The Overcoat

“In the department of…but I had better not mention which department.”

The opening of “The Overcoat” establishes narrative ambiguity, allowing the reader to transpose the story into any “department,” company, or bureaucratic system. The first line also hints at the story’s themes regarding bureaucracy. The narrator refrains from naming the bureaucracy because “there is nothing in the world more touchy than a department” (304).

“And so, in a certain department there was a certain clerk, a clerk of whom it cannot be said that he was very remarkable; he was short, somewhat pock-marked, with rather reddish hair and rather dim, bleary eyes, with a small bald patch on top of his head, with wrinkles on both sides of his cheeks and the sort of complexion which is usually described as hemorrhoidal.”

These expository details set the scene for the reader to understand the mundanity as well as the unassuming nature of the protagonist, Akaky Akakievich. The hyperbolic drabness of Akaky Akakievich’s life, reflected in his appearance, is the backdrop against which his unusually good-liking and well-made coat stands out.

“The baby was christened and cried and made sour faces throughout the ceremony, as though he foresaw that he would be a titular councilor.”

Gogol utilizes humor to lighten the tone of “The Overcoat,” allowing what could be a sorrowful story to read sometimes like a comedy. This playful mood also counterbalances a sense of inexorable fate for the protagonist.