The main artistic idea of ​​the story is The Overcoat, briefly. Overcoat - analysis of the work

  • 26.06.2020

The story “The Overcoat” is one of the best works of the most mysterious (according to the Russian writer Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. The story about the life of the “little man” Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin, a simple copyist of one of the many offices of the county town, leads the reader to deep thoughts about the meaning of life.

"Leave me alone..."

Gogol's "The Overcoat" requires a thoughtful approach. Akaki Bashmachnikov is not just a “small” person, he is defiantly insignificant, pointedly detached from life. He has no desires, with his whole appearance he seems to be telling those around him: “I beg you to leave me alone.” Younger officials mock Akaki Akakievich, although not evil, but still offensive. They will gather around and compete in wits. Sometimes they will hurt you, then Bashmachnikov will raise his head and say: “Why are you doing this?” In the text of the narrative, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol offers to feel it. "The Overcoat" (the analysis of this short story may be longer than itself) includes complex psychological interweavings.

Thoughts and aspirations

Akaki's only passion was his work. He copied documents carefully, cleanly, and with love. Arriving home and somehow having lunch, Bashmachnikov began to walk around the room; time passed slowly for him, but this did not bother him. Akaki sat down and wrote all evening. Then he went to bed, thinking about the documents that had to be rewritten the next day. These thoughts made him happy. Paper, pen and ink were the meaning of life for the “little man”, who was well over fifty. Only a writer like Gogol could describe the thoughts and aspirations of Akaki Akakievich. “The Overcoat” is analyzed with great difficulty, because the short story contains so many psychological collisions that it would be enough for a whole novel.

Salary and new overcoat

Akaki Akakievich’s salary was 36 rubles a month, this money was barely enough to pay for housing and food. When frost hit St. Petersburg, Bashmachnikov found himself in a difficult situation. His clothes were worn out to holes; they no longer protected him from the cold. The overcoat was frayed on the shoulders and back, the sleeves were torn at the elbows. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol masterfully describes the entire drama of the situation. "The Overcoat", whose themes go beyond the usual narrative, makes you think about a lot. Akaki Akakievich went to the tailor to have his clothes repaired, but he declared that “it is impossible to repair” and a new overcoat is needed. And he named the price - 80 rubles. For Bashmachnikov, the money is huge, which he had no trace of. I had to save brutally in order to save the required amount.

After some time, the office gave a bonus to the officials. Akaki Akakievich received 20 rubles. Along with the salary received, a sufficient amount was collected. He went to the tailor. And here, with precise literary definitions, the entire drama of the situation is revealed, something only a writer like Gogol can do. “The Overcoat” (it is impossible to analyze this story without being imbued with the misfortune of a person who is deprived of the opportunity to simply buy himself a coat) touches to the depths of the soul.

Death of the "little man"

The new overcoat turned out to be a sight to behold - thick cloth, a cat collar, copper buttons, all this even somehow lifted Bashmachnikov above his hopeless life. He straightened up, began to smile, and felt like a man. Colleagues vied with each other in praising the update and invited Akaki Akakievich to a party. After it, the hero of the day went home, striding along the icy sidewalk, even hit a woman passing by, and when he turned off Nevsky, two men approached him, intimidated him and took off his overcoat. Throughout the next week, Akaki Akakievich went to the police station, hoping that they would find a new thing. Then he developed a fever. The "little man" died. This is how Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol ended the life of his character. “The Overcoat,” this story can be analyzed endlessly, constantly opens up new facets for us.

The history of the creation of Gogol's work "The Overcoat"

Gogol, according to the Russian philosopher N. Berdyaev, is “the most mysterious figure in Russian literature.” To this day, the writer’s works cause controversy. One of such works is the story “The Overcoat”.
In the mid-30s. Gogol heard a joke about an official who lost his gun. It sounded like this: there lived one poor official who was a passionate hunter. He saved for a long time for a gun, which he had long dreamed of. His dream came true, but, sailing across the Gulf of Finland, he lost it. Returning home, the official died of frustration.
The first draft of the story was called “The Tale of an Official Stealing an Overcoat.” In this version, some anecdotal motives and comic effects were visible. The official's last name was Tishkevich. In 1842, Gogol completed the story and changed the hero's surname. The story is published, completing the cycle of “Petersburg Tales”. This cycle includes the stories: “Nevsky Prospekt”, “The Nose”, “Portrait”, “The Stroller”, “Notes of a Madman” and “The Overcoat”. The writer worked on the cycle between 1835 and 1842. The stories are united based on a common place of events - St. Petersburg. Petersburg, however, is not only the place of action, but also a kind of hero of these stories, in which Gogol depicts life in its various manifestations. Typically, writers, when talking about St. Petersburg life, illuminated the life and characters of the capital's society. Gogol was attracted to petty officials, artisans, and poor artists—“little people.” It was no coincidence that St. Petersburg was chosen by the writer; it was this stone city that was especially indifferent and merciless to the “little man.” This topic was first opened by A.S. Pushkin. She becomes the leader in the work of N.V. Gogol.

