A.F. Pisemsky's One Thousand Souls: a dialogue with Gogol's Dead Souls

Alexey F. Pisemsky began his creative career in the 1840s and his contemporaries perceived him as a worthy successor to the best literary traditions of "Pushkin" and "Gogol" schools. Pisemsky was fascinated by N.V. Gogol's works from youth: he did not only read the works of the "great maestro", but also played his characters in amateur theatricals. He learnt Gogol's literary skill, truthful depiction of reality; however, if Gogol tried to avoid citations and reminiscences in his works, Pisemsky had a different style. His chief work - the novel One Thousand Souls - is rich in reminiscences: the author enters into a dialogue with the Dead Souls by Gogol on figurative and ideological levels. So, Pisemsky transferred Gogol's idea that "acquisition is the fault of all" into his novel, and put his hero to a test by the world based on the concept that money is everything for the person. There is no doubt that Gogol's and Pisemsky's characters (Chichikov and Kalinovich) are different, and their actions on the way towards achievement of an objective are different as well. In one case it is entrepreneurship of a "new" man, while in the other circumstances - a traditional marriage-bargain. However, the goal both characters pursued was the same: "comfort" (material well-being), and possessed souls were the equivalent of that "comfort". Moreover, readers sympathize with Gogol's adventurer, while Pisemsky's character, on the contrary, arouses quite opposite emotions. The dissonance is in the character of Nasten'ka Godneva, a pleasant, kind person with a large heart, whose love Kalinovich betrayed as the girl was unable to help him in realizing his plans. Both titles have the word "soul" (One Thousand Souls and Dead Souls), but each writer plays upon it guided by his own tasks. So, in Gogol's work "soul" is a means of profit, because Chichikov buys "dead souls" aiming to become rich. According to Pisemsky, the word "soul" has two meanings: firstly, it is a symbol of material welfare of a soulless content; secondly, it is a symbol of nobility and inner beauty, typical of ordinary people such as the Godnev family. In his novel Pisemsky interprets Gogol's views on "living/dead" in his own way: in Gogol's Dead Souls there is a search for a living soul, while in Pisemsky's novel initially living souls turn into dead ones, the author saying about it on the last page of the novel. One Thousand Souls is routinely completed by the marriage of the heroes as required by a traditional novel, though such an ending is not the beginning of a happy life but the start of pointless existence since the souls of the heroes are wasted. Thus, Dead Souls is a kind of a key to gain insight into the idea of One Thousand Souls, which Pisemsky realizes using literary reminiscences. Basing on Gogol's character and borrowing the main idea of Dead Souls ("acquisition is the fault of all") Pisemsky does not only describe the drawbacks of the main character but also takes a forward step in the problem and shows that the way of improvement does not bring a desirable result: it does not revivify a dead soul.

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