Dead Souls

The narrator opens with a long monologue about the purposes and goals of literature, complaining that while writers who choose heroic, exalted topics win fame and glory, those who depict ordinary life and less morally upright people meet little aplomb. Still, the smaller scale comes with clarity of vision and the chance to hold up a mirror to society. Gogol is able “to walk hand in hand with my strange heroes, to survey in its entirety life that rushes along so massively, to survey it through laughter that is visible to the world and through tears which the world cannot see and does not know” (2556-58).

Chichikov’s task for the day is to properly document all his transactions involving dead souls. Their detailed biographies almost bring the peasants to life again, and he wonders about the adventures each might have had and the circumstances of their deaths. He breaks his reverie to set off for the chief judge’s office, the place where his purchases will be registered. On his way, he meets Manilov, who compliments and embraces him with his usual fervor, and presents him with signed paperwork for the transfer of his dead souls.