Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin

Character Analysis

A Nobody

Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin might just be the most insignificant and mocked protagonist in literary history. Sure, there are lots of other protagonists who start out as losers, but most of those guys transform into the heroes before they die. Not Akaky. Akaky is a loser through and through.

He's ugly, old, poor, and he can't even muster up enough courage to finish his sentences when he's talking to people. Talk about awkward. Most importantly, he is a low-ranking official. That means no one gives him any respect, despite the fact he is strangely, though admirably, dedicated to his job.

That Name

You might have noticed that Akaky has a pretty strange name. In certain translations, it's even spelled with two i's (Akakii), making it look that much weirder. The narrator tells us that Akaky got his name because it was the least ridiculous of the names that his godparents suggested to his mother when he was born. We guess godparents must have had a pretty big say in naming babies in Russia back then, because why else would any parent in their right mind choose a name like Akaky?

There are a couple of theories surrounding Akaky's name, but the first one will probably be the easiest to understand. Say his full name out loud. We'll wait.

Done? Did you notice anything?

All of the "K" and "ak" sounds make it pretty funny to say, don't they? So on one level, Gogol probably just thought his name sounded funny. Oh, and sounding just like kaka (poop) is an added plus.

The two other theories are a bit more complex. One suggests that Akaky's name is a reference to St. Acacius, a priest who was famous for living as simply as Akaky does. We kind of guess that would be an obscure reference. The other theory is that the name comes from the Greek akakia, which means innocent, simple, and gentle. That sure sounds like Akaky, doesn't it?

In short stories the author often has to convey a lot of information very quickly, and Gogol does some pretty heavy lifting through Akaky's name. He lets us know that Akaky is kind of ridiculous, and makes fun of him in the same breath that he is (possibly) compared to a saint. That's a great set up for understanding Akaky's role in the rest of the story. Even though he's lame, we can't help but think that he's the most moral character in the whole story.

Timeless

You know what doesn't change? Dead things. And Akaky. For much of the story Akaky doesn't change a bit. According to his coworkers, he never went through puberty; he was born a fully-grown adult. The narrator says:

However much the directors and chiefs of all kinds were changed, he was always to be seen in the same place, the same attitude, the same occupation—the same official for letters; so that afterwards it was affirmed that he had been born in undress uniform with a bald spot on his head. (5)

While everyone around him changes and grows up, Akaky remains the same. It's kind of creepy.

Someone might say that this is because he has no friends and no one cares about him, but they'd be wrong. When he is given an opportunity to change, Akaky refuses. The narrator tells us:

One director being a kindly man, and desirous of rewarding him for his long service, ordered him to be given something more important than mere copying [...] This caused him so much toil, that he was all in a perspiration, rubbed his forehead, and finally said, "No, give me rather something to copy." After that they let him copy on forever. (11)

See? Some people do like him. But Akaky has no ambitions for anything in life. He just wants to keep doing what he's always been doing.

So what? Well, a couple of things. People who don't want to change are content, and at this stage in the story Akaky is content with his lot in life. And remember how we said that dead things don't change? Well, Akaky is so static, unemotional, and unremarkable that we wouldn't be surprised if someone compared him to a ghost. Luckily for us, we get to see Akaky become a ghost later in the story. What is Akaky like when he's a ghost? How does Akaky's static nature in the world of the living contrast with what happens once he dies? Keep these questions in mind when you think about these next two sections.

Coat Fetishist

With how excited he gets over this coat, you would almost think that Akaky is a fashionista or something like that. This guy doesn't get excited about anything, so what's the deal with this coat?

First of all, let's look at his old coat. It's so threadbare and worn that his coworkers don't even call it a "coat." They refer to it as a "hood." On top of that, Akaky doesn't take very good care of it. The narrator says:

He thought not at all of his clothes: his undress uniform was not green, but a sort of rusty-meal color. [...] And something was always sticking to his uniform—either a piece of hay or some trifle. Moreover, he had a peculiar knack, as he walked in the street, of arriving beneath a window when all sorts of rubbish was being flung out of it: hence he always bore about on his hat melon and watermelon rinds, and other such stuff. (12)

Unless wearing trash in your hat is new "in" thing, Akakki doesn't sound like someone who cares about his looks. That sounds like someone who could care less what people think about his clothing, since he doesn't care either.

