Literary Devices in The Overcoat
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Nikolai Gogol grew up in hard times for Russia. When he was 17 years old in 1825, a group of revolutionaries called the Decembrists (no, not the band) tried to overthrow the czarist regime. Of cour...
Narrator Point of View
You might be tempted to think that this is a story told in the third person, but you have to look carefully. Even though the narrator seems objective at times, there are moments that betray him. Fo...
Genre
If there's one thing that Gogol is known for, it's comedy (even though most of the time that comedy turns into horror by the end of the story, like with Akaky's ghost, but it still counts). Gogol's...
Tone
Duh it's prose, we hear you say. Normally that might be the case, but Russian literature was going through some interesting times when Gogol was writing. Before the 1830s the majority of Russian li...
What's Up With the Title?
Um. It's a story. About a guy with an overcoat. You knew that, right?Seriously now, it might seem super obvious why Gogol named his story "The Overcoat." But why didn't he name it "Akaky," or "The...
What's Up With the Ending?
Let's take a minute to revisit the story's mysterious ending.But many active and apprehensive persons could by no means reassure themselves, and asserted that the dead official still showed himself...
Tough-o-Meter
Come on guys; this was written so simply that even Akaky could understand it. Both the language and the plot are fairly simple, even though Gogol does throw us a curveball at the end. As with many...
Plot Analysis
A Certain Low-Ranking OfficialWe are introduced to a certain low-ranking official named Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin. We get to learn about how much Akaky loves his job, gets no respect, and has no...
Trivia
Nikolai Gogol, the flamboyant front man of Gogol Bordello…Oh wait, that's just a band named after him? Our badYou too can own your very own limited edition Nikolai Gogol stamp. If you live in Rus...
Steaminess Rating
There is absolutely, positively, no chance of there being anything steamy in "The Overcoat." Zero. Nada. Zilch. The main character falls in love with his coat. Need we say more?
Allusions
The Falconet Monument (15)The 1861 emancipation of Russian serfs (20) German immigration into Russia (20)