N.V. Gogol is considered the most mystical writer in Russian literature. His life and work are full of secrets and mysteries. Gogol's story “The Overcoat” is studied in literature lessons in the 8th grade. A full analysis of the work requires familiarity with the work and some biographical information of the author.
Brief Analysis
Year of writing – 1841.
History of creation– the story is based on an anecdote with a similar plot.
Subject- subject " little man”, a protest against social orders that limit the individual.
Composition– the narrative is built on the principle of “being”. Exposition – Short story Bashmachkin's life, the beginning - the decision about the need to change the overcoat, the climax - the theft of the overcoat and the clash with the indifference of the authorities, the denouement - the illness and death of the main character, the epilogue - news of a ghost stealing the overcoat.
Genre- story. It has a bit in common with the genre of “lives” of saints. Many researchers find similarities between the plot and the life of St. Akaki of Sinai. This is indicated by the hero’s numerous humiliations and wanderings, his patience and refusal of worldly joys, and death.
Direction– critical realism.
History of creation
In “The Overcoat,” analysis of the work is impossible without the background that prompted the author to create the work. A certain P.V. Annenkov in his memoirs notes an incident when, in the presence of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, a “clerical anecdote” was told about a minor official who lost his gun, for the purchase of which he had been saving for a long time. Everyone found the joke very funny, but the writer became gloomy and deep in thought, this was in 1834. Five years later, the plot will emerge in Gogol’s “The Overcoat,” artistically rethought and creatively reworked. This creation backstory seems very plausible.
It is important to note that writing the story was difficult for the writer; perhaps some emotional, personal experiences played a role: he was able to finish it only in 1841, thanks to the pressure of M. V. Pogodin, a famous publisher, historian and scientist.
In 1843 the story was published. It belongs to the cycle of “Petersburg Tales” and becomes the final and most ideologically rich. The author changed the name of the main character throughout the work on the work Tishkevich - Bashmakevich - Bashmachkin).
The title of the story itself underwent several changes (“The Tale of an Official Stealing an Overcoat”) before the final and most accurate version reached us – “The Overcoat.” Critics accepted the work calmly; during the author’s lifetime it was not particularly noted. Only a century later it became clear that “The Overcoat” had a huge influence on Russian literature, on the historical understanding of the era and the formation literary trends. Gogol’s “little man” was reflected in the works of many writers and poets, creating a whole wave of similar, no less brilliant, works.
Subject
The work is structured in such a way that we trace the entire life of the main character, starting from the moment of birth (where the story of why he was named Akaki is mentioned) and until the most tragic point - the death of the titular adviser.
The plot is based on revealing the image of Akaki Akakievich, his clash with social order, power and the indifference of people. The problems of an insignificant creature do not concern the powers that be; no one notices his life, and even his death. Only after death will justice prevail in the fantastic part of the story - about a night ghost taking away overcoats from passers-by.
Issues“The Overcoat” covers all the sins of a well-fed, soulless world, makes the reader look around and notice those who are just as “small and defenseless” as main character. Main thought The story is a protest against the lack of spirituality of society, against orders that humiliate a person morally, financially and physically. The meaning of Bashmachkin’s phrase “Leave... why are you offending me?
” – contains both moral, spiritual and biblical context. What the work teaches us: how not to treat your neighbor. Idea Gogol's goal is to show the powerlessness of a small personality in front of a huge world of people who are indifferent to the grief of others.
Composition
The composition is built on the principle of the lives or “walkings” of saints and martyrs. The entire life of the main character, from birth to death, is a painful feat, a battle for truth and a test of patience and self-sacrifice.
The whole life of the hero of “The Overcoat” is an empty existence, a conflict with social order - the only act that he tried to commit in his life. In the exposition of the story we learn brief information about the birth of Akakiy Bashmachkin, why he was called that, about his work and inner world character. The essence of the plot is to show the need to acquire a new thing (if you look deeper - a new life, dramatic, bold changes).
