# Plushkin — Dead Souls character guide

> Plushkin in Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** landowner Plushkin

**First appearance:** 0008-part-i-vi

## Snapshot

A miser so eroded by suspicion that his estate and wardrobe have collapsed into moldering heaps, yet he still haggles over every scrap.

## Who they are

Plushkin is the landowner whose serfs appear on Chichikov's purchase lists as mere names, Christian name and patronymic followed by dots, because even their master's records have shrunk to nothing. His stinginess has curdled into a kind of living death: he hoards rubbish, feeds on suspicion, and sees every visitor as a thief. He matters because his ruined estate shows what the dead-souls traffic looks like when the soul has already been sold off piece by piece.

## Relationships

### [Chichikov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/chichikov)

_psychological_

Chichikov manipulates the miserly Plushkin, exploiting his paranoia and greed to acquire dead souls cheaply.

### [Chichikov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/chichikov)

_psychological_

Chichikov manipulates the miserly Plushkin, exploiting his paranoia and greed to acquire dead souls cheaply.

### [Chichikov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/chichikov)

_psychological_

Chichikov manipulates the miserly Plushkin, exploiting his paranoia and greed to acquire dead souls cheaply.

## In the story

### [Chapter V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/chapters/part-i-v)

Mentioned as the next landowner Chichikov intends to visit, described as a skinflint who feeds his people badly.

### [Chapter VI: Plushkin's Hoard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/chapters/part-i-vi)

The miserly landowner, suspicious and decrepit, who sells his dead souls and laments the thievery of his serfs.

### [Chapter IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/chapters/part-i-ix)

Mentioned as the landowner for whom the President of the Council acted as representative in the soul transfer, causing the President to worry.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/plushkin
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters