the overcoat summary

The young official’s revelation at the beginning of the story seems to come back and strike the Important Person now, becoming a kind of “moral” for the story. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class.”, LitCharts uses cookies to personalize our services. Finally the last official is so mean to Akaky that he dejectedly walks home without a coat in the harsh Russian winter. At the same time, the coat opens up a whole new dimension of experience for Akaky: suddenly he has a social life, and goes out at night for the first time in years. Copyright © 1999 - 2020 GradeSaver LLC. Here Gogol makes an argument for the value of art (which is another kind of “material good,” and arguably the most “elevated” kind) to give new meaning to life, and he consequently adds another layer of symbolism to the overcoat itself. This also introduces the theme of the importance of material goods. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. The fact that Akaky’s department does not notice that he has died until several days later further emphasizes his insignificance, and their ability to replace him the next day reminds us that in the bureaucracy’s eyes, a copyist’s life is completely replaceable. The inefficiency of the bureaucracy encourages bribery and other forms of corruption. The Overcoat study guide contains a biography of Nikolai Gogol, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. The Narrator’s unwillingness to disclose the full details of his tale establishes a background of secrecy and fear, but also of scorn and mockery for the over-sensitive, self-important members of the Russian bureaucracy. And don't forget—we're talking about Russia here, so just going without a coat is definitely not an option. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!”, “This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. It seems that the clerk is always trying to catch up with himself—whenever he comes into some extra money, he must use it to pay off his debts. In fact, he loved it so much that all he did when he went home every day was do more work. Instant downloads of all 1360 LitChart PDFs When it's done, it's gorgeous. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." In order to cheer himself up, the official goes to a party. © 2020 Shmoop University Inc | All Rights Reserved | Privacy | Legal. The Overcoat Summary. His threadbare overcoat is often the butt of their jokes. Complete summary of Nikolai Gogol's The Overcoat. Akaky was a poor guy, but he loved his job. Following this logic, it may also be that Petrovich has covered the general’s face himself as a petty kind of rebellious act. At his department, everyone congratulates. It is both tragic and comic that the highlight of the clerk’s life is the purchase of a new overcoat—that is how mundane and pathetic Akaky’s existence is. He is on the verge of realizing that he has inner desires separate from his boring labor, even if he can’t properly comprehend what these ideas are. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Plot Summary of “The Overcoat” by Nikolai Gogol. Gogol’s use of the vague phrases “Important Person” and “unimportant person” raises questions about the value of this government official, and further satirizes just what is regarded as “important” in such an absurd hierarchy. After his death, Akaky returns as a ghost to haunt St. Petersburg for a time, stealing coats, and in particular the coat of a general who had refused to help Akaky. The coat impresses his coworkers, but Akaky is still an outsider in their social scene, and he lacks the conversation skills (and, presumably, the inflated ego) to fit in. Yep. Not so fast there, kiddo. The fact that Akaky’s family name is derived from the word “shoe” and that his mother thought it was fate to name her son “Akaky Akakievich”—an absurd name that literally means “mild or inoffensive,” and may also refer to the Russian word for excrement—forcefully introduces the idea that one’s social status is tied to one’s success in life. Something you'd get straight out of the fashion magazines. The Important Person shakes off his guilt regarding his dismissal of Akaky with relative ease. Instead, the younger clerks tease him and attempt to distract him whenever they can. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. His goal, to save up money in order to purchase the coat, gives him a new sense of purpose, a reason to live beyond the drudgery of his copying. It is clear how little the watchman cares about Akaky, and how little his duties as a police officer matter to him. The tragic loss of his overcoat, then, once again exposes Akaky as a helpless, impoverished man. Now the craziness begins. Gogol illustrates the superficiality of self-presentation once again when Akaky’s landlady recommends that he see the Superintendent, and her only reasons to trust him are the fact that he goes to church and seems like a nice man. -Graham S. Gogol criticizes the Russian government for paying its civil servants a low salary on which they can barely survive. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. The Question and Answer section for The Overcoat is a great By stealing their overcoats, he subjects them to the same pain that he suffered—social humiliation and exposure to the cruel St. Petersburg cold. Patch it up and the story's over. It is especially troubling that Akaky is not even at the lowest rung of the Russian government—the title of titular counsellor belonged to the ninth of fourteen bureaucratic ranks—so we can only imagine how his inferiors manage to survive the cold. Though he is initially upset by the need for the new overcoat, he soon finds in the quest to save up for and design the new overcoat a higher purpose. In fact, he loved it so much that all he did when he went home every day was do more work. And though the other officials are friendly to Akaky and courage him to stay, Gogol implies that they do not truly care about the clerk. I'm sorry, what quote means that you have been provided with choices for your answer. You must know that Akakiy Akakievitch's cloak served as an object of ridicule to the officials: they even refused it the noble name of cloak, and called it a cape. The overcoat enriches Akaky’s life before he even gets to wear it. Whereas before he was only comfortable living according to his strict routine, unable to make even simple changes to documents, now he acts spontaneously and even pursues a sexual or romantic feeling on a whim. He is a short man with unmemorable, unattractive features. GradeSaver, 5 March 2017 Web. The Important Person, while he feels guilty about Akaky’s death, only truly changes when he faces the clerk’s ghost. So even though he enjoys the party in theory, the noise, people, and drinking get to him. We cannot help feeling that this was fated to happen all along. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol. The overcoat seemed to give Akaky a sense of purpose and value in life, and even to make him into a more complete human being, but now that has been snatched away from him. The Overcoat study guide contains a biography of Nikolai Gogol, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Oh, we forgot to mention something. What words or phrases create the humorous, mocking tone the narrator takes towards Petrovich The tailor and his wife? People can be horribly cruel to one another, especially through systems of dehumanization or oppression, and it’s crucial to recognize that we are all, at heart, “brothers.”. eNotes plot summaries cover all the significant action of The Overcoat. For the Important Person, every aspect of life is meant to uphold and reinforce his “importance”—he even has a mistress just because that’s what is fashionable for high-ranking officials. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Akaky gets mugged. And you know what can happen to a guy with a fancy new coat in a dangerous neighborhood late at night. He leaves the shindig earlier than everyone else, but still later than he's ever gone home. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our. The importance of basic material goods once again comes to the fore as Akaky succumbs to illness. Akaky goes from official to official trying to get someone to investigate the theft of his coat, but no one will work with him. The last official tries to make amends with Akaky a week later, but it's too late. Gogol emphasizes how poor Akaky Akakievich is. It also implies that Akaky himself is easily replaceable—he is merely a cog in the Russian bureaucracy. At the most basic level, Akaky needs the “commodity” of the overcoat just to be able to survive and continue working. His subordinates, also wishing to seem important, do the same. As usual, there is an element of the comic and the absurd in Gogol’s description—Akaky’s ghost is somehow both a physical corpse and a supernatural spirit, a presence both mundane and frightening. Gogol suggests that those in power must see their “inferiors” as human beings with value and dignity—and not just after they’ve died. The story narrates the life and death of titular councillor Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin (Russian: Акакий Акакиевич Башмачкин), an impoverished government clerk and copyist in the Russian capital of St. Petersburg. The Superintendent’s reaction to Akaky’s story is also telling. This coat is beyond repair, and a new one will cost twice Akaky's salary. Throughout the story, Gogol criticizes various characters for only caring about their appearances, shirking their real duties and even basic virtues to instead focus only on appearing important and powerful. Although Akaky is dedicated to his job, he is little recognized in his department for his hard work. The existence of another ghost suggests that there are individuals other than Akaky who have been wronged by their superiors in Tsarist Russia. N/A. He gets a throat infection, and two days later he dies. As Gogol describes it, the Important Person doesn’t mean to be cruel, he is just acting the way he thinks he ought to for someone of his position.

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