The climax is the attack on the main character and his confrontation with the indifference of the authorities. Interchange – last meeting with a “significant face” and the death of the character. The epilogue is a fantastic (in Gogol's favorite style - satirical and terrifying) story about a ghost who takes overcoats from passers-by and eventually gets to his offender. The author emphasizes the powerlessness of man to change the world and achieve justice. Only in the “other” reality is the main character strong, endowed with power, feared, and he boldly says to the offender’s eyes what he did not have time to say during his lifetime.
Main characters
Genre
The story about the titular adviser is based on the principle of the lives of the saints. The genre is defined as a story, due to the scale of the substantive plan of the work. The story of a titular adviser who fell in love with his profession became a kind of parable and acquired philosophical overtones. The work can hardly be considered realistic, given the ending. She turns the work into a phantasmagoria, where bizarre unreal events, visions, strange images.
Work test
Rating analysis
Average rating: 4.2. Total ratings received: 2119.
The well-known phrase of the French critic E. Vogüe that a whole galaxy of writers grew out of Gogol’s “The Overcoat” is quite true. The image of the “little man”, which became popular thanks to Charlie Chaplin, in a sense also comes from there, from her. In the thirties and forties, descriptions of the great feats of outstanding personalities not only became boring to the reader, but they wanted something different, unusual. It was at this time that Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol wrote “The Overcoat”. The analysis of this work was carried out repeatedly, both before and after the revolution. It contained either dreams of universal equality and brotherhood, or even calls for the overthrow of the autocracy. Today, having re-read the story through the eyes of a contemporary, we can safely say that there is none of this there.
Main character, A. A. Bashmachkin
To confirm the opinion that the story lacks not only revolutionary motives, but also a social idea in general, it is enough to understand about whom N.V. Gogol wrote “The Overcoat”. Analysis of the personality of the main character leads to the search for modern analogies. The notorious “middle managers” come to mind, also contemptuously called “office plankton”, carrying out routine assignments. Workers, according to one literary character, are divided into two main categories: the majority are not capable of anything, and only a few can do almost everything. Judging by the description of Akaki Akakievich and his relationship with the team, he does not belong to the all-powerful minority. But Gogol would not have been himself if he had not seen certain advantages in him, which he also writes about with a fair amount of irony. Bashmachkin, a typical “eternal titular” (such in Soviet army were called fifteen-year-old captains, based on the length of service in the junior officer rank), loves his work, he is diligent and submissive to the point of humility. He reacts gently and peacefully to the jokes of his comrades, sometimes evil. He has no friends other than beautiful calligraphic letters, and he doesn’t need them.
In order to evaluate financial situation Bashmachkin, the modern reader needs to delve into the literature and understand what and how much it cost then. This activity requires diligence and patience. Prices for many things were completely different, just as the assortment of a modern supermarket differs from the selection of goods in shops and stores of the era in which Gogol wrote “The Overcoat”. Purchasing power analysis can be done approximately.
Compare prices mid-19th century with today's is completely impossible. Nowadays, many products have appeared that do not fit into the then consumer basket at all (mobile phones, computers, etc.). In addition, the choice of clothing has become very wide (from cheap consumer goods made by our Chinese friends to offers from super-prestigious boutiques). It is more appropriate to compare with salaries in the relatively recent Soviet past.
Calculation of the main character's financial capabilities
The hero's salary is known - 800 rubles a year. By the standards of that time, not so little, you won’t die of hunger. Judging by indirect evidence and based on the text of the story, we can conclude that the scale of prices approximately corresponded to the capabilities of an ordinary engineer of the late Soviet era (70s or 80s), who received a salary of 120 rubles. It is also known how much the new overcoat cost Akakiy Akakievich. The story was written in 1842, there was no shortage of food and no queues, but acquaintance with the right people already mattered then. “Through connections,” a certain Petrovich, a tailor, is ready to make the necessary item for only 80. For that kind of money, it was impossible to buy a decent coat in the USSR, and in order to collect for new clothes, an ordinary worker needed to save for several months.
