Published: 1842
Category: Society
Text: Classic Reader
Summary:
An impoverished clerk spends his life savings on a new overcoat which is subsequently stolen; when his appeals to authority, for justice, prove futile, he dies of grief and cold. Shortly after the city is haunted by an apparition who steals the coats off people's backs.
Analysis:
In this story Gogol makes fun of minor officials and the insignificant in Russian society; although he manages to inject a sense of feeling for both. In speaking of the petty authority who scared the wits out of the protagonist, Akakiy, he tells us
"Suffering was unpleasant to him, for his heart was accessible to many good impulses, in spite of the fact that his rank often prevented his showing his true self."And of the men the protagonist worked with, most of whom were inclined to make fun of him, there was at least one who was not so harsh.
"There was in it something which moved to pity; so much that one young man, a new-comer, who, taking pattern by the others, had permitted himself to make sport of Akakiy, suddenly stopped short, as though all about him had undergone a transformation, and presented itself in a different aspect."And in the tailor, Petrovitch, who makes the new overcoat, we are shown that even the down-trodden take pride in their work and aspire to greater things, if only they could be given the opportunity.
"Taking out the cloak, he gazed proudly at it, held it up with both hands, and flung it skilfully over the shoulders of Akakiy Akakievitch....Petrovitch did not neglect to observe that it was only because he lived in a narrow street, and had no signboard, and had known Akakiy Akakievitch so long, that he had made it so cheaply; but that if he had been in business on the Nevsky Prospect, he would have charged seventy-five rubles for the making alone."But throughout there is the overriding Russian sense of fate, of men being made what they are by their names and the circumstances of their lives:
"His name was Akakiy Akakievitch. It may strike the reader as rather singular and far-fetched, but he may rest assured that it was by no means farfetched, and that the circumstances were such that it would have been impossible to give him any other."And the only hope for a little justice comes after death.
"But the horror of the important personage transcended all bounds when he saw the dead man's mouth open, and, with a terrible odour of the grave, gave vent to the following remarks: "Ah, here you are at last! I have you, that -- by the collar! I need your cloak; you took no trouble about mine, but reprimanded me; so now give up your own."
