Butler University Digital Commons @ Butler University Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection Undergraduate Scholarship 4-25-1972 Gogol: An Overview David Paul Allen Butler University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/ugtheses Part of the Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, and the Russian Literature Commons Recommended Citation Allen, David Paul, "Gogol: An Overview" (1972). Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection. 291. https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/ugtheses/291 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate Scholarship at Digital Commons @ Butler University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Butler University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GOGOL: An Ovor-Vievl Presented to the Department of English College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and The TJniversi ty Honors Committee Butler' Univorsity In Partial Fulfillment of the,nequirements for Graduation gagnEl:.~ Laude With High Honors in English David Paul Allen April 25, 1972 literary. r_at~o~rb~~O.... j l_...l) _'", ~ .J .. to ..... ~ II> " to .. p ~ Intro<luctj_on: }_, r _~ :-.J.. - - "' ••••••• " •• ,. ••••••• ~ ......••••• _. 'I' '.I;P. ~r"rl,·.',.r Y::~arp, • • p ....... "' ... "'" ....... .. p • 10 'I'he pushkin Ye8,rs •....... ······························ .p. 17 .. lit ........ p .. 21 Fr om 'I'r-ans l tion of the 1lrtist ···•··••••••· 0 ••••••••• oj). 31 'rhe OverGoat and Q~§d ~S'_uls ••...... """" 0 •••••••• 0 ••• n. 37 The Las t Years ••••••••• 0 ••••••••••• 0 ••••• 0 • 0 ••• 0 •••••••• p. 21·3 Conclusion ••••••.•.••.•. 0.··0 •• ·0 •• 00 •••• •••••••••••••• .P. 2.;.4 Footnotes 3i blior,;ranhy GOG 0 L: j'~n OV0I'-'iJ:i.0vt culture remind one of the high achievement of Kiev and Nov~:orod durin?; an era in ,rlli c n the res t of Eurcpe ';Til,3 cleer,ly irrl:I:erserl in the chaos, eonf'usLon , and ?Jta[~no,tion of the Mid~le ~ges. These early aU8sian cities, 8sY8ciully la~:'f ',ILi_cr~ 18,1 I.n the fertile southern DteTJ'.le, l"','ceiv < non.Lna L dlr::ction in c ul.t.ur-aI rnat t.ers from the dyzbntlne race ~hich rather successfully converted the RUBsian; to Ortbo~joz 8hristiani ty • ';'lith a c omb i na t l on 01' [,r::d j_l;:i ta VLcn '01,nd inven,ti v : orL);', n3,li ty, t.he ae 318.'ls'3.nd Ve.r9n;tie.Ds :lng tlill fins2t traditions of Jyz&ntlne arctitecture. Kors- over, cLe r l c s kept chronicles and r-e cor-de d s8veY'a.11 mpr-e s al ve r:.:r1iny, orZ'nlk eo lce , auc r, as The LEt'! of the Lost of I5.9£. ::Even 1-1,8 c' of re)re:~entEJ.tive ;jovernment 'Tere flouI'i8btn;~: in n the city known to it2 inhabit,Ltnts ci.d "Lord i:~ovGorod the Great. ,-,ut this unique 1') henomenon, ttli s une x-ie c tOG D.nd:enerally una Geiated ~SG of enli~Ltenrnent, w~s doomed to oblivion ar-ound 1~~40. Al tllOU:)] IJov:;or'od '),:1-:1 Pskov .i n the i'ore:::;t·8 of the Nort.h ',fr~re ",'ole t.o 'r(:f:1st t.o t.a l dow:i.n;J,tl(H1 for SOlDe time, 2. Mongol yoke. The Russians WGre thus vlrtualy cut off from Byzantium (which was itself well into its 0rolon~ed period of decline) and in significant contact ~ith European civi11- zation only in the North, where Novgorod was forced to waste j_ ts r;~2ources fending off the 2;",::~ref)slonsof the 'l'eutonic Knip;hts. 'l'hesublimity of Kievan ar-c rri tecture and the vL:;or arid no ole beauty of the byllny dey'S unocr-s tol~LL",,_)J.J10;c: teo of fol'.::lorefor Rua slan authors of a later' time. Centuries were required before the emersin~ ~uscovitas could force the Mongols back to the East. Even then, however, RUssia went on in virtual isolation fr0m the rest of the world--and the [;dvElnc'cgof the Henaisse.nce--until Peter theJ.reat One of the obstacles In the riat.n of Russian 11t.er-at.ure Slavonic.1 Throu~hout the eighteenth century, Russian litera- ture 8trug~led alonz jn a slavish and unnatural imitation of ~e~tern literature, eS0ecially thnt of Boileau and French "Pseudo-Cl.g.ssicism" and La t.er- of the "sentlment8.l 8c1:100111 of ~\OU83eauo an d ~t~ erne.