So Akakiy Akakievich cut his budget in order to sew himself a new overcoat. His problems were exclusively economic in nature, and, in general, were completely solvable.
What happened?
Gogol's plot was inspired by a story about an equally poor and ordinary official who had been saving for a gun for a long time and lost it on his first hunt. It would take a genius to see in such an unfunny anecdote the plot of a future work and develop it into a tragicomedy, which the story “The Overcoat” is rightfully considered to be. Its main characters are also officials, and for the most part they receive the same amount as Bashmachkin, or more, but not much. Having seen a new thing, they jokingly demand to “sprinkle it” (today they more often use the verbs “wash” or “tag”). Colleagues know that Bashmachkin does not have money for excesses, and if he did, then, obviously, he would not be in a hurry to part with it either - they have studied his character over many years. Help came from the clerk's assistant (judging by the title of the position, he is also not a great rich man), who offers refreshments and invites him to visit him. And after the banquet, Akaki Akakievich was robbed and stripped, taking away his new overcoat. A brief summary of the scene of a friendly drinking party clearly shows how the modest official was soaring in spirit, having bought, in general, an ordinary thing. He even shows interest in a certain lady, but not for long.
And then such a collapse.
The image of the boss
Of course, Nikolai Vasilyevich tells us not just a story about how an unknown official found and lost his overcoat. The story, like all others, is outstanding literary works, about relationships between people. A person is known by gaining power. Some people just need to get a position...
So the new boss, who recently took up his post, shows off in front of a friend, scolding Akaki Akakievich on the far-fetched pretext of improper treatment, and in general, the concern of the highest authority on such a minor issue as some kind of overcoat. The summary of the angry tirade of a Significant Person (as he is designated by the author) comes down to a reminder of who Bashmachkin is talking to, who he is standing in front of, and a rhetorical question about how dare he. At the same time, the general has his own problems, he was appointed recently, and does not know at all how to behave, which is why he puts fear into everyone. At heart, he was a kind, decent, good comrade, and even not stupid (in many respects).
Having received such an affront, the poor official came home, fell ill, and died, it is unclear whether from a cold or due to extreme stress.
What did the author want to say?
The tragic ending is also typical for other Russian writers of the 19th and 20th centuries, who “grew up” from the same mentioned outerwear. A.P. Chekhov (“Death of an Official”) also “kills” (only without subsequent mysticism) his main character, just like N.V. Gogol (“The Overcoat”). An analysis of these two works and their comparison suggests the spiritual kinship of the masters of the pen and their general rejection of fear of anyone. The declaration of inner freedom became the main leitmotif of both works, created on the basis of the antithesis technique. The classics seem to be telling us: “Don’t be Akaki Akakievichs!” Live boldly, don't be afraid of anything! All problems can be solved!”
How strange that over the past decades and centuries only a few have taken this call to heart.
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol is one of the most significant figures in Russian literature. It is he who is rightly called the founder of critical realism, the author who clearly described the image of the “little man” and made it central in Russian literature of that time. Subsequently, many writers used this image in their works. It is no coincidence that F. M. Dostoevsky uttered the phrase in one of his conversations: “We all came from Gogol's overcoat».
History of creation
Literary critic Annenkov noted that N.V. Gogol often listened to jokes and various stories that were told in his circle. Sometimes it happened that these anecdotes and comical stories inspired the writer to create new works. This happened with “Overcoat”. According to Annenkov, Gogol once heard a joke about a poor official who was very fond of hunting. This official lived in deprivation, saving on everything just to buy himself a gun for his favorite hobby. And now, the long-awaited moment has arrived - the gun has been purchased. However, the first hunt was not successful: the gun got caught in the bushes and sank. The official was so shocked by the incident that he came down with a fever. This anecdote did not make Gogol laugh at all, but, on the contrary, gave rise to serious thoughts. According to many, it was then that the idea of writing the story “The Overcoat” arose in his head.
