown by Gogol "at home", outside of his social ties, but, nevertheless, he is revealed as a social unit - this is the satirical prick of "Marriage".

Excluded from the sphere of service interests, Podkolyosin and other suitors of Agafya Tikhonovna could show the usual individual human traits. But not for a minute does Fried Eggs stop being a fat and rude executor, frightening his subordinates with his practiced bass. Not for a second does Podkolyosin forget that he is a court adviser, that even the color of his tailcoat is not the same as that of the titular small fry.

The strength of this comedy also lies in the fact that Gogol showed the close relationship between personal life and social life, showed how the moral character of people who are the backbone of autocratic-bureaucratic Russia is formed.

The satirical aim of "Marriage" is felt from the first lines of the comedy, because Podkolyosin lying at home on the couch is the same Podkolyosin who will receive his subordinates tomorrow morning. There are only two people in the room - he and Stepan, who is standing near the lying master. It is impossible not to hear Stepan's answers. And yet, Podkolesin continually asks the servant again: “What are you talking about?”. And he, not surprised or annoyed, stupidly repeats everything from the beginning.

Podkolesin. Did you have a tailor?

Stepan. Was.

Podkolesin. ... And have you already sewn a lot? ..

Stepan. Yes, that’s enough, I’ve already begun to throw loops ...

Podkolesin. What are you saying?

Stepan. I say, I began to throw loops.

The dialogue continues. Two or three more questions-answers, and again the servant is interrupted by the obnoxious-lordly:

"What are you saying?

Stepan. Yes, he has a lot of tailcoats.

Podkolesin. However, after all, they will have cloth, worse tea than mine?

Stepan. Yeah, it'll be a little better looking than what's on yours.

Podkolesin. What are you saying?

Stepan. I say: it’s better to look at what’s on yours ... ”Gogol N.V. Complete works: In 14 volumes - M., L., 1939. - T. 3. - S. 62.

Why, it would seem, Podkolesin, who does not show hearing loss with anyone other than Stepan, endlessly asks the servant again? And then, that Podkolesin behaves in this way in his position, pretending that he does not understand the explanations of the junior rank.

All Gogol's comedies, despite the difference in their content, are built according to one creative plan, expressing the writer's point of view on the place and importance of satire in the life of society. Satire, he believed, should reveal terrible ulcers, among which the most dangerous are the lack of ordinary, sincere feelings in people and the destruction of a sense of duty. In "The Marriage" there is neither love nor a sense of duty - Gogol persistently emphasized this idea. So, for example, in one of the first versions of the play, Fekla, referring to Podkolesin, said: “Soon you will not be at all fit for marital duty.” Insignificant, at first glance, this phrase undergoes a change in the final version: “Soon you will not be fit for marital affairs at all” Ibid. P.85. Podkolesin will not be suitable for “business” in time, but he is not suitable for duty even now.