Full Answer
What does the narrator say about Akaky?
What is Akaky Akakievich?
What does the narrator say after Akaky is kicked out of his office?
How does Akaky live?
Why did Akaky have a face?
What do the colored dots and icons indicate?
Where does Akaky run to the watchman?
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Who was Akaky Akakievich?
In his short story “The Overcoat”, Gogol focuses on that particular type of character in depicting the story of Akaky Akakievich, a penniless government clerk and copyist in the city of St. Petersburg. Akaky is blatantly overworked and overlooked by everyone in his life.
How is Akaky described?
Akaky Akakievich is a short man with an “unmemorable” appearance. He is somewhat educated, and not at the lowest rank of bureaucracy, but he is still very poor. Akaky lives an extremely mundane life: both in and out of his department, he spends all of his time diligently copying documents.
What was Akaky attitude to his work?
Akaky is not merely introverted, but described as humorously fit for his position as a non-entity. He is not oppressed by the nature of bureaucratic work because he enjoys performing bureaucratic tasks. Akaky "labored with love" and longed for nothing but copying.
How does the description of Akaky Akakievich naming develop his character?
How does the description of Akaky Akakievich's naming develop his character? The description of Akaky Akakievich's naming shows that his mother was “a very good woman” (p. 395) who put great thought into finding the right name for him.
What does Akakievich mean?
397) – This indicates that Akaky Akakievich is a person who is devoted to his work in way that sets him apart from others. “But Akaky Akakievich, even if he looked at something, saw in everything his own neat lines” (p.
What is the effect of the authors description of Akakievich?
The Narrator draws attention to himself by withholding information, such as the name of Akaky Akakievich department and the identity of the Important Person. He injects his own opinions about characters and the bureaucratic system in general, and manipulates the short story genre in which he is operating.
What was Akakievich good at doing answer?
Answer: Explanation: Akakievich was good at copying the letter. "The Overcoat" is a short story written by Nikolai Gogol.
What is the theme of The Overcoat?
Nikolai Gogol's short story, The Overcoat employs various themes, such as the working class, social standing and fate, the idea of possessing a desirable possession, and a Christ figure. From a Christian perspective, it points out the brokenness and sin embedded in characters.
Why did Akaky Akakievich decide to get a new overcoat?
The Narrator says that Akaky is “perfectly happy with his lot,” but that St. Petersburg harbors a major obstacle to those who make the low salary of four hundred rubles per year—the northern cold. Akaky, after being punished by this cold, decides that it is time for him to get a new overcoat.
How does the description of the old overcoat on page 400 relate to Akaky Akakievich?
How does the description of the old overcoat on page 400 relate to Akaky Akakievich? The narrator describes the overcoat as “strangely constituted,” stating the other clerks “deprived it of the noble name of overcoat” and called it a “housecoat” (p. 400), or woman's robe, instead.
How does the new overcoat impact Akaky Akakievich relationship with his co workers?
o The new overcoat causes him to reject his old, “strangely constituted” (p. 400) overcoat when he mocks it like his co-workers did, calling it a “housecoat” (p. 410) and laughs at it. o Akaky Akakievich's nightly routine changes the day he wears his new overcoat when he writes “nothing after dinner” (p.
Who is the important person in The Overcoat?
Akaky AkakyevichAkaky Akakyevich is the central character of Gogol's story The Overcoat. by two thieves who knock him to the ground and steal his coat.
What was Akaky good at doing?
Akaky worked as a government clerk and a copyist in a office unknown, as the author did not mention it. He loved his work so much that he would travel many places while copying every letter.
How does the description of the old overcoat on page 400 relate to Akaky Akakievich?
How does the description of the old overcoat on page 400 relate to Akaky Akakievich? The narrator describes the overcoat as “strangely constituted,” stating the other clerks “deprived it of the noble name of overcoat” and called it a “housecoat” (p. 400), or woman's robe, instead.
Why does Akaky go to the tailor?
Answer: One-day Akaky realizes that his coat is getting worn out and he takes it to Petrovich, the tailor. Akaky hopes that Petrovich can just patch his coat and so he can get on with his life, but Petrovich insists that he needs a brand-new coat.
Was Akaky's life meaningful?
Akaky's life is so devoid of meaning and complexity that it may even be difficult for the reader to feel sympathy for him. Though Akaky Akakievich is apparently content with his lot, Gogol's descriptions of his mundane and pathetic life challenge the reader's ability to empathize with the clerk.
How does the description of the cloak develop the theme?
The splendor of the cloak emphasizes how objects can transform people’s self-perceptions.
