Dead Souls · Chapter
Chapter VII explained
Chichikov completes the purchase of dead souls and celebrates with local officials.
What happens
Chichikov completes the purchase of dead souls and celebrates with local officials. He navigates bureaucratic procedures with the help of Manilov and the President, then attends a lavish feast where he is toasted as a new landowner of Kherson. The chapter ends with Chichikov drunkenly returning to his inn, while his servants Selifan and Petrushka slip out for their own amusement.
Themes in this chapter
Bureaucracy and Institutional Folly
The chapter satirizes the convoluted and self-important nature of Russian bureaucracy, as seen in the clerks' behavior and the need for bribes or connections to expedite paperwork.
Greed and Materialism
Chichikov's scheme to acquire dead souls for profit, and the officials' eagerness to celebrate his fictional wealth, highlight the theme of greed and the pursuit of material gain.
Appearance vs. Reality
Chichikov is celebrated as a wealthy landowner of Kherson, while his actual business involves dead serfs; the feast and toasts mask the dubious nature of his transactions.
Characters to notice
- Chichikov
Completes the purchase of dead souls, celebrates with officials, and drunkenly returns to the inn.
- Sobakevitch
Attends the feast, consumes most of a large sturgeon, and whispers to Chichikov about the purchase from Plushkin.
- Manilov
Accompanies Chichikov to the government office to register the serf purchase.
- Ivan Antonovitch
The clerk in charge of serf affairs, known as 'pitcher-mug,' who handles Chichikov's paperwork.
- Selifan
Chichikov's coachman; after his master falls asleep, he goes out with Petrushka.
- Petrushka
Chichikov's servant; brushes his master's clothes and then joins Selifan for an outing.
Key passages
“You have given a hundred thousand roubles for the serfs, but have paid me only a trifle for my trouble." "Yes," replied Chichikov with a similar whisper, "but what sort of serfs do you suppose them to be? They are a poor, useless lot, and not worth even half the purchase money.”
Sobakevitch complains that Chichikov paid him little for his help, but Chichikov retorts that the dead souls are worthless.
This exchange reveals the transactional and cynical nature of the deal between Chichikov and Sobakevitch.
“The first toast (as the reader may guess) was quaffed to the health of the new landowner of Kherson; the second to the prosperity of his peasants and their safe transferment; and the third to the beauty of his future wife”
The officials toast Chichikov as a new landowner, his serfs, and his hypothetical future wife.
The toasts underscore the theme of appearance vs. reality, as Chichikov's status is based on a fraudulent purchase.
“Chichikov, like the rest, had never before felt so gay, and, imagining himself really and truly to be a landowner of Kherson, spoke of various improvements in agriculture, of the three-field system of tillage, and of the beatific felicity of a union between two kindred souls.”
Chichikov gets drunk and starts believing his own fiction, discussing farming and marriage as if he were a real landowner.
This moment highlights Chichikov's self-deception and the power of pretense.