"Diary of a Madman·Gogol" original text

Summary of the work

The ninth-class civil servant Poprizin was in his forties and unmarried. He did some copying and writing under the section chief. He fell in love with Sophie, the director's daughter. In order to get close to her, he often went to the director's house to help sharpen quills. The section chief even teased him about this. One day when Poprizin was wandering on the street, he saw two dogs talking together. One of the dogs was Meiqi from the director's house, and the other was named Figel. The two dogs were talking about communication. In order to get more information about the lady, Poprizin ran to Figel and grabbed the letter written by Meiqi to Figel. In the letter, Meiqi mentioned many things about Miss Sophie, her father, and the attendant, and said that they were boring. This made Poprizin angry. Not long after, newspapers reported that the Spanish throne was vacant, and Poprizin felt that he was the successor to the throne that Spain was looking for. So Poprizin began not to go to work. Why did the future king of Spain need to go to work! Later, Poprizin went to the director's house. Although he could not see Sophie, he asked the servant to tell her that Poprizin's true identity was actually the King of Spain, and they would be happy. Poprizin made himself a purple official robe and waited for someone to pick it up. The Spanish mission finally arrived, and they sent Poprizin to the palace and tortured Poprizin every day, making him suffer a lot.

Selected Works

November 12th

I set out at two o'clock in the afternoon. I must see Figel and question him in detail. I don't like cabbage very much. Its smell comes from all the grocery stores on Xiaomin Street, and there is such an unpleasant smell near the door of every house that I have to cover it up. Nose, ran away desperately. There are also some despicable craftsmen who emit so much black smoke from their workshops that it is impossible for the upper class to wander around here. I climbed to the sixth floor, rang the doorbell, and out came a not too ugly little girl with some freckles on her face. Her face blushed slightly, and I understood immediately: You, my dear, want to find a lover. "What's the matter with you?" she asked. "I want to talk to your puppy." The little girl was stunned. I saw it right away: This girl is so stupid! At this time the puppy ran over barking. I wanted to grab it, but this nasty guy almost bit my nose. But I saw a wicker basket in the corner, which was its nest. Ha, that's exactly what I need! I walked over, turned over the hay in the basket, and to my great joy pulled out a small bundle of small pieces of paper. As soon as the nasty puppy saw this, he started biting my calves, then sniffed out that I had taken the piece of paper, started screaming again, and began to make out with me, but I said: "No, dear, goodbye!" Then he ran away. I thought that girl must have thought I was crazy because she was so scared. When I got home, I wanted to get down to business right away and study these letters, because I couldn't read the words clearly by candlelight at night. But Mafra wanted to mop the floor. These stupid Finnish women are always like this, cleaning the house at any time. So I took a stroll and thought about it. Now I was finally going to know all those things, all those plans, all those motives, and finally be able to explore it all. These letters will reveal everything to me. Dogs are smart creatures and they understand all political relations, so there must be everything in the letter: a description of the man and all the things he did. There will definitely be something about that person in the letter...it's nothing, don't talk about it. I returned home in the evening. I lay in bed most of the time.

November 13th

Well, let me take a look: The handwriting is still easy to read. However, there are still traces of dog paws in the handwriting after all. Let me read it:

Dear Figel, I can never get used to calling you that little bourgeois name. Can't people give you a better name? Figel, Roza—how vulgar! But let’s not talk about that now. We decided to correspond regularly and I'm happy about that.

The letter is written very standardly.

Punctuation marks, even the letter ь are written meticulously. Even our section chief couldn't write such calligraphy, even though he said he had studied in a university somewhere. Let’s move on.

I feel that exchanging thoughts, feelings and feelings with others is one of the greatest pleasures in the world.

Hum, this is excerpted from a work translated from German. I don't remember the title of the book.

I say this based on my own experience, although I have not traveled all over the world, but only around my door. Isn't my life happy enough? My young lady, whom papa calls Sophie, is very fond of me, very much.

Alas! well! ...Nothing, nothing. Stop talking!

Dad also caresses me often. I drink milk tea and creamy coffee. Ah, ma chère, I must tell you: I don't see how Polkan could take pleasure in chewing big bones that others have already chewed in the kitchen. Only the bones of wild birds, before their marrow has been sucked out by others, are delicious. Mix a few sauces together, it's very delicious, but don't add the caper sprouts or greens; and I hate the habit of feeding bread to the dog in a ball. A gentleman sat at the table, took all kinds of dirty things in his hands, kneaded the bread with his hands, and then called you over and stuffed these pieces of bread into your mouth. It would be impolite if you don't eat it; you have to eat it, with a sense of disgust, but you have to eat it...

