The Overcoat by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

The Overcoat by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

The hero of “The Overcoat”, Akaky Akakievich, engenders both hatred and pity from the reader. His meekness and his pathetic life deserve sympathy, while his utter detachment from his peers and his singular obsession with a coat are often despised. He is drastically different from any of his peers, but there is a certain purity in his way of life which the overcoat defiles. Akaky’s world is completely devoid of any excitement; his sole source of pleasure lies in his work. However, his career itself is excruciatingly mundane and only a man as simple as he could extract happiness from it. Akaky is a ghost in his world, and only his death leaves any impression. Temptation, in the form of a luxurious coat, is forced upon him and upsets his peaceful life. Akaky should not be hated for his disconnection from reality or for his symbolic marriage to an overcoat; rather he should be pitied for his terrible fate.

Akaky is doomed from birth. When his mother pages through the Russian Orthodox calendar for names for her son, each name carries the connotation of martyrdom. She realizes that he will be unable to avoid a similarly miserable fate, and so resignedly gives him the monotonous name of “Akaky, son of Akaky”. Nothing about him, in fact, is either notable or appealing. Described as short, pockmarked, balding and ruddy-faced, Akaky is the antithesis of attractive. A fly commands more attention than he does. His diminutive salary prevents him from affording anything but the poorest of clothing, but finer garments could scarcely improve his looks. Even the timing of his walks to work is cursed; he constantly finds himself the target of garbage thrown out of apartment windows and so is alw...

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... of a general may hide the face of the “…certain important person…” (p. 415) whose cruelty weakens and ultimately kills Akaky. Fate is represented by the “…northern frost…” (p. 399) which, combined with the temptation offered by Petrovich and the brutality of the general, dooms Akaky. His mother was correct in assuming his destiny to be inescapable. As Akaky is completely unaware of the pact he makes with the devil, he cannot be held responsible when the seemingly wonderful overcoat consumes his soul.

Akaky cannot be despised for his obsession with an object because his pathetic life made his fixation unavoidable. The overcoat granted him his first sensation of pride, importance, and acceptance, and so he could not help but become attached to it. He was content before the garment entered his life, but Petrovich and the cold St. Petersburg weather force it upon him.