Genre, genre, creative method

An analysis of the work shows that the influence of hagiographic literature is visible in the story “The Overcoat”. It is known that Gogol was an extremely religious person. Of course, he was well acquainted with this genre of church literature. Many researchers have written about the influence of the life of St. Akaki of Sinai on the story “The Overcoat,” including famous names: V.B. Shklovsky and G.L. Makogonenko. Moreover, in addition to the striking external similarity of the destinies of St. Akaki and Gogol's hero were traced the main common points of plot development: obedience, stoic patience, the ability to endure various kinds of humiliation, then death from injustice and - life after death.
The genre of “The Overcoat” is defined as a story, although its volume does not exceed twenty pages. It received its specific name - a story - not so much for its volume, but for its enormous semantic richness, which is not found in every novel. The meaning of the work is revealed only by compositional and stylistic techniques with the extreme simplicity of the plot. A simple story about a poor official who invested all his money and soul into a new overcoat, after the theft of which he dies, under the pen of Gogol found a mystical denouement and turned into a colorful parable with enormous philosophical overtones. “The Overcoat” is not just an accusatory satirical story, it is a wonderful work of art that reveals the eternal problems of existence that will not be translated either in life or in literature as long as humanity exists.
Sharply criticizing the dominant system of life, its internal falsehood and hypocrisy, Gogol’s work suggested the need for a different life, a different social structure. The great writer’s “Petersburg Tales,” which include “The Overcoat,” are usually attributed to the realistic period of his work. Nevertheless, they can hardly be called realistic. The sad story about the stolen overcoat, according to Gogol, “unexpectedly takes on a fantastic ending.” The ghost, in whom the deceased Akaki Akakievich was recognized, tore off everyone’s greatcoat, “without discerning rank and title.” Thus, the ending of the story turned it into a phantasmagoria.

Subject of the analyzed work

The story raises social, ethical, religious and aesthetic problems. Public interpretation emphasized the social side of “The Overcoat.” Akakiy Akakievich was viewed as a typical “little man”, a victim of the bureaucratic system and indifference. Emphasizing the typicality of the “little man’s” fate, Gogol says that death did not change anything in the department; Bashmachkin’s place was simply taken by another official. Thus, the theme of man - a victim of the social system - is brought to its logical conclusion.
The ethical or humanistic interpretation was built on the pitiful moments of “The Overcoat”, the call for generosity and equality, which was heard in Akaki Akakievich’s weak protest against office jokes: “Leave me alone, why are you offending me?” - and in these penetrating words other words rang: “I am your brother.” Finally, the aesthetic principle, which came to the fore in the works of the 20th century, focused mainly on the form of the story as the focus of its artistic value.

The idea of ​​the story "The Overcoat"

“Why depict poverty... and the imperfections of our lives, digging people out of life, from the remote corners of the state? ...no, there is a time when it is otherwise impossible to direct society and even a generation towards the beautiful until you show the full depth of its real abomination,” wrote N.V. Gogol, and in his words lies the key to understanding the story.
The author showed the “depth of abomination” of society through the fate of the main character of the story - Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin. His image has two sides. The first is spiritual and physical squalor, which Gogol deliberately emphasizes and brings to the fore. The second is the arbitrariness and heartlessness of those around him in relation to the main character of the story. The relationship between the first and second determines the humanistic pathos of the work: even a person like Akaki Akakievich has the right to exist and be treated fairly. Gogol sympathizes with the fate of his hero. And it makes the reader involuntarily think about the attitude towards the entire world around him, and, first of all, about the sense of dignity and respect that every person should arouse towards himself, regardless of his social and financial status, but only taking into account his personal qualities and merits.

Nature of the conflict

The idea is based on N.V. Gogol lies in the conflict between the “little man” and society, a conflict leading to rebellion, to the uprising of the humble. The story “The Overcoat” describes not only an incident from the hero’s life. The whole life of a person appears before us: we are present at his birth, the naming of his name, we learn how he served, why he needed an overcoat and, finally, how he died. The story of the life of the “little man”, his inner world, his feelings and experiences, depicted by Gogol not only in “The Overcoat”, but also in other stories of the “Petersburg Tales” series, became firmly entrenched in Russian literature of the 19th century.

The main characters of the story “The Overcoat”

The hero of the story is Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin, a petty official of one of the St. Petersburg departments, a humiliated and powerless man “of short stature, somewhat pockmarked, somewhat reddish, somewhat blind in appearance, with a small bald spot on his forehead, with wrinkles on both sides of his cheeks.” The hero of Gogol's story is offended by fate in everything, but he does not complain: he is already over fifty, he has not gone beyond copying papers, has not risen to a rank higher than a titular councilor (a civil servant of the 9th class, who does not have the right to acquire personal nobility - unless he born a nobleman) - and yet humble, meek, devoid of ambitious dreams. Bashmachkin has neither family nor friends, he does not go to the theater or to visit. All his “spiritual” needs are satisfied by copying papers: “It is not enough to say: he served zealously, - no, he served with love.” Nobody considers him to be a person. “The young officials laughed and made jokes at him, as much as their clerical wit was enough...” Bashmachkin did not answer a single word to his offenders, did not even stop working and did not make mistakes in the letter. All his life Akaki Akakievich serves in the same place, in the same position; His salary is meager - 400 rubles. per year, the uniform has long been no longer green, but a reddish flour color; Colleagues call an overcoat worn to holes a hood.
Gogol does not hide the limitations, scarcity of interests of his hero, and tongue-tiedness. But something else comes to the fore: his meekness, uncomplaining patience. Even the hero’s name carries this meaning: Akaki is humble, gentle, does no evil, innocent. The appearance of the overcoat reveals the hero’s spiritual world; for the first time, the hero’s emotions are depicted, although Gogol does not give the character’s direct speech - only a retelling. Akaki Akakievich remains speechless even at the critical moment of his life. The drama of this situation lies in the fact that no one helped Bashmachkin.
An interesting vision of the main character from the famous researcher B.M. Eikhenbaum. He saw in Bashmachkin an image that “served with love”; in the rewriting, “he saw some kind of varied and pleasant world of his own,” he did not think at all about his dress or anything else practical, he ate without noticing the taste, he did not indulge in any entertainment, in a word, he lived in some kind of ghostly and strange world, far from reality, he was a dreamer in uniform. And it’s not for nothing that his spirit, freed from this uniform, so freely and boldly develops its revenge - this is prepared by the whole story, here is its whole essence, its whole whole.
Along with Bashmachkin, the image of an overcoat plays an important role in the story. It is also fully correlated with the broad concept of “uniform honor,” which characterized the most important element of noble and officer ethics, to the norms of which the authorities under Nicholas I tried to introduce commoners and all officials in general.
The loss of his overcoat turns out to be not only a material, but also a moral loss for Akaki Akakievich. After all, thanks to the new overcoat, Bashmachkin felt like a human being for the first time in a departmental environment. The new overcoat can save him from frost and illness, but, most importantly, it serves as protection for him from ridicule and humiliation from his colleagues. With the loss of his overcoat, Akaki Akakievich lost the meaning of life.

Plot and composition

“The plot of “The Overcoat” is extremely simple. The poor little official makes an important decision and orders a new overcoat. While she is being sewn, she turns into the dream of his life. The very first evening he puts it on, his overcoat is taken off by thieves on a dark street. The official dies of grief, and his ghost haunts the city. That’s the whole plot, but, of course, the real plot (as always with Gogol) is in the style, in the internal structure of this... anecdote,” this is how V.V. retold the plot of Gogol’s story. Nabokov.
Hopeless need surrounds Akaki Akakievich, but he does not see the tragedy of his situation, since he is busy with business. Bashmachkin is not burdened by his poverty because he does not know any other life. And when he has a dream - a new overcoat, he is ready to endure any hardships, just to bring the realization of his plans closer. The overcoat becomes a kind of symbol of a happy future, a beloved brainchild, for which Akaki Akakievich is ready to work tirelessly. The author is quite serious when he describes his hero’s delight at realizing his dream: the overcoat is sewn! Bashmachkin was completely happy. However, with the loss of his new overcoat, Bashmachkin is overtaken by real grief. And only after death is justice done. Bashmachkin's soul finds peace when he returns his lost item.
The image of the overcoat is very important in the development of the plot of the work. The plot of the story revolves around the idea of ​​sewing a new overcoat or repairing an old one. The development of the action is Bashmachkin’s trips to the tailor Petrovich, an ascetic existence and dreams of a future overcoat, the purchase of a new dress and a visit to the name day, on which Akaki Akakievich’s overcoat must be “washed.” The action culminates in the theft of a new overcoat. And finally, the denouement lies in Bashmachkin’s unsuccessful attempts to return the overcoat; the death of a hero who caught a cold without his overcoat and yearns for it. The story ends with an epilogue - a fantastic story about the ghost of an official who is looking for his overcoat.
The story about the “posthumous existence” of Akaki Akakievich is full of horror and comedy at the same time. In the deathly silence of the St. Petersburg night, he tears off the greatcoats from officials, not recognizing the bureaucratic difference in ranks and operating both behind the Kalinkin Bridge (that is, in the poor part of the capital) and in the rich part of the city. Only having overtaken the direct culprit of his death, “one significant person”, who, after a friendly official party, goes to “a certain lady Karolina Ivanovna,” and having torn off his general’s overcoat, the “spirit” of the dead Akaki Akakievich calms down and disappears from St. Petersburg squares and streets. Apparently, “the general’s overcoat suited him perfectly.”

Artistic originality

“Gogol’s composition is not determined by the plot - his plot is always poor; rather, there is no plot at all, but only one comic (and sometimes not even comic in itself at all) situation is taken, which serves, as it were, only as an impetus or reason for the development comic techniques. This story is especially interesting for this kind of analysis, because in it a pure comic tale, with all the techniques of language play characteristic of Gogol, is combined with pathetic declamation, forming, as it were, a second layer. Gogol doesn’t allow his characters in “The Overcoat” to speak much, and, as always with him, their speech is formed in a special way, so that, despite individual differences, it never gives the impression of everyday speech,” wrote B.M. Eikhenbaum in the article “How Gogol’s “Overcoat” was Made.”
The narration in “The Overcoat” is told in the first person. The narrator knows the life of officials well and expresses his attitude to what is happening in the story through numerous remarks. “What to do! the St. Petersburg climate is to blame,” he notes regarding the hero’s deplorable appearance. The climate forces Akaki Akakievich to go to great lengths to buy a new overcoat, that is, in principle, directly contributes to his death. We can say that this frost is an allegory of Gogol’s Petersburg.
All the artistic means that Gogol uses in the story: portrait, depiction of details of the environment in which the hero lives, the plot of the story - all this shows the inevitability of Bashmachkin’s transformation into a “little man.”
The style of storytelling itself, when a pure comic tale, built on wordplay, puns, and deliberate tongue-tiedness, is combined with sublime, pathetic declamation, is an effective artistic means.