Who knows what is written here! Pure nonsense! As if there was nothing nice to write about. Look at another page. I don't know if I can read anything useful.

I'd love to tell you all about what happened to us. I have already told you something about the main gentleman, whom Sophie called daddy. This is a very eccentric person.

Ah, finally found it! Yes, I know, they look at everything politically. Let's take a look at what kind of character this dad is:

...a very weird person. He was always silent and rarely spoke. But a week ago he kept saying to himself: "Can I get it?" He held a piece of paper with one hand and an empty fist with the other hand and said, "Can I get it?" Once He actually asked me this question: "What do you think, Meiqi, can I get it?" I didn't know what was going on, so I smelled his leather boots and walked away. Later, ma chère, Dad returned home happily a week later. Throughout the morning, people in civilian uniforms came to see him to express their congratulations. He was very happy at the dinner table. I had never seen him so happy before. He told some jokes, and after the meal he put his arms around his neck and said, "Look, Meiqi, what is this?" I saw a belt. I smelled it, but couldn't detect any fragrance; finally I quietly licked it: it tasted a little salty.

Hmph, this little leprous, I think it is too... it should be spanked! ah! He turned out to be a person who was greedy for fame! This should be remembered.

Goodbye, ma chère, I have to go away... I will finish the letter tomorrow. Well, hello! I am writing to you again now. Today my lady Sophie...

Ah, look what happened to Sophie. Alas, shameless! ...Nothing, nothing... Then look down.

My lady Sophie is very busy. She was getting ready to go to the dance. And I'm glad because I can write to you again when she's not at home. My Sophie especially loves to go dancing, although she almost always has a tantrum while getting dressed. ma chère, I don't understand at all what fun there is in going to a ball. It was usually six o'clock in the morning when Sophie came home from the dance, and I could always guess from her pale and thin face that the poor thing was not given anything to eat. To be honest, I can't live like this at any time. If I don't get hazelnut chicken with sauce or fried chicken wings, then... I really don't know if I can survive.

The sauce is also delicious added to porridge. And carrots, radishes or artichokes are not tasty at all...

The style is extremely inconsistent. It was immediately obvious that this was not written by a human being. It was well written at the beginning, but the ending fell flat. Look at the other letter. A bit lengthy. snort! Not dated yet.

Ah, my dear! Seeing that spring is coming. My heart was beating as if I had been waiting for something. There was always a ringing in my ears, so I would often stand with one leg up for several minutes, listening to the sounds outside the door. I tell you frankly, I have many admirers around me. I often sit on the windowsill and watch them. Oh, if you only knew what ugly fellows there are among them. There was a clumsy guard dog who was extremely stupid and looked stupid, but he walked on the street as if no one else was around, thinking that he was a great person and thinking that everyone was looking at him in rapt attention. There is no such thing. I didn't even look at him, it was like I didn't see him. There is also a very scary big bulldog standing in front of my window! If he could stand on his hind legs—which this rough and rude fellow certainly could not—he would be a full head taller than my Miss Sophie's father. This fool must be a shameless ***. I barked at him a few times, but he didn't care at all. Not even a frown! He stuck out his tongue, drooped his big ears, and looked at the window - this country bumpkin! But, ma chère, do you think that my heart remains indifferent to all these pursuits? Ah, no... If only you could have seen that guy named Trezor who came under the neighbor's fence and was trying to please me. Ah, ma chère, he has such a cute little face!

Bah, to hell with it! What a mess! ...How can you talk nonsense in the letter! Write me someone quickly. I want to see people, I ask for the kind of nourishment that can nourish and comfort my soul, but now what I see is stupid words like this. Let me turn the page and see if it's better at the back:

