Gogol: Sexuality and Women

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Gogol: Women and Sexuality Gogol’s stories have a central theme of personal identity. Regardless what the story is about, the characters identity is always questioned. I believe an underlying theme in his work has a very sexual tone to it. Whether it is the relationship of the old couple in Old World Landowners, or the fear of women and marriage in Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt, or Poprishchin in Diary of a Madman there is a constant sexual undertone or out right tone to the stories. The sexual tone is part of his characters personal identities. To understand why there is a central theme of personal identity (even though the stories are unrelated) you need to understand Gogol’s family history and his upbringing. Glbtq, Inc sums up Gogol’s family: Playwright, humorist, and novelist, Gogol was born on April 1, 1809, in Sorochintsy, Ukraine. His father was a dreamy country squire, proprietor of 200 serfs and author of pseudo-folkloric Ukrainian comedies in verse. His mother, née Maria Kosiarowska, instilled in Gogol a morbid religiosity that emphasized hellfire and retribution rather than Christian virtues. The future writer's greatest attachment in his early childhood was to his younger brother Ivan, who died when Nikolai was ten. It should also be known that “The social status of his ancestors was purposely falsified by their descendants in the eighteenth century” (Setchkarev, 3). This played a great part in how Gogol viewed people’s identity. This gives you an insight into how Gogol was raised. His father, like most men was hands off whereas his mother was hands on. When his father died, Gogol dismissed the tragedy in a lighthearted manner. In a letter he wrote to his mother he says “my sadness soon turned to a light, barely noticeable melancholy" (Karlinsky, 8). His relationship with his mother was completely opposite and “far more important in Gogol’s

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