Though she knows its not his fault, she cant help but associate him, at times, with a sense of resignation, with the very life she has resisted, has struggled so mightily to leave behind. [39], Even before the publication of Dead Souls, Belinsky recognized Gogol as the first Russian-language realist writer and as the head of the Natural School, to which he also assigned such younger or lesser authors as Goncharov, Turgenev, Dmitry Grigorovich, Vladimir Dahl and Vladimir Sollogub. Gogol was looking for the missing pieces of himself in all three of his relationships. Father Son Relationship. Gogol, about to embark on a new life in college, wishes to do away with the name he hates and attempt to try on a new identity, one that he has complete control over. eNotes Editorial, 22 Mar. After an introductory lecture made up of brilliant generalizations which the 'historian' had prudently prepared and memorized, he gave up all pretence at erudition and teaching, missed two lectures out of three, and when he did appear, muttered unintelligibly through his teeth. Ashoke then comes up with the idea to name him after Nikolai Gogol. She has never known of a person entering the world so alone, so deprived. on 50-99 accounts. And yet here he is, night after night, a welcome addition to the Ratliffs universe, doing just that. She tries to hide this from, unable at first to find it in the mess of books shared by her and, telling herself she is reconnecting with an old friend, but keeping it a secret from. Exaggerated ascetic practices undermined his health and he fell into a state of deep depression. Outside of Russia, the film loosely served as the inspiration for Mario Bava's film Black Sunday (1960) and the South Korean horror film Evil Spirit: Viy (2008). The two decide to get married, and they have an elaborate Bengali-style ceremony. Create an account to start this course today. His grave was marked by a large stone (Golgotha), topped by a Russian Orthodox cross. It is within this frame of reference that Gogol constructs who he is in the world. If he picks the dollar, he will be a businessman. This is different than his parents, who are primarily only friends with other Bengali immigrants. "In The Namesake, how does Gogol's relationship to his family influence the development of his identity?" She begins to comfort, no time to find a good name, they get an express passport with the name, When Ashima does leave the house, it is to wander around the university campus with, crossing the ocean with a single suitcase each. Get access to all 5 pages and additional benefits: Course Hero is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university. They are left parentless within a decade of their arrival, and, learn to roast turkey, even if it is spiced with Indian flavors. [37] "Characteristic of Gogol is a sense of boundless superfluity that is soon revealed as utter emptiness and a rich comedy that suddenly turns into metaphysical horror. for a group? "Sholem Aleichem, Gogol Show Two Views of Shtetl Jews. Gogol makes with his classmates. "[48], Gogol's oeuvre has also had an impact on Russia's non-literary culture, and his stories have been adapted numerous times into opera and film. In January. Educators go through a rigorous application process, and every answer they submit is reviewed by our in-house editorial team. What is meant by the word "namesake" in "The Namesake"? They had both sought comfort in each other, in their shared world, perhaps for the sake of novelty, or out of fear that that world was slowly dying. However, his family members and people who knew him previously continue to refer to him as Gogol. By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from SparkNotes and verify that you are over the age of 13. Struggling with distance learning? At Yale, Nikhil is able to pursue his love of architecture most directly, and this leads him to graduate study in New York, and a job at a firm there. What are the themes of "The Namesake" and explain how they are significant to the title. The guests begin to arrive, chattering in Bengali and expressing their regret at Ashimas departure. Gogol views his relationship with Maxine as the height of his "American-ness" so far in his life. He wonders how his parents had done it, leaving their respective families behind, seeing them so seldom, dwelling unconnected, in a perpetual state of expectation, of longing. Youve successfully purchased a group discount. Gogol had proposed to her by presenting her with the expensive hat that she had tried on during their first date. His first serious relationship is with a girl named Ruth. Joseph Stalin did not like it, however, and the statue was replaced by a more orthodox Socialist Realist monument in 1952. There is only one complication: he doesnt feel like Nikhil. Just two years later, in 1874, Tchaikovsky composed his version under the title Vakula the Smith (with Russian libretto by Yakov Polonsky) and revised it in 1885 as Cherevichki (The Tsarina's Slippers). Why would he do this? Hed confessed to her that he still felt guilty at times for changing his name, more so now that his father was dead. At school, kids constantly tease him about his name. His relationship with Maxine was strong because he was very close with her and her family. Gogol is unable to return to Maxine's world "in which nothing had changed" after his father's death, showing a sense of hidden anger and blame. Despite their father and son relationship which . Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Alov." Gogol feels that he "has been lied to all these years . Because he grew up hating his name, he associated his name with his heritage and in turn grew to hate his family's traditions. His father "tells Gogol the story of the train he'd ridden twenty-eight years ago [and] the "book that had saved him". Gogol's short story "The Portrait" is being made into a feature film The Portrait by fine artists Anastasia Elena Baranoff and Elena Vladimir Baranoff.[59][60][61][62][63][64]. Gogol's relationship with his family, as previously mentioned, was a rocky one. Gogol is not entirely dissimilar to his father, in this way. You cant do that, shed told him then, shaking her head, and when hed asked her why not shed simply said, Because you cant. "[35] According to Andrey Bely, Gogol's work influenced the emergence of Gothic romance, and served as a forerunner for absurdism and impressionism. Early life. At the final examination, he sat in utter silence with a black handkerchief wrapped around his head, simulating a toothache, while another professor interrogated the students.[23]. For this reason, he decides to name his son Gogol. It strikes him that there is no term for what they once were to each other. For Sonia and, buys packs of six Bic razors, and even removes his wristwatch. They break up after about a year together after realizing that they no longer love each other. | Certified Educator Gogol, as a child who was born and brought up in America, thinks that the arranged marriage . Teachers and parents! The wife of the protagonist is a linguist studying Nikolai Gogol. Gogol's transformation can also be marked by his romantic relationships. [44] Of all Gogol's stories, "The Nose" has stubbornly defied all abstruse interpretations: D.S. It provides no solace at all. The idea of returning year after year to a single place appeals to Gogol deeply. Throughout his life, Gogol finds himself caught between the world of his parents and American culture. His parents' funeral customs, begin to make sense to Gogol now that he's a little older. He first dates Ruth while he is in college. They allow Sonia and. That evening, Ashoke gives Gogol a copy of The Short Stories of Nikolai Gogol. According to Viktor Shklovsky, Gogol's strange style of writing resembles the "ostranenie" technique of defamiliarization. As if that time were a name hed ceased to use. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. Gogol and Moushumi resemble each other in many ways. They start dating, and it's serious. Purchasing Like Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gogol sharply disagreed with those Russians who preached constitutional monarchy and the disestablishment of the Orthodox Church. "Christmas Eve" was also adapted into a film in 1961 entitled The Night Before Christmas. His father Vasily Gogol-Yanovsky, who died when Gogol was 15 years old, was supposedly a descendant of Ukrainian Cossacks (see Lyzohub family) and belonged to the 'petty gentry'. Interesting choice, right? As Gogol grows into a teenager it becomes even harder to get close to his dad. Gogol's marriage and . He also dislikes the fact that he was named after Nikolai Gogol. Gogol's impact on Russian literature has endured, yet various critics have appreciated his works differently. . He intensified his relationship with a starets or spiritual elder, Matvey Konstantinovsky, whom he had known for several years. Equally early he developed a talent for mimicry, which later made him a matchless reader of his own works and induced him to toy with the idea of becoming an actor. As a child, Gogol helped stage plays in his uncle's home theater.[18]. But the change to Nikhil also represents a maturation, an attempt to find a new self in college. Living a relatively protected life in the United States, Gogol cannot begin to fathom where his father is coming from, and has thought of his father as a symbol of old fashioned cultural tradition. Maxine and Gogol's relationship becomes distressed as a result of Gogol suffering from remorse of being so wrapped up in his own affairs that he never fully valued the important things his father had to offer. Ashima thinks the same, though for different reasons. Each year his father would rent a camping spot for a whole month and the family would play and go fishing in the lake. This period of mourning resembles in some ways Gogol's shock in the aftermath of his father's death. [29] His body was discovered lying face down, which gave rise to the story that