The first readers of this work, and possibly even the author himself, hardly appreciated the force of these contrasts; because they were so accustomed to the horrors of serfdom that an abuse of this nature seemed to them a natural proceeding. But with time the effect of the book increases; and the atrocious mockery of using the dead as articles of merchandise, which seems to prolong the terrors of slavery, from which death has freed them, strikes the reader with horror.
The types of character created by Gogol in this work are innumerable; but that of the hero is the most curious of all, and was the outgrowth of laborious study. Tchitchikof is not a Robert Macaire, but rather a serious Gil Blas, without his genius. The poor devil was born under an unlucky star. He was so essentially bad that he carried on his enterprise without seeming to realize the enormous immorality of it. In fact, he was wronging no one, in his own opinion.
Gogol makes an effort to broaden this type of character, and include in it a greater number of individuals; and we can see thereby the author’s intention, which is to show us a type, a collective image of Russia herself, irresponsible for her degradation, corrupted by her own social condition.
This is the real, underlying theory of “Dead Souls,” and of the “Revizor,” as well as of Turgenef’s “Annals of a Sportsman.” In all the moralists of this time we recognize the fundamental sophistry of Rousseau, who poisoned the reasoning faculties of all Europe.
At the end of the first part the author attempts a half-ironical, half-serious defence of Tchitchikof. After giving an account of his origin, he says: “The wise man must tolerate every type of character; he must examine all with attention, and resolve them into their original elements…. The passions of man are as numberless as the sands upon the sea-shore, and have no points of resemblance; noble or base, all obey man in the beginning, and end by obtaining terrible power over him…. They are born with him, and he is powerless to resist them. Whether sombre or brilliant, they will fulfil their entire career.”…
From this analysis, this argument of psychological positivism, the writer, in a roundabout way, goes back ingeniously to the designs of Providence, which has ordered all for the best, and will show the right path out of this chaos.[E]
What is after all most remarkable about the book is that it is the reservoir of all contemporary literature, the source of all future inventions.
The realism, which is only instinctive in Gogol’s preceding works, is the main doctrine in “Dead Souls”; and of this he is fully conscious. The author thus apologizes for bringing the lower classes so constantly before the reader:—
“Thankless is the task of the writer who dares reproduce what is constantly passing before the eyes of all, unnoticed by our distracted gaze: all the disgusting little annoyances and trials of our every-day lives; the ordinary, indifferent characters we must constantly meet and put up with. How they hinder and weary us! Such a writer will not have the applause of the masses; contemporary critics will consider his creations both low and useless, and will assign him an inferior place among those writers who scoff at humanity. He will be declared wanting in heart, soul, and talent. For his critic will not admit those instruments to be equally marvellous, one of which reveals the sun and the other the motions of invisible animalculæ; neither will he admit what depth of thought is required to make a masterpiece of a picture, the subject of which is drawn from the darker side of human life.”….
Again, in one of his letters, he says:—