During Gogol's lifetime, the story did not provoke significant critical discussions and debates. This is due to the fact that at that time writers quite often offered their readers comic works about the life of poor officials. However, the significance of Gogol’s work for Russian literature was appreciated over the years. It was Gogol who developed the theme of the “little man” protesting against the laws in force in the system and pushed other writers to further explore this theme.
Description of the work
The main character of Gogol's work is the junior civil servant Bashmachkin Akaki Akakievich, who was constantly unlucky. Even in choosing a name, the official’s parents were unsuccessful; in the end, the child was named after his father.
The life of the main character is modest and unremarkable. He lives in a small rented apartment. He occupies a minor position with a meager salary. By adulthood, the official never acquired a wife, children, or friends.
Bashmachkin wears an old faded uniform and a holey overcoat. One day, severe frost forces Akaki Akakievich to take his old overcoat to a tailor for repairs. However, the tailor refuses to repair the old overcoat and says it is necessary to buy a new one.
The price of an overcoat is 80 rubles. This is a lot of money for a small employee. In order to collect the necessary amount, he denies himself even small human joys, of which there are not many in his life. After some time, the official manages to save the required amount, and the tailor finally sews the overcoat. The acquisition of an expensive item of clothing is a grandiose event in the miserable and boring life of an official.
One evening Akaki Akakievich was caught up on the street famous people and took away the overcoat. The upset official goes with a complaint to a “significant person” in the hope of finding and punishing those responsible for his misfortune. However, the “general” does not support the junior employee, but, on the contrary, reprimands him. Bashmachkin, rejected and humiliated, was unable to cope with his grief and died.
At the end of the work, the author adds a little mysticism. After the funeral of the titular councilor, a ghost began to be noticed in the city, which took overcoats from passers-by. A little later, this same ghost took the overcoat from that same “general” who scolded Akaki Akakievich. This served as a lesson for the important official.
Main characters
The central figure of the story, a pathetic civil servant who spends his entire life doing routine work and not interesting work. His work lacks opportunities for creativity and self-realization. Monotony and monotony literally consume the titular adviser. All he does is rewrite papers that no one needs. The hero has no loved ones. He spends his free evenings at home, sometimes copying papers “for himself.” The appearance of Akaki Akakievich creates an even stronger effect; the hero becomes truly sorry. There is something insignificant in his image. The impression is strengthened by Gogol's story about the constant troubles befalling the hero (either an unfortunate name, or baptism). Gogol perfectly created the image of a “little” official who lives in terrible hardships and fights the system every day for his right to exist.
Officials (collective image of bureaucracy)
Gogol, talking about Akaki Akakievich’s colleagues, focuses on such qualities as heartlessness and callousness. The unfortunate official's colleagues mock and make fun of him in every possible way, without feeling an ounce of sympathy. The whole drama of Bashmachkin’s relationship with his colleagues is contained in the phrase he said: “Leave me alone, why are you offending me?”
"Significant person" or "general"
Gogol does not mention either the first or last name of this person. Yes, it doesn’t matter. Rank and position on the social ladder are important. After the loss of his overcoat, Bashmachkin, for the first time in his life, decides to defend his rights and goes with a complaint to the “general”. Here the “little” official is faced with a tough, soulless bureaucratic machine, the image of which is contained in the character of a “significant person”.
Analysis of the work
In the person of his main character, Gogol seems to unite all the poor and humiliated people. Bashmachkin's life is an eternal struggle for survival, poverty and monotony. Society with its laws does not give the official the right to a normal human existence and humiliates his dignity. At the same time, Akaki Akakievich himself agrees with this situation and resignedly endures hardships and difficulties.
The loss of the overcoat is a turning point in the work. It forces the “little official” to declare his rights to society for the first time. Akaki Akakievich goes with a complaint to a “significant person”, who in Gogol’s story personifies all the soullessness and impersonality of the bureaucracy. Having encountered a wall of aggression and misunderstanding on the part of a “significant person,” the poor official cannot stand it and dies.
