29 pages • 58 minutes read
Nikolai GogolThe Overcoat
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1842A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Akaky Akakievich Basmachkin
The protagonist of the story is Akaky Akakievich, whose name means “Akaky, son of Akaky.” Gogol’s narrator takes pains to impress upon the reader that Akaky Akakievich’s mother had opportunities to choose other names for her son, such as “Mokky, Sossy, or the name of the martyr Khozdazat” (306). She rejects these and all other choices, saying, “It is clear that it is his fate” (306), and names him after his father. The protagonist’s name reflects the story’s theme of Futility and Fate, with his mother seeming to say either that the child is fated to have the name Akaky Akakievich or that the child’s fate is sealed regardless of his name. In either case, individual agency has no power against the force of fate.
The name Akaky is also related to the Russian word for defecation, and so giving the main character this name emphasizes the nearly grotesque mundanity of his life. However, the name is not so outlandish that it can’t function as an everyman, such as “John Smith” in English. Likewise, having the same name as his father may illustrate Akaky Akakievich’s inability to leave his mark on the world. He lives in a familial and professional context that offers no room for individual initiative, which helps to explain why the creative act of designing and saving for an overcoat becomes his obsession.
His last name, Basmachkin, is derived from the Russian word for shoe (bashmak) and is associated with the common Russian saying “being under someone’s shoe,” meaning in their control. His name is thus entirely fitting for someone who, from birth onward, seemed “destined to be a titular councilor” (306). He can break free from neither the influence of his family nor the bureaucracy of his workplace. Although Akaky Akakievich is the protagonist, he is a nearly static character who finds the courage to seek revenge only after he has died.
Petrovich
Petrovich is Akaky Akakievich’s tailor. He used to be a serf, a peasant class in Russian society. Serfs were in many ways akin to slaves, but unlike American slavery, for example, a serf in Russia was not someone of a particular race, ethnicity, or skin color. Serfs were legally considered to be people in Russia but still were owned in a system of regulated dependency. They were often legally bound to a particular estate or piece of property and had no autonomy regarding where they would live or what employment they would pursue. Owners could buy and sell serfs, which gave them many of the powers of the owners of chattel slaves in the United States and other countries. Unlike slavery in the US, however, almost half of the Russian serfs in Gogol’s time were owned by the Russian state rather than individuals. Serfs, like slaves, could sometimes buy or otherwise arrange their emancipation (Manaev, Georgy. “Why Russian Serfdom Was Not Slavery.” Russia Beyond, 31 Mar. 2020). For this reason, Petrovich “used to be called simply Grigory” (310). He earns the right to be called by his last name once he becomes a free man. Russia abolished serfdom in 1861, several decades after the publication of the “Overcoat.”
Petrovich is described as grimy, grumpy, and usually drunk. He has only one eye and is married to a wife who is not described as very beautiful, in a house filled with cockroaches that are hidden by the smoke of her cooking. Despite the sordid details of his living arrangements, he does a magnificent job crafting Akaky Akakievich’s overcoat. It is described as both functional and a thing of beauty, and Petrovich is thrilled with the result and very proud. In some ways, he is a foil character to Akaky Akakievich. Whereas Akaky Akakievich labors all day in the bureaucracy copying other people’s words, Petrovich, a former serf, makes something unique with his own hands. Both Petrovich and Akaky Akakievich demonstrate creativity and resourceful in designing, crafting, and paying for the coat. Even though he is a former serf, Petrovich is the vector through which a sliver of freedom comes into Akaky Akakievich’s life. His craft and artistry in making the overcoat define both the happiest day of Akaky Akakievich’s life and his undoing.
Person of Consequence
The Person of Consequence is higher up in the social ladder than Akaky Akakievich, Petrovich, or any other character. He is described as “a good natured man, pleasant and obliging with his colleagues” (325), but advancing to his new rank has made him proud and capable of cruelty. He has two catchphrases that he repeats often, one to his undoing. The first is “strictness, strictness,—strictness!” (325), and the second is what he shouts at Akaky Akakievich that startles him back into the street: “How dare you? Do you know to whom you are speaking? Do you understand who I am?” (325).
Selfish and pompous, the Person of Consequence is not given a first or last name, which is significant because of the focus that Gogol puts on names. Petrovich is not granted the right to use his last name until he is freed from serfdom and becomes a tailor. Likewise, two pages are spent describing how Akaky Akakievich came by his name, and much attention is given to how he could not possibly have been called anything else. But the Person of Consequence, like the unnamed Department where Akakievich labors, simply goes by this descriptive title. He reflects the story’s Criticism of Bureaucracy. The rigid hierarchies of the Department, rather than merit or respect, give the Person of Consequence his power. When he gains new authority, he uses it not to advance the mission of the Department but to coerce and demean his underlings. The Person of Consequence personifies bureaucracy and reveals something of Gogol’s views about the governmental administration of his time. Rather than serving a rule of law that governs all people equally, the Person of Consequence appears fickle, vain, and petty. He uses his authority to insult those below him without consequence and to advance his career. The character’s lack of a name is central to the story’s satirical tone. Gogol portrays not just a selfish and vain individual, but also a system of government based on self-enrichment and complacency.
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