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The Dead Ghost Analysis

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The fact that Chichikov has trouble purchasing the dead souls pinpoints the second problem Gogol wanted to focus on – the greedy nature of Russian society. As mentioned previously, a dead peasant ultimately represents a loss for any landowner because a dead peasant literally cannot produce anything, while the landowner must still pay taxes on them. From a purely logical and financial standpoint, it would be in one’s best interest to find a way to rid themselves of ownership of these dead souls. The fact that Chichikov is willing to pay for these dead souls, when they should just be given away for free, indicates the value of the deal Chichikov is offering to the landowners. Yet the landowners hesitate to accept this deal and attempt to bargain …show more content…
As explained by the narrator, “she began to fear that this buyer might somehow hoodwink her” (Gogol 41) and she initially objects to the deal expressing her concern that “maybe you're deceiving me, my dear, and they're . . . somehow worth more” (Gogol 41). Furthermore, Korobochka was planning a business deal of her own, thinking to herself “It would be nice… if he'd start buying my flour and meat for the government. I must coax him: there's still some batter left from yesterday” (Gogol 43). Even though she is losing “more than a hundred and fifty roubles” (Gogol 40) every time she pays taxes to the assessor, her decisions to increase her own profits due to her greed diminished the possibility of any deal happening at …show more content…
As soon as it becomes clear Nozdryov is not willing to part with his dead souls, Chichikov offers that Nozdryov should sell them to him, only for Nozdryov to respond “Sell them! Don't I know you're a scoundrel and are not going to give me much for them?” (Gogol 58). Immediately after Chichikov offers to purchase them, Nozdryov immediately assumes he is not going to get all he can out of this deal and proposes a series of counter offers that will only net himself more money or goods if Chichikov agrees. First comes an offer of a stallion for three thousand roubles, the same stallion of which Nozdryov’s in-law remarked “You didn't pay ten thousand for him... He's not worth even one” (Gogol 54). Each additional offer is more ridiculous than the last, with a final offer simply being a gamble - a game of faro where Nozdryov stakes all of his dead souls in addition to a barrel organ. For Nozdryov gambling is the ultimate expression of his greed, for “if only luck is on your side, you can win a devil of a lot!” (Gogol 60). But Nozdryov is not just any gambler, he will use any method to win, resorting to cheating when Chichikov agrees to a game of checkers with the dead souls at stake, in addition to asking for a handicap and denying all accusations of cheating. Rather than accepting a transaction that will undeniably benefit him, Nozdryov

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