Gogol raises the problem of the extreme importance of the rank, which took place in the society of that time. The author shows that such attachment to rank is destructive for people with very different social status. The prestigious position of a “significant person” made him indifferent and cruel. And Bashmachkin’s junior rank led to the depersonalization of a person, his humiliation.
At the end of the story, it is no coincidence that Gogol introduces a fantastic ending, in which the ghost of an unfortunate official takes off the general’s overcoat. This is some warning to important people that their inhumane actions may have consequences. The fantasy at the end of the work is explained by the fact that in the Russian reality of that time it is almost impossible to imagine a situation of retribution. Since the “little man” at that time had no rights, he could not demand attention and respect from society.
The St. Petersburg stories appeared in the darkest times.
IN AND. Lenin, characterizing this era, noted:
“Serf Russia is downtrodden and motionless. A tiny minority of nobles protest, powerless without the support of the people. But the best people of the nobles helped to awaken the people.”
N.V. himself Gogol never called the cycle of these stories “Petersburg Tales,” so the name is purely businesslike. The story “The Overcoat” also belongs to this cycle, which, in my opinion, is the most significant of all the others.
Its importance, significance and meaningfulness compared to other works are increased by the theme touched upon in “The Overcoat”: the little man.
Brute force and lawlessness of those in power reigned and dominated the destinies and lives of little people. Among these people was Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin.
“Little people” like our hero and many others seem to have to fight for a normal attitude towards them, but they do not have enough strength, either physical, moral, or spiritual.
Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin is a victim who is not only under the yoke of the surrounding world and his own powerlessness, but does not understand the tragedy of his life situation. This is a spiritually “erased” personality. The author sympathizes with the little man and demands attention to this problem.
Akaki Akakievich is so inconspicuous and insignificant in his position that none of his colleagues remembers “when and at what time” he entered the service. You can even talk about him vaguely, which, by the way, is what N.V. does. Gogol: “Served in one department.”
Or maybe by this he wanted to emphasize that this incident could have happened in any department or work establishment. To say that there are very, very many people like Bashmachkin, but no one notices them.
What is the image of the main character? I think there are two sides to the image.
The first side is the spiritual and physical failure of the character. He doesn't even try to achieve more, so at the beginning we don't feel sorry for him, we understand how wretched he is. You can’t live without perspective, without realizing yourself as an individual. You cannot see the meaning of life only in rewriting papers, but consider the purchase of an overcoat as the goal, the meaning. The idea of acquiring it makes his life more meaningful and fills it. In my opinion, this is brought to the fore to show the personality of Akaki Akakievich.
The second side is the heartless and unfair attitude of others towards Akaki Akakievich. Look at how people around him treat Bashmachkin: they laugh at him, mock him. He thought that by purchasing an overcoat he would look more noble, but this did not happen. Soon after the purchase, misfortune “unbearably befell” the downtrodden official. “Some people with mustaches” took away his barely bought overcoat. Together with her, Akaki Akakievich loses the only joy in life. His life becomes sad and lonely again. For the first time, trying to achieve justice, he goes to a “significant person” to tell him about his grief. But again he is ignored, rejected, exposed to ridicule. No one wanted to help him in difficult times, no one supported him. And he died, died from loss, grief.
N.V. Gogol, within the framework of the image of one “little man,” shows the terrible truth of life. The humiliated “little people” died and suffered not only on the pages of numerous works covering this problem, but also in reality. However the world he remained deaf to their suffering, humiliation and death, just as arrogant Petersburg, cold as a winter night, remains indifferent to the death of Bashmachkin.
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, who left a mystical mark on Russian literature, became the founder of many writers of the 19th century critical realism. It was no coincidence that catchphrase Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky in an interview with a French journalist: “We all came out of Gogol’s overcoat.” The writer implied an attitude towards the “little man”, which manifested itself very clearly in the story. Later, this type of hero will become the main one in Russian literature.