...Sophie was sitting at the table, sewing something. I looked out the window because I like to watch the people coming and going. Suddenly a servant came over and said: "Teplov is here!" "Please come in!" Sophie shouted, ran over and hugged me. "Ah, Mei Qi, Mei Qi! You really should know who he is: a dark-haired young man, a chamberlain; oh, what beautiful eyes he has, black and shining like coals." After that, Sophie ran back to her room. A minute later, a young palace attendant with a beard walked in. He walked to the mirror, arranged his hair, and sat down in his seat. Sophie soon came out, bowing cheerfully in return for his foot-touch. And I continued to look out the window as if I didn't see anything; but I turned my head slightly to one side and tried to hear what they were saying. Oh, ma chère, how boring their conversation was! They said that there was a lady who was supposed to be dancing one way but did another; that there was some Bobov in a flowered tie who looked like a stork and almost fell to the ground; Lidina thought she had sky-blue eyes, but in fact they were green, and so on. "If you compare this palace attendant with Trezor, there is a big difference!" I thought to myself. What a world of difference! It’s simply incomparable! First, the chamberlain had a flat face, surrounded by whiskers, as if wrapped in a circle of black cloth; while Trezor had an oval face and a white spot on his forehead. Trezor's waist was incomparable to that of a palace attendant. The eyes and style are also completely different. The difference is huge! I really don't know, ma chère, what she caught in her Teplov. Why is she so obsessed with him?

I myself find this a bit strange. It was impossible for a chamberlain to make her so enchanted.

Look further down:

I feel that since she can fall in love with this palace equerry, she will soon fall in love with the official sitting in her father's office. Alas, ma chère, you really should see what an ugly person that is, just like a turtle in fat clothes...

Which official is this? ...

His last name is very strange. He always sat there sharpening his quill. The hair on his head looked very much like a pile of hay. Dad often treats him as a servant...

I feel like this hateful puppy is talking about me. But how can my hair look like hay?

As soon as Sophie saw him, she couldn't help but laugh.

You lied, damn son of a bitch! This bad tongue! As if I didn't know it was jealousy at work. It's like I don't know who's behind this. This is a trick played by the section chief. This person has a mortal grudge against me, so he makes trouble, makes trouble, and makes trouble all the time. However, look further down, there is another letter. Perhaps the truth will come out in this letter.

Dear Feijer, I haven’t written for a long time. Please forgive me. I was completely immersed in happiness. There is a writer who said it very well. He said: Love is the second life. And our family has changed a lot now. Now the chamberlain comes here every day. Sophie falls madly in love with him. Dad was very happy. I also heard Grigory, who was always talking to himself, saying that the wedding was coming soon, because my father wanted to see Sophie marry a general, a chamberlain, or a colonel. …

Damn it! I can't read any more... After all, he's either a chamberlain or a general. All the good things in the world were taken away either by the palace attendants or by the generals. You have just found a little treasure for yourself, and you are about to reach out for it, - but the chamberlain or the general snatches it away from you in an unreasonable manner. What the hell! I really want to be a general myself; not to propose marriages or anything else; no, I want to be a general just to see how they grovel before me and how they play with all these various palaces. Plots and tricks, then I go to them and say: I despise you both. To hell with them. What bad luck! I tore this stupid dog's letter into pieces.

(Translated by Liu Kaihua)

Appreciation

Gogol's "Diary of a Madman" is his early work. The entire novel uniquely uses the form of the protagonist's diary writing to reveal to readers every trivial matter in Poprizin's life, various spiritual desires, and the entire process from rationality to irrationality to madness. This part of the excerpt is from two diary entries written by Poprizin before he went completely crazy. The diary at this time still has a date, and the details are clear and true, but it already shows an unusual tendency towards madness. This seemingly normal "I" actually snatched the letters between the dogs in an attempt to peek into the life of the director's daughter, Miss Sophie. How I accidentally overheard two dogs talking, how they planned to snatch the letter, and how they implemented the plan-visiting the dog's owner while he was out, how proud he felt after snatching the letter, how happy and sad he felt when reading the letter, and finally, the whole incident came to an end when the letter was revealed. It ended in pieces. It seems like it all really happened. Obviously, the content of the letter strongly influenced Poprizin himself.

If Gogol had told the story of the director's family through the mouth of a servant instead of through the letters written by Meiqi, the entire diary would not have been crazy enough. Poprizin's unscrupulous behavior of plundering the dogs' letters seemed to satisfy his long-repressed desire for power and dominance - invading the privacy of the two dogs and reading the dogs' letters was an extremely safe way - Dogs cannot complain to humans.

In this selection, the diary of November 13th presents a dual structure. Originally, the form of diary has a strong subjective color, and the excerpts from the dog's letters in the diary, mixed with Poprizin's comments, constitute a unique binary dialogue relationship in the text.