Gogol had been buried alive. This is what upsets him most. However, after the death of Ashoke, Gogol starts to appreciate his family and his background more. ", The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich, Saint Vladimir Imperial University of Kiev, Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, "Gogol: russe et ukrainien en mme temps", "Gogol's eloquentia corporis: Einverleibung, Identitaet und die Grenzen der Figuration by Natasha Drubek-Meyer", "The Nationalism of Nikolai Gogol': Betwixt and Between? The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. They arrive at the beach when most families have already left, and, they know the other two Indian children at the schoolbut they do not. Gogol's transformation can also be marked by his romantic relationships. At first, Gogol's identity is enhanced with distancing himself from his family. Ashoke puts their family name in gold letters on their mailbox, and one morning, refuses to hang them on the fridge, the first time she has done so with, growing up and beginning to resemble him and his wife. The Beginning in August 2017. When Gogol asks his father, when he is college, whether the name Gogol reminds Ashoke of nearly dying, Ashoke counters that "Gogol" is for him a name of hope, of joyof life. Although they both never planned on being in a relationship with another Bengali, they get married. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Ashoke begins to explain to. I had it engraved, she says, and when he turns the flask over he sees the letters NG. Better Essays. When this relationship sours, Gogol's embrace of his name with the reading of a collection of the writer's work helps to establish that Gogol is more of a centered human being as he has. Suddenly he regrets having ever told Moushumi; he wonders whether shell proclaim the story of his fathers accident to the table as well. After defending autocracy, serfdom, and the Orthodox Church in his book Selected Passages from Correspondence with his Friends (1847), Gogol came under attack from his former patron Vissarion Belinsky. They hang a painting by Ashimas father in the living room. On the novel's terms, this relationship with an American woman of Bengali descent seems . She wonders if she is the only woman in her family ever to have betrayed her husband, to have been unfaithful. It was adapted also for radio by Adam Beeson and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 24 December 2008[57] and subsequently rebroadcast on both Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra on Christmas Eve 2010, 2011 and 2015.[58]. "Gogol's Research on Ukrainian Customs for the Dikan'ka Tales". More than 135 films[51] have been based on Gogol's work, the most recent being The Girl in the White Coat (2011). Without people in the world to call him Gogol, no matter how long he himself lives, Gogol Ganguli will, once and for all, vanish from the lips of loved ones, and so, cease to exist. Why do you think their love affair can't survive Gogol's grief? Within minutes, before their eyes Ashoke and Ashima slip into bolder, less complicated versions of themselves, their voices louder, their smiles wider, revealing a confidence that Gogol and Sonia never see on Pemberton Road. In The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, the main character Gogol is not very good at communicating . There is no question of skipping this meal; on the contrary, for ten evenings the three of them are strangely hungry, eager to taste the blandness on their plates. After graduating, he dates Maxine, a woman who represents everything that Gogol thinks he wants. As he works, he thinks of Thanksgiving dinner the week before. Gogol's relationships in The Namesake A namesake is someone or something that has the same name as another person or thing. For Nikhil, his father's influence lingers, too: In Lahiri's novel, Nikhil's story ends in his childhood bedroom, where he reads the collected works of Nikolai Gogol that his father gave him years ago. Gogol spent the winter of 183637 in Paris,[25] among Russian expatriates and Polish exiles, frequently meeting the Polish poets Adam Mickiewicz and Bohdan Zaleski. Why do you think their love affair can't survive Gogol's grief? He also feels this way when his family visits India. You can view our. Gogols transformation is marked in at least three ways. She passes over two pages filled only with the addresses of her daughter, and then her son. His stories often interweave pathos and mockery, while "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich" begins as a merry farce and ends with the famous dictum, "It is dull in this world, gentlemen!". His father had been reading a book by him one day while he was on a train in between the two cities Calcutta and Jamshedpur. Gogol concludes his feelings about . [49] More recently, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Gogol's birth in 1809, Vienna's renowned Theater an der Wien commissioned music and libretto for a full-length opera on the life of Gogol from Russian composer and writer Lera Auerbach.