“The Overcoat,” which was included in the cycle of “Petersburg Tales,” in the original editions was of a humorous nature, because it appeared thanks to an anecdote. Gogol, according to the memoirs of P. V. Annenkov, “listened to comments, descriptions, anecdotes... and, it happened, used them.”
One day he heard an office joke about a poor official: he was a passionate hunter and saved enough money to buy a good gun, saving on everything and working hard in his position. When he first went hunting for ducks on a boat, the gun got caught in dense thickets of reeds and sank. He could not find him and, returning home, fell ill with a fever. His comrades, having learned about this, bought him a new gun, which brought him back to life, but later he recalled this incident with a deathly pallor on his face. Everyone laughed at the joke, but Gogol went away deep in thought: it was that evening that the idea of a future story arose in his head.
Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin, the main character of the story “The Overcoat,” starting from birth, when his mother, rejecting all the names in the calendar as too exotic, gave him his father’s name, and at baptism he cried and made such a grimace, “as if I felt that there would be a titular adviser”, and all his life, humbly enduring the cold, despotic treatment of his superiors, the bullying of his colleagues and poverty, “knew how to be satisfied with his lot”. Any changes in his life order were no longer possible.
When suddenly fate gives you a chance to change your life - to sew a new overcoat. Thus, the central event of the story becomes the acquisition and loss of the overcoat. At first, a conversation with an angry tailor, who claims that it is impossible to repair an old overcoat, plunges Akaki Akakievich into complete confusion. To raise money for a new coat, Bashmachkin has to not drink tea in the evenings, not light candles, and walk almost on tiptoe in order to keep his feet on the ground. All these restrictions cause terrible inconvenience at first.
But as soon as the hero imagined a new overcoat, he became a different person. The changes are striking: Bashmachkin “became more lively, stronger in character, like a man who has set a goal for himself”. The author’s irony is understandable: the goal for which the official changed is too insignificant.
The appearance of the long-awaited overcoat - "the most solemn day" in the life of a hero. Bashmachkin is embarrassed by the universal attention of his colleagues, but still accepts the offer to celebrate the new thing. The usual way of life is disrupted, the hero’s behavior changes. It turns out that he is able to laugh cheerfully and not write any papers after dinner.
Since Bashmachkin has not left the house in the evenings for a long time, St. Petersburg seems beautiful to him. This city is fantastic just because it appeared “from the darkness of the forests, from the swamps of blat”, but it was Gogol who turned it into a phantasmagoric city - a place where something out of the ordinary is possible. The hero of "The Overcoat", lost in the night Petersburg, becomes a victim of robbery. A shock for him is the appeal to the police authorities, the attempts of his colleagues to organize a team-up, but the most serious test is the meeting with "significant person", after which Bashmachkin dies.
The author emphasizes how terrible and tragic the helplessness of the “little man” in St. Petersburg is. Retribution, enhanced by intervention, becomes just as terrible. evil spirits. A ghost that appeared in a vacant lot after Bashmachkin’s death, reminiscent of a former titular councilor, tore down “all sorts of overcoats, regardless of rank and title”. This continued until "significant person" did not end up in the ill-fated wasteland and was not grabbed by the dead man. That's when the ghost said: “...your overcoat is what I need! ... If you didn’t bother about mine, now give me yours!”
This incident changed the formerly important official: he became less arrogant. And the appearance of the dead official stopped: “Apparently, the general’s overcoat suited his shoulders.”. For Gogol, what becomes fantastic is not the appearance of a ghost, but the manifestation of conscience even in such a person as "significant person".
“The Overcoat” develops the theme of the “little man” outlined by Karamzin in “Poor Liza” and revealed by Pushkin in. But Gogol sees the cause of evil not in people, but in the structure of life, where not everyone has privileges.
- "The Overcoat", a summary of Gogol's story
- “Portrait”, analysis of Gogol’s story, essay