Meaning of the work

The great Russian critic V.G. Belinsky said that the task of poetry is “to extract the poetry of life from the prose of life and to shake souls with a faithful portrayal of this life.” N.V. is precisely such a writer, a writer who shakes the soul by depicting the most insignificant pictures of human existence in the world. Gogol. According to Belinsky, the story “The Overcoat” is “one of Gogol’s most profound creations.” Herzen called “The Overcoat” “a colossal work.” The enormous influence of the story on the entire development of Russian literature is evidenced by the phrase recorded by the French writer Eugene de Vogüe from the words of “one Russian writer” (as is commonly believed, F.M. Dostoevsky): “We all came out of Gogol’s “The Overcoat.”
Gogol's works have been repeatedly staged and filmed. One of the last theatrical productions of “The Overcoat” was staged at the Moscow Sovremennik. On the new stage of the theater, called “Another Stage”, intended primarily for staging experimental performances, “The Overcoat” was staged by director Valery Fokin.
“Staging Gogol’s “The Overcoat” has been my long-time dream. In general, I believe that Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol has three main works: “The Inspector General,” “Dead Souls” and “The Overcoat,” Fokin said. — I had already staged the first two and dreamed of “The Overcoat,” but I couldn’t start rehearsing because I didn’t see the leading actor... It always seemed to me that Bashmachkin was an unusual creature, neither female nor male, and someone... then here an unusual person, and really an actor or actress, had to play this,” says the director. Fokin's choice fell on Marina Neelova. “During the rehearsal and in what happened during the work on the play, I realized that Neelova was the only actress who could do what I had in mind,” says the director. The play premiered on October 5, 2004. The set design of the story and the performing skills of actress M. Neyolova were highly appreciated by the audience and the press.
“And here is Gogol again. Sovremennik again. Once upon a time, Marina Neelova said that she sometimes imagines herself as a white sheet of paper, on which every director is free to depict whatever he wants - even a hieroglyph, even a drawing, even a long, tricky phrase. Maybe someone will imprison a blot in the heat of the moment. A viewer who looks at “The Overcoat” may imagine that there is no woman named Marina Mstislavovna Neyolova in the world, that she was completely erased from the drawing paper of the universe with a soft eraser and a completely different creature was drawn in her place. Gray-haired, thin-haired, evoking in everyone who looks at him both disgusting disgust and magnetic attraction.”
(Newspaper, October 6, 2004)

“In this series, Fokine’s “The Overcoat”, which opened a new stage, looks like just an academic repertoire line. But only at first glance. Going to a performance, you can safely forget about your previous ideas. For Valery Fokin, “The Overcoat” is not at all where all humanistic Russian literature with its eternal pity for the little man came from. His “Overcoat” belongs to a completely different, fantastic world. His Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin is not an eternal titular adviser, not a wretched copyist, unable to change verbs from the first person to the third, he is not even a man, but some strange creature of the neuter gender. To create such a fantastic image, the director needed an actor who was incredibly flexible and flexible, not only physically, but also psychologically. The director found such a versatile actor, or rather actress, in Marina Neelova. When this gnarled, angular creature with sparse tangled tufts of hair on his bald head appears on stage, the audience unsuccessfully tries to guess in him at least some familiar features of the brilliant prima “Contemporary”. In vain. Marina Neelova is not here. It seems that she has physically transformed, melted into her hero. Somnambulistic, cautious and at the same time awkward old man’s movements and a thin, plaintive, rattling voice. Since there is almost no text in the play (Bashmachkin’s few phrases, consisting mainly of prepositions, adverbs and other particles that absolutely do not have any meaning, serve rather as a speech or even sound characteristic of the character), the role of Marina Neyolova practically turns into a pantomime. But the pantomime is truly fascinating. Her Bashmachkin settled comfortably in his old giant overcoat, as if in a house: he fiddles around there with a flashlight, relieves himself, and settles down for the night.”
(Kommersant, October 6, 2004)

