People consider that Russian writer Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (袧懈泻芯谢邪泄 袙邪褋懈谢褜械胁懈褔 袚芯谐芯谢褜) founded realism in Russian literature. His works include The Overcoat (1842) and Dead Souls (1842).
Ukrainian birth, heritage, and upbringing of Gogol influenced many of his written works among the most beloved in the tradition of Russian-language literature. Most critics see Gogol as the first Russian realist. His biting satire, comic realism, and descriptions of Russian provincials and petty bureaucrats influenced later Russian masters Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, and especially Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Gogol wittily said many later Russian maxims.
Gogol first used the techniques of surrealism and the grotesque in his works The Nose, Viy, The Overcoat, and Nevsky Prospekt. Ukrainian upbringing, culture, and folklore influenced his early works, such as Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka . His later writing satirized political corruption in the Russian empire in Dead Souls.
This was a lighthearted comedy about a friend trying to get his pal married off - and all kinds of things go awry. Gogol is, as always, observant and perceptive. His characters are alive, real, and comical in their vices.
The play is about a long-time bachelor man, Podkoliosin, who is now going to get married but he's not still emotionally prepared to engage himself with marital life. He finds himself confused when he wants to express his love to a woman who according to all of his acquaintances is a suitable case for him. He might have done so if it wasn't for a marriage condition and there weren't its related traditions though.
I think writing this play in nineteenth century when literature for its most parts was devoted to romanticism where you see people apparently had nothing to do except struggling to find their soul mate loves and getting married, shows how in reality there were actually so many constraints - socially and psychologically - that drew back people from this unconditionally widely accepted lifestyle.
This one was my fifth Gogol and I feel like his prose is unique so that even if I didn't know the name of the author, I could guess who had written the play correctly.
Marriage reminded me of Shakespeare鈥檚 Comedy of Errors. Not because their plots are similar, because they aren't. Both are farces, but very different kinds of farces. Errors--about the reconciliation of two pairs of twin brothers鈥攄epends on misunderstandings for its humor, whereas Marriage鈥攁bout the arrangement of a marriage鈥攄epends on stock characters and their artful manipulation for its laughs. But both works shows us a sort of perfection, but perfection it an extremely basic level. Young Shakespeare and young Gogol both proved themselves with these effective but shallow artifices, proving both to their audiences鈥攁nd to themselves鈥攖hat they had the ability to write polished, successful plays.
The first drama Gogol attempted was The Order of Vladimir, Third Class. It was an ambitious work, about a petty bureaucrat who strives to attain the aforesaid order (a mark of nobility), goes mad, and comes to believe that he has been transformed into the Cross of Vladimir himself. It is a great idea鈥攁t least in theory鈥攂ut the twenty-three-year-old Gogol abandoned it as unwieldy, and began writing Marriage the following year instead.
It was a wise choice. Marriage is an entertaining, well-constructed play in which Ilya Kocharyov, good friend of the clerk Ivan Podkolyosin, decides to interfere with the matchmaker Fyokla and bring about Podkolyosin鈥檚 marriage all by himself. The ways in which he thwarts the other three prospective suitors鈥攁 managing clerk looking for a fat dowry, a retired military officer who wants a wife who speaks French (very fashionable in good Russian society), and a navy man who bores people with his experiences abroad at every available opportunity鈥攁re amusing, as are his continual, mostly unsuccessful attempts at encouraging his timid friend Podkholyosin. It is all pretty conventional stuff鈥攗ntil the surprise ending. I won鈥檛 tell you what that ending is, of course. But it was memorable enough that Tolstoy mentioned it thirty years later in Anna Karenina.
This is a humorous little play about marriage ... or a lack thereof. Comically noncommital bachelor Podkoliosin is forced into a courtship with an equally indecisive young woman, Agafya, and hilarity ensues. It's funny, but not quite hilarious, and I didn't find it to be particularly profound in any sense. An enjoyable diversion, but I'm looking forward to Gogol's better-known works, like .
Two days ago I saw this play staged and couldn鈥檛 find its merit during or after watching it. I decided to read the play to see if there had been omissions whose inclusion might have made the play worth its continued life in theater, but there weren鈥檛.
Loads of meaningless dialogue (as with Stepan), tried stock characters, weak humor, and the underdeveloped criticism of the minor aristocracy all contribute to this work鈥檚 failure. Even in its original showings in Russia, it was allegedly booed off the stage, mostly because of its unconventional 鈥榰nhappy鈥� ending, but also for its lack of direction. Gogol himself was not fond of this play. It has attracted no attention in the English speaking academic world and only a handful of articles in Ukraine and Russia.
It contains a handful of smile-worthy lines and poking fun at the social-climbers is always welcome, but it isn鈥檛 enough.
I found myself to be like Podkolyosin. Not because I am indecisive, but because, during the play, I also wanted to jump out of a window.