That all changes when the coat arrives. Even when he's just making the plans with Petrovich, Akaky's personality is already changing. We see it happen right before our eyes: "'A hundred and fifty rubles for an overcoat!' shrieked poor Akaky Akakievich—shrieked perhaps for the first time in his life, for his voice had always been distinguished for its softness" (44). That's just the first sign of what's to come. Bit by bit, he changes from a static, meek official to someone who actually seems to have normal wants and desires.

When he finally gets the coat, Akaky comes alive. It's easy to miss this line, but the narrator tells us: "His heart, generally so quiet, began to beat" (60). In other words, before Akaky's heart did not beat and he was dead. The coat made him a real living person. That's not the only change that happens to our unfortunately named protagonist. Suddenly he cares about his fashion, and relishes in every opportunity to show off his new coat. He even (gasp!) goes to a party with other people and kind of likes it. If only everyone's life could be so radically changed by a new coat.

But there's also a weird side to all of this self-improvement. We think that Akaky might be in love with his new coat. Now, before you call us crazy, hear us out think about how Akaky feels about his coat:

From that time forth, his existence seemed to become, in some way, fuller, as if he were married, as if some other man lived in him, as if he were not alone, and some charming friend had consented to go along life's path with him—and the friend was no other than that overcoat, with thick wadding and a strong lining incapable of wearing out. (57)

As if he were married? A charming friend? That's the way most people would feel about their spouse, but Akaky feels it about his coat.

And it's not just that Akaky has a weird attachment to his coat. Didn't seem strange to you that he has no interest in women until after he gets the coat? On the way to the party he stares at an advertisement showing a beautiful woman, and on the way back, he chases after a woman on the street. That sounds an awful lot like someone who has love on the brain. His coat makes him feel this way because it is the first thing that has brought change into his life. He's not a dead office drone living the same humdrum life anymore. He an important guy with a new overcoat.

For Akaky, love, change, desire, and advancement are all wrapped up in the image of his coat. It could have been a lady, it could have been a pet, but Akaky falls in love with his overcoat. And we all know the bad things happen when you separate a man with the thing he loves.

Akaky, the Un-friendly Ghost

This guy is a real protagonist. He's got a goal, he's got emotions, and he makes things happen. All Akaky had to do in order to come alive was die.

The transformation that began when Akaky ordered his coat is completed in his death. He becomes someone who is almost unrecognizable. Before his death, one of Akaky's most notable traits is his stuttering speech, but he suddenly sounds quite different while on his deathbed:

[...] he fancied that he was standing before the general, listening to a thorough setting-down, and saying, "Forgive, your excellency!" but at last he began to curse, uttering the most horrible words, so that his aged landlady crossed herself, never in her life having heard anything of the kind from him—the more so, as those words followed directly after the words your excellency. (99)

That's the same guy who fainted when somebody yelled at him a little too much. But wait, he still not dead yet.

Everything changes when Akaky becomes a ghost. He means business. The narrator says:

A rumor suddenly spread throughout Petersburg that a dead man had taken to appearing on the Kalinkin Bridge, and far beyond, at night, in the form of an official seeking a stolen coat, and that, under the pretext of its being the stolen coat, he dragged every one's coat from his shoulders without regard to rank or calling—cat—skin, beaver, wadded, fox, bear, raccoon coats; in a word, every sort of fur and skin which men adopted. (103)

Akaky isn't scared of high-ranking officials anymore. In fact, he doesn't seem to be scared of anyone. He doesn't care if you are high-ranking, low-ranking, or in between. He's just angry. Now it's everyone else who's afraid of him.

Could you have imagined the meek and mild-mannered Akaky from the beginning of the story stealing people's coats? We don't think so. For Akaky, the love that he had for his overcoat changed him from a mostly content and simple man into a vengeful spirit. Funnily enough, he seems more alive in death than he ever was before. As Alanis Morissette once said… Isn't it ironic?

We're not sure if Gogol meant for Akaky's transformation to be a good thing or a bad thing. We want him to get revenge, but we also might feel like his living existence, though ghost-like, was much more peaceful, happy, and content.

What do you think this transformation means? Is Akaky rejuvenated by the coat and reborn into a true hero in the afterlife? Or is his content and simple life twisted and destroyed by the coat, turning him into a vengeful wraith in death?

Either way, we know one thing. That guy sure did love his coat.