The Unreliable Narrator
Examples of the narrator's unreliability: "Akaky Akakievich was born, if my memory fails me not , towards night on the 23d of March."
Discuss how ‘The Overcoat’s’ narrator affects your interpretation of the story?
The story is told from the perspective of an unnamed first person narrator who is not directly involved in the events of the story but is aware of...
Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin in The Overcoat | Shmoop
All the need-to-know deets on Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin from The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol.
👸🏾 😩 👥 Characteristics of Akaky Akakievich in Nikolai Gogol ...
Titular Advisor. This is the rank of Akaky Akakievich. Gogol gives a description of his hero at the very beginning of the work. Such as Bashmachkin, called eternal titular advisers.
Akaky Akakievich and the Tragedy of the Overcoat - New York Essays
Check out this FREE essay on Akaky Akakievich and the Tragedy of the Overcoat ️ and use it to write your own unique paper. New York Essays - database with more than 65.000 college essays for A+ grades
The Overcoat Flashcards | Quizlet
Nikolai Gogol-born in Ukraine-went to St petersburg in 1828-embezzled his mothers money-recieved praise from famous poets-great contribution to Russian literature
The Overcoat The name “Akaky Akakievich” | GradeSaver
The name “Akaky Akakievich” is an important and meaningful symbol in the story for the character that Akaky is, although its resonances might not be immediately clear to readers unfamiliar with Russian. Akaky receives his name through a baptismal ceremony at which the church calendar is consulted for corresponding saints’ days. As Alexander M. Martin writes, “the church calendar at the ...
What is Akaky Akakievich's name?
The Overcoat The name "Akaky Akakievich". The name “ Akaky Akakievich ” is an important and meaningful symbol in the story for the character that Akaky is, although its resonances might not be immediately clear to readers unfamiliar with Russian. Akaky receives his name through a baptismal ceremony at which the church calendar is consulted ...
What does Akaky mean?
However, as Karlinsky also notes, Akaky’s name also contains a hint of a purer origin: the original Greek name, Acacius, from which Akaky derives means “‘immaculate’ or ‘without blemish’” (137).
How did Akaky get his name?
Akaky receives his name through a baptismal ceremony at which the church calendar is consulted for corresponding saints’ days. As Alexander M. Martin writes, “the church calendar at the ill-starred hero’s baptism suggests names that ring preposterous and archaic: Mokkii, Sossii, Khozdazat, Trifilii, Dula, Varakhasii….
What does Gogol's use of a name with multiple layers of meaning encourages the reader to think twice in?
Gogol’s employment of a name with multiple layers of meaning encourages the reader to think twice in assessing Akay —outwardly, he is pathetic, but he also contains a certain innocence and purity. Study Guide Navigation. About The Overcoat. The Overcoat Summary. Character List.
Who is Akaky's tailor?
Petrovich is Akaky’s tailor. He is half-blind and often drunk. He was once a squire’s serf, and at that time went by the name of Grigory. He has a wife who the narrator suggests is not very beautiful. Akaky turns to him often for repairs on his endlessly mended, flimsy housecoat. Usually Akaky is able to negotiate with Petrovich to pay a small sum for the repairs, because when Petrovich is drunk he is very suggestible. However, when Akaky goes to Petrovich at the time the story takes place, Petrovich is sober, and this time he tells Akaky that it will be impossible to mend the coat. He says that it is too worn, and that Akaky will have to have a new overcoat made. Not having very much money, Akaky panics. However, eventually Akaky becomes obsessed by the quest to save for a new overcoat. Petrovich helps Akaky shop for the materials after 6 months of rigorous saving, and he spends 2 weeks making Akaky’s new overcoat. Petrovich is very proud of the end result, feeling that he has distinguished himself from those tailors who simply mend things by becoming a tailor who makes new clothes.
Who is Akaky in The Overcoat?
Akaky Akakievich is the protagonist and antihero of “The Overcoat.” He is an unremarkable middle-aged man who serves as a titular councillor and copying clerk in an unnamed department of the Russian civil service. The narrator paints him as pathetic in almost every respect, beginning with his ridiculous name. Even in his physical characteristics Akaky is equivocal: he possesses no trait definitively but instead is somewhat red-haired, somewhat balding, and somewhat pockmarked. He is poor, and has a lowly job title, but not because he has been prevented from advancing in his career. Rather, Akaky is unambitious and does not wish to be promoted. The way he speaks is essentially meaningless. He has no clearly defined family history, though his surname, Bashmachkin, implies some relation to shoes. He is much abused by those he works with, both superiors and inferiors, though Akaky betrays no offense or notice until the harassment begins to interfere with his work. No one can remember who hