Gogol’s 'The Government Inspector' as a Сomedy-Tragedy: On the Problem of Genre

The article examines Gogol’s apology for laughter in “Theatrical Travel After the Presentation of a New Comedy” (1836–1842). Gogol’s paradigmatic words that the only “honest, noble face” in “The Government Inspector” is laughter are considered in the context of the author’s intention. The play about the imaginary auditor appears as a component of two “revisions”: on the one hand, government revision, although obviously profaned in the course of the play, but inevitably implied by its ending; on the other hand, an “audit” of a “vulgar” society through laughter. The satirist writer and the official authorities, who equally carry out the task of persecuting vice, represent one-order phenomena that equally serve the spiritual improvement of society. The opinions of Gogol’s contemporaries regarding the definition of the picture depicted in the play and the genre of “The Government Inspector” itself as “comedy-tragedy” are in agreement. The article summarizes well-known and little-known reviews of the play by Stepan Shevyrev, Prince Pyotr Vyazemsky, Vasily Mezhevich, Konstantin Aksakov, Vissarion Belinsky, Konstantin Masalsky, and Ivan Ilyin, along with the opinions of the author himself.