This is interesting

“As part of the Chekhov Festival, on the Small Stage of the Pushkin Theater, where puppet productions often tour and the audience can accommodate only 50 people, the Chilean Theater of Miracles played Gogol’s “The Overcoat.” We don’t know anything about the puppet theater in Chile, so we could have expected something quite exotic, but in fact it turned out that there was nothing specially foreign in it - it was just a good little performance, made sincerely, with love and without any special ambitions. What was funny was that the characters here are called exclusively by their patronymics and all these “Buenos Dias, Akakievich” and “Por Favor, Petrovich” sounded comical.
The Milagros Theater is a sociable affair. It was created in 2005 by the famous Chilean TV presenter Alina Kuppernheim together with her classmates. Young women say that they fell in love with “The Overcoat,” which is not very well known in Chile (it turns out that “The Nose” is much more famous there), while still studying, and they all studied to become drama theater actresses. Having decided to make a puppet theater, we spent two whole years composing everything together, adapting the story ourselves, coming up with a set design, and making puppets.
The portal of the Milagros Theater, a plywood house that barely accommodates four puppeteers, was placed in the middle of the Pushkinsky stage and a small curtain-screen was closed. The performance itself is performed in a “black room” (puppeteers dressed in black almost disappear against the backdrop of a black velvet backdrop), but the action began with a video on the screen. First there is a white silhouette animation - little Akakievich is growing up, he gets all the bumps, and he wanders - long, thin, big-nosed, hunched over more and more against the background of the conventional Petersburg. The animation gives way to a torn video - the crackling and noise of the office, flocks of typewriters flying across the screen (several eras are deliberately mixed here). And then, through the screen, in a spot of light, the red-haired man himself, with deep bald patches, Akakievich himself gradually appears at a table with papers that are kept being brought and brought to him.
In essence, the most important thing in the Chilean performance is the skinny Akakievich with long and awkward arms and legs. It is led by several puppeteers at once, some are responsible for the hands, some for the legs, but the audience does not notice this, they just see how the doll becomes alive. Here he scratches himself, rubs his eyes, groans, with pleasure straightens his stiff limbs, kneading every bone, now he carefully examines the network of holes in his old overcoat, ruffled, stomps around in the cold and rubs his frozen hands. It is a great art to work so harmoniously with a puppet, few people master it; Just recently at the Golden Mask we saw a production by one of our best puppet directors who knows how such miracles are made - Evgeniy Ibragimov, who staged Gogol's The Players in Tallinn.
There are other characters in the play: colleagues and superiors looking out from the doors and windows of the stage, the little red-nosed fat man Petrovich, the gray-haired Significant Person sitting at the table on a dais - all of them are also expressive, but cannot be compared with Akakievich. With how he humiliatingly and timidly huddles in Petrovich’s house, and how later, having received his lingonberry-colored overcoat, he giggles embarrassedly, turns his head, calling himself handsome, like an elephant on parade. And it seems that the wooden doll even smiles. This transition from jubilation to terrible grief, which is so difficult for “live” actors, comes out very naturally for the doll.
During the festive party that colleagues threw to “sprinkle” the hero’s new overcoat, a sparkling carousel was spinning on the stage and small flat dolls made from cut out old photographs were spinning in a dance. Akakievich, who was previously worried that he did not know how to dance, returns from the party, full of happy impressions, as if from a disco, continuing to dance and sing: “boom-boom - tudu-tudu.” This is a long, funny and touching episode. And then unknown hands beat him and take off his overcoat. Further, a lot will happen with running around the authorities: the Chileans expanded several Gogol lines into a whole anti-bureaucratic video episode with a map of the city, which shows how officials drive from one to another a poor hero trying to return his overcoat.
Only the voices of Akakievich and those who are trying to get rid of him are heard: “You should contact Gomez on this issue. - Please Gomez. — Do you want Pedro or Pablo? - Should I Pedro or Pablo? - Julio! - Please Julio Gomez. “You need to go to another department.”
But no matter how inventive all these scenes are, the meaning is still in the red-haired sad hero who returns home, lies down in bed and, pulling the blanket, for a long time, sick and tormented by sad thoughts, tosses and turns and tries to nestle comfortably. Completely alive and desperately alone.”
(“Vremya Novostey” 06/24/2009)

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Markovich V.M. Petersburg stories by N.V. Gogol. L., 1989.
Mochulsky KV. Gogol. Soloviev. Dostoevsky. M., 1995.
Nabokov V.V. Lectures on Russian literature. M., 1998.
Nikolaev D. Gogol's satire. M., 1984.
Shklovsky V.B. Notes on the prose of Russian classics. M., 1955.
Eikhenbaum BM. About prose. L., 1969.

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– the theme of the “little man”, a protest against social orders that limit the individual.

Composition– the narrative is built on the principle of “being”. The exposition is a brief history of Bashmachkin’s life, the beginning is the decision about the need to change the overcoat, the climax is the theft of the overcoat and the clash with the indifference of the authorities, the denouement is the illness and death of the main character, the epilogue is 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 a 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 of 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 the 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 Akaki Bashmachkin, why he was called that, about the work and inner world of the 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. The denouement is the last meeting with a “significant person” 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 face what he did not have time to say during his lifetime.

Main characters

Genre

The story about the titular councilor 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, and strange images intersect.

Work test

Rating Analysis

Average rating: 4.2. Total ratings received: 2112.

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 from the nobles helped 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 around them remained deaf to their suffering, humiliation and death, just as cold as a winter night, arrogant Petersburg 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 is no coincidence that Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky’s catchphrase in an interview with a French journalist became famous: “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 the intervention of evil spirits, becomes just as terrible. 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