Character Analysis
The Jerkwad
First and foremost, the prominent personage is a jerkwad. Not just a regular jerkwad, but a grade-A, friend-scaring, old-man-killing, certified gigantic jerkwad. No one likes him, not even his friends or coworkers. It's easy to see why, too, because he's simply downright mean.
Think about him this way: everything that Akaky isn't, the prominent personage is. Not even the janitor notices when Akaky comes into the room, but everybody notices when the prominent personage arrives. The narrator says:
But there was no necessity for this, for the half-score of officials who formed the entire force of the mechanism of the office were properly afraid without it: on catching sight of him afar off, they left their work, and waited, drawn up in line, until their chief had passed through the room. (88)
Sure, they don't notice him for good reasons, but they notice him.
While Akaky couldn't care less what other people think about him, and even doesn't mind if he's covered in trash, the prominent personage takes great pains to cultivate an image of superiority. He'll even lie to get what he wants. The narrator tells us:
Nevertheless, he ordered that the official should wait, in order to show his friend—a man who had not been in the service for a long time, but had lived at home in the country—how long officials had to wait in his ante-room. (90)
Nothing says intimidation like making someone wait a long time for an appointment. Do you think his friend was impressed? Or do you think he was just scared and confused?
In addition, we all know that Akaky speaks in a stammering whisper. The prominent personage, on the other hand, is loud, forceful, and uses his speech to frighten people. He says:
"Do you know to whom you speak? Do you realize who stands before you? Do you realize it? Do you realize it? I ask you!" Then he stamped his foot, and raised his voice to such a pitch that it would have frightened even a different man from Akaky Akakievich. (95)
We really can't think of a lot of things that are more jerkwaddy than yelling at a poor man who has lost his coat just because you want to impress your friend. Can you?
Flip Side of the Coin
Despite being a totally lame, self-obsessed loser, the prominent personage's personality is not as cut and dry as it may seem. Think about it. Why would Gogol go through all the trouble to make him such a well-matched foil for Akaky? Because he suffers from the same problems.
Akaky is a victim of the strict hierarchy in Russian bureaucracy at the time. His lack of power, respect, and money shape his personality and make him a mild-mannered man. In the same way, the prominent personage's behavior is determined by his high rank. It is just as difficult for him to deal with all the power and respect that he is now expected to have.
When Akaky meets him, the prominent personage has just started at his new position. He's not used to being prominent yet, and he's not sure what to do. The narrator says:
Otherwise he was a very kind-hearted man, good to his comrades, and ready to oblige; but the rank of general threw him completely off his balance. On receiving that rank, he became confused, as it were, lost his way, and never knew what to do. (89)
In different circumstances, this guy isn't a jerkwad. He's probably a nice normal guy whom you could even depend on for a favor, but once his position changes and he starts dreaming of more power, everything goes wrong.
The prominent personage's behavior is just an act to help him better his reputation as a powerful man. Akaky doesn't have to pretend to be a low-ranking official, but we guess it's more work to convince people that you're a big deal. So instead of acting normally and decently, the prominent personage acted like this:
[He] strove to increase his importance by many devices; namely, he managed to have the inferior officials meet him on the staircase when he entered upon his service: no one was to presume to come directly to him, but the strictest etiquette must be observed; the 'Collegiate Recorder' must announce to the government secretary, the government secretary to the titular councilor, or whatever other man was proper, and the business came before him in this manner. (87)
In order to express his power, he feels he must inconvenience and restrain other people, as if power is measured by one's ability to inconvenience others and not feel inconvenienced oneself.
Remorse and Redemption
Akaky must be the prominent personage's guardian angel. He saves the personage from himself. Sure, Akaky might die from his devotion to his overcoat, but in death, he stops the prominent personage from focusing on power and fame.
The prominent personage must have put down "Guide to Being a Powerful Jerkwad," because when he realizes what he's done to Akaky, he actually cares that something that has happened to a mere low-ranking official. The narrator says:
First of all, justice compels us to say, that after the departure of poor, thoroughly annihilated Akaky Akakievich, he felt something like remorse. Suffering was unpleasant to him: his heart was accessible to many good impulses, in spite of the fact that his rank very often prevented his showing his true self. (107)
There's still a tiny amount of good hiding underneath that tough exterior, but the remorse is only temporary and soon the permanent personage is back to his old tricks.
It takes something a little more extreme to set him right for good. Something like a visit from beyond the grave. Akaky's ghost scares the living daylights out of the prominent personage when he steals his coat. After this ghostly encounter, he decides to make a change. The narrator says:
This occurrence made a deep impression upon him. He even began to say less frequently to the under-officials, "How dare you? Do you realize who stands before you?" and, if he did utter the words, it was after first having learned the bearings of the matter. (115)
It might not seem like much at first, but if we consider all the work he put into being a horrible person, we realize this is a pretty big deal. Akaky's ghost and its thieving ways have turned this guy's life around, and probably for the better.