[50]. Ashoke and Ashima's relationship doesn't show their affection for each other. Mirsky declared it "a piece of sheer play, almost sheer nonsense". It took enormous efforts to save Andreyev's original work from destruction; as of 2014[update] it stands in front of the house where Gogol died. The leading novelists of the period notably Yevgeny Zamyatin and Mikhail Bulgakov also admired Gogol and followed in his footsteps. Summary and Analysis Chapter 4. For much of the twelve years from 1836, Gogol was in Italy, where he developed an adoration for Rome. 26 lessons. Ashoke also has traumatic connection to the train-wreck during which he was reading Gogol. If he picks the pen, he will be a scholar. 752 Words; His father has not yet told him about the train accident, so he thinks he was named after Nikolai Gogol only because he is Ashoke's favorite author. Much of Moushumi's wedding garb had been purchased for her canceled wedding to Graham. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." Please wait while we process your payment. The Russian TV-3 television series Gogol features Nikolai Gogol as a lead character and presents a fictionalized version of his life that mixes his history with elements from his various stories. This is what upsets her most to admit: that the affair causes her to feel strangely at peace, the complication of it calming her, structuring her day. He is presented with a plate full of soil, a pen, and a dollar bill. for a customized plan. Although Ruth, Maxine, and Moushumi were right for him at the time, they didn't end up working out. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. The novel Taras Bulba (1835), the play Marriage (1842), and the short stories "The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich", "The Portrait" and "The Carriage", are also among his best-known works. 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To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. He vacations with Maxine's family instead of returning home to visit his own, and embeds himself in their rituals. For this reason, he, is ignorant of their Indian heritage and culture, having been reared in the United States whereas, they were raised in India from birth. Like Gogol, Moushumi is Bengali-American. ashtrays still sealed. Despite the support of Alexander Pushkin and Sergey Uvarov, the Russian minister of education, the appointment was blocked by a bureaucrat on the grounds that Gogol was unqualified. Inspired by the idea of planning a trip to Italy, kindly on this marriageBen makes Sonia happy in a way that Moushumi never did with. Its hard to believe that his mother is really going, that for months she will be so far. Each woman, in turn, marks a stage in Gogols development. parents invite close to 300 people, taking control of the planning of the wedding themselves. In recent years, however, "The Nose" became the subject of several postmodernist and postcolonial interpretations. It isnt simply the fact that his parents dont know about Maxine it is his knowledge that apart from their affluence, Gerald and Lydia are secure in a way his parents will never be. His name continues to be a source of frustration and confusion for many years. As a result of Gogol's attraction to, Maxine's money and her family's way of life, which he perceives as secure in a manner his, parents would never be, she reflects his ambition to live an American lifestyle (, In the wake of Gogol's father's death, he is able to empathize with his parents, who had to, deal with the grief of losing their loved ones in a faraway nation. Place appeals to Gogol now that he still felt guilty at times for changing his name, so... Through a rigorous application process, and it & # x27 ; s relationship doesn #., buys packs of six Bic razors, and then her son the. 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To receive emails from SparkNotes and verify that you are over the of... He will be a source of frustration and confusion for many years he regrets having ever told Moushumi he. The novel & # x27 ; s wedding garb had been buried alive also feels this way of. Who was born and brought up in America, thinks that the arranged marriage in! However, his family influence the development gogol's relationship with his father his relationships, was a rocky.... The only woman in her family parents ' funeral customs, begin to make sense to Gogol deeply will! Property of their respective owners have betrayed her husband, to have betrayed husband. Distancing himself from his family members and people who knew him previously continue to refer to him as.. Comes up with the idea of returning year after year to a single place appeals to Gogol.! Father, in turn, marks a stage in gogols development fell into a in. Her family receive emails from SparkNotes and verify that you are over age... Email address you agree to receive emails from SparkNotes and verify that you are over the age of....