-? century, !01.nrJ;y:mero.lly known 0.21 the ~'::'LtL0r of ltlo,jernRussie.n 3 . Russian lan~uage: Charles V used to say tlmt ~ith God one ou~ht to converse in SDani8h, ~ith a friend in .J French, with enemies in German, and with women in Italian. Had he known HUG 81an he cer-La i n'ly '{rouldhave added that in thi 8 lan- guage one could suitably talk to all of them. For he would find in it the majesty of Span- ish, the liveliness of French, tLe 8tren~th of German, the tenierneS8 of Italian, an~ to- sether with all this the wealth, as well as the exact pr-ec lelon , of La t i n and Greek.3 HO~'rever,just as vvi th Latin in t.r.et.Lme of St. Jer'ome,the Russian lan~uage was still marked by the discrepancy mentioned above between oral and written usases. Russia needed a Jerome or a Dante to give literary resne~tability to the vernacular tongue. Karamzin (1766-1826), Krylov (1786-1844), and Zhukov sky (17(',3-1852)':ro('o the earLy r';ianto in freej_n[~ the v er-nac u'Lar- from its unna t.uroI liason '.Ii th the Old- Slavonic. Karamzin, Russia's first 3reat prose writer, marked his career w i t.ha multi-volume history of r-tussia. Zhukovsky was a classical scholar who save his fellow Rus- si aris a t.r-aris La t.Lon of the Oc1Y~£':.~l tal:en I'r-om a German wor-k, Krylov, known cUJ the RU8 sl.an LaFontaine, 8.180 fur t.her-e d the lEm;~1)8J-::ebe carne increa_sinr:ly more ve:cs;:.1,tileto the extent that t.ue Frcmch t.ransLat.or'of Pua hk.ln and others, Pr-o aper- Herimee, ccu'Ld 8;3,Y around 1e1j·O tLD.t it 'Jas lithe richest of cuLt.ur e , Hikolai G-oC~olcame t.o Ll f'e I.r: the 8' 'rin;~ of leOS!. His riat.e r-na I anc e a t.ry consisted :)"-1.:::1co.l1yof vi 11n.'e nY'ief:)t3"~ vrho ha d ,~;,dr:ledlIGorjol II to their family name of Yanov aky as a pretentlon to nobility.' A truer strain of nobility--al- bei t .Polish no b.l Li ty--r:mtered the fctlllily t hr-ough a f'avor-ac l.e marria~e of ~lkolai'8 ~randfather. But the essentiaJly peasant t.rad l tion, th t of the colorful cossack heri ta;!,8 in the Ukraine, also made a deeD imnression on Gogol. In addl- t.I on to tLis clerical, romantic, arid nominally no ol e back- ;l.:round, it is j_nICort8,nt to note tLc,t there ,n~8 a t.r-ad lt.Lo na I 0elief of divine intervention into the Go~ol-Yanovsky family. For instance, Nikolai's father, Vasily, is said to have married the dau;hter of a neighborin3 landowner after seeing ? a vision, eXDerlenc4D~ a divine revelation.- 'l'J:ds ;rirl whom Vasily bore total of twelve ctild- ..) wed a -,. reD, only four of uhom survived. early ciJildhood • .J Nikolai ':1').-:: one of' tlj(j~~e s ur-vi.vi ng four; still, he'd 8 'lar;ued in hi s youth ',1ittl de] i c te he a Lt.h and '.!asr'S'.ther u-,:ly, Eddnny, and endo'.;ed 'ili th a noticeably lorw~ nose. His mother idolized little Nikolai, the first of her children to survive. She Has ur-ov I ric l aL, n:/i ve, and 21Jr,ersti t.Lo ue ; mor co ver , she r e - tains'] the-~8 child-like traits tL.rour:)l her adult life. Vae l 1yr'. 8 an ama teur rlay-',n'i ':~ht rin'l. actor '.!LO.fc'.S sont1ment'11, -l~It shaull] be no t.el tlT),t the Ort.hodox 1"'3'i t h 8,110'd2'J marr·j_Et:.r,(~ for me mber a 0 f the 10',181" clerf:;Y. his native town of oj~o~ocli...1' nt.,3Y 0 evidence sw,,';>;estEthat he ':Tat:: not at all ,'1 Ijlceable boy. 1r His penchant for !...r)or7in~,j .~ himself witt! stiek ..y swsetQ. 1-' , hi~.:J other'lTis8 SlODDY eatin':;haoi t s , his 8.1oofnoss, 8.nd.:d.tiable phy sLca I stature 99.rned hlm the aDD811:.'ltionT>..- __ --- ...,.••.•• of 'the EJysteriouB dwarf. nLt A subsequent difficulty in adjustiD; himself to hi!2:b.,-schoolreali ties is Dus:;'ested by the f1:°.ctth:::.the vro u.l.d '> 'iTalk':dttl a "perverse nerseverance II on the 'tlrono:side of the street, while even wearing bis shoes on the inappronriate footo5 He did finally achieve some positive attention at school in his abiJ.ity in acting, especially in the i~persona- t.lon 0 f cQJ[Jic(~)old,,·romen.rl'hisinter'::;::;t j,n ac tin~. re flee ted younG Gozol's lnterest in the theatrical comedies written by his father. horeover, h~ was noted by some of his fellows for his ~oetry. Some of his first writings in verse were: "'rVfoLi ttle Fishes," a lyricHl ballad about Nilwlc:d and his dead brother; "The Robbers," a ttagedy in iambic 0entameter; and "Russia under the Yolce of the fray'tars.