Gogol's "The Overcoat"

Summary
Omniscient Narration - all-knowing, God-like narration
Akakiy Bashmatchkin
   - copier for unnamed department
   - poverty stricken
   - quiet and reserved -> people treated him poorly
The Cloak
   - reflects Akakiy's social standing
   - tattered and mocked by officials
Petrovich
   - one-eyed tailor
   - heavy drinker -> discounted tailoring (unless his possibly abusive wife had anything to do with it)
The Party
  - wears new cloak (warmth and beauty) - begins to be treated completely differently
  - uncomfortable (social status)
  - robbed after leaving
Northern Cold (weather parallels the atmosphere)
   - tries to report his stolen coat but the police don't believe he would even have a nice cloak
   - forced to wear his old cloak
   - gets sick and dies (hallucinates - the cloak)
The Ghost on Kalinkin Bridge
   - Prominent personage was the only one who cared about Akakiy's absence
   - image = revenge on the man from his department for his lack of action (defending him)

Theories
- Fantastic Ending - magical and ghostly
- Poetic Justice - trying to fight for himself on the social scale
- Reabsorbed into literary free play after his foolhardy excursion into the material world
   - he was treated differently based on his material possessions and the second he lost them he was back
     to being treated the same as before
- Mere convention keeps us from reality
- Questions kind of justice and why the ghost removes the cloaks of random victims
    - both struggle for everyone to be equal!!
- Conventions are at odds with freedom and humanity (Petrovich)

- It is a tale both simple and philosophical; thought with a difference. The story has, in Gogol's words, a fantastic ending and one of spectral retribution and redemption.
- Revenge
- Literary life to "little man"

Discussion Questions
The settings changed as Akakiy made his way to the party (paralleling the social statuses of society) when clear differences were noticed as you enter the wealthier society.
- Lighted, safe, store front shopping -> outgoing and populated
- Compared to the dark neighborhoods where A. is from
The climax of the story could be when A. finally gets his new coat because everything goes downhill afterwards (and beforehand it builds up to that moment).
The symbolism behind the cloak is social status, accomplishment and happiness. Since A. put so much work into coming up with the money and sacrificing things in order to get it, he places much value upon it since he earned it himself.
Themes
- Power vs. Powerlessness - gain power through the cloak (money=power) but once he loses it, those in power view him as low class and powerless
   - powerless - he didn't even want the coat in the first place but someone he got swindled into still getting
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