The tone of their comments varied, ranging from contempt, anxiety, self-righteousness to lamentation and resentment. The letters written by dogs are rich in content and look like dogs. With the view that "dogs are smart guys, they understand all political relations", Poprizin selected some letters to read, and regarded the parts describing humans as meeting his own requirements, while describing the relationship between dogs He dismissed the text of relationship. In fact, the puppy's narration about humans reveals the reality of life. The conversation between the young lady and her lover reveals that they are just mediocre and boring people. This fully shows that the author carefully selected the dog's perspective to highlight the protagonist's mental madness and reveal the essence of life.

It was from the act of reading dog letters that Poprizin pushed himself towards madness. Crazy people are precisely on the edge of rationality and irrationality. Because of this, they can unintentionally glimpse the essence of life. He originally worked in a regular manner under the section chief. Although he was dissatisfied, he did not dare to resist face to face. His obsession with Sophie was originally a mirror image, out of reach, and he was addicted to the illusory world he built. However, this world is empty after all, and a slight collision with reality will shatter it. "I", who was heading towards madness, finally began to realize that I had no money or status, and was just a low-level civil servant. Neither Miss Sophie nor the Director-General ever took him seriously.

Crazy people cannot be tolerated in this society, and Poprizin himself is clearly aware of this. "It's nothing, stop talking!" appears several times in the article, which seems to be in "I". There are countless listeners and spectators around. So he has to be on guard against the Finnish woman who cleans for him. She represents the potential other who is always watching Poprizin - the ninth-class civil servant who lives in embarrassment and shrinks and loves Miss Sophie. There is always a kind of otherness in him. Something that feels abnormal. Those people were monitoring him all the time to prevent him from slipping into another world if he wasn't careful. For this reason, in order to cover up his madness, the protagonist chose to read the letter quietly at home when no one was around. We can also think that Poprizin has already experienced the cruelty of reality, but is unable to face the pain itself directly, so under the guise of puppy letters, he gives himself a heads-up in his diary and reveals the sadness of life. This situation occurred several times in the article, but Poprizin did not cheer up, and he did not have the subjective and objective conditions to change his situation. So he went completely crazy and subjected the world to his crazy ideas. He ignored the strange looks from the people around him, indulged himself, did not go to work, and did not do what a so-called normal person should do. He confidently announced his madness to the world, constructing a fairy tale about a Spanish king living in seclusion in Russia. In this fairy tale, he had a wonderful life at the beginning. He could enjoy the shocked eyes of his colleagues, he could let Sophie's servant tell her that no one would separate them, he would make her happy, and he could see the Tsar's face. Instead of saluting, the charioteer could have thought it was a Spanish envoy coming to greet the king when the lunatic asylum came to pick him up.

As Foucault said in "Madness and Civilization": "A special kind of coercive action silences madness." Poprizin's irrationality, or madness, was finally discovered by the world. He has been divided into another world, so it is necessary to take coercive measures to banish him from normal life. The lunatic asylum used various techniques to treat him. This made Poprizin lament, why should the king suffer such torture? Did he fall into the hands of the Inquisition?

Whether it was when Poprizin was normal on the surface or when he was recognized as a madman, he could only feel a little false happiness in the hallucinations that lasted for a short time at the beginning. Whether he wanted to get close to Sophie by sharpening a quill, or thought he was the king of Spain, these seemingly beautiful fantasies brought him a sense of disillusionment. The former is the correspondence of the puppy, and the latter is the cruel treatment given to him by the administrator of the asylum.

However, only Poprizin, who is close to madness and completely mad, reveals the truth, and shows him the truth that the normal world hides and fears - the cruelty of life, the nihility of fantasy, the frustration of love... without mercy. Own.

Gogol shows the process of a man's madness, and "madness means a complete break with the work of art. It constitutes the basic element of destruction that will ultimately disintegrate the authenticity of the work of art. It draws The outer boundary. This is the boundary of disappearance, the outline against the background of the void.” Poprizin's madness was originally based on the reality of details, but today, far away from that time, this madness makes "Diary of a Madman" itself transcend general authenticity and echoes the dilemmas in contemporary people's lives. This gives Poprizin's tragedy a deeper meaning. It reminds us that madmen may not have completely disappeared with the end of the last era.

(Li Shan)