The Government Inspector
What is the author's style in The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol?
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Gogol has often been dubbed the "father of Russian realism." The Government Inspector introduced the principles of dramatic realism to the Russian stage. Lindstrom in his book Nikolay Gogol notes that "the need for greater realism in the theater" was "one of Gogol's most pressing concerns." Gogol consciously desired to counter the burlesque and sentimentality of popular Russian drama with a play that revealed everyday people in everyday life. Edward Braun in an introduction to Nikolai Gogol: The Government Inspector notes that Gogol believed modern drama "must reflect the problems of modern society," and therefore, "sought with his comedy to bring out the significance of everyday happenings." Gogol was thus dissatisfied with the initial production of The Government Inspector because the actors had failed to embody the principals of dramatic realism for which the play had been intended. Lindstrom explains that the actors of the day, "did not know how to interpret this new kind of comic realism and gave an appallingly bad performance." In the long run, however, according to Campbell, The Government Inspector "contributed a great deal to the evolution of the peculiar Russian realism in acting." Gogol's impact on dramatic realism is also a measure of the use of realistic dialogue in his plays. His lasting influence on Russian literature is in part due to the innovative use of colloquial Russian speech in his literary works. Brown observes that Gogol's plays were innovative in replacing the formal speech of written Russian with dialogue that is "alive with the quality of actual speech." Beresford likewise asserts that Gogol, in The Government Inspector, "incorporates . . . all features of everyday speech" in "dialogue such as had never been heard on the Russian stage before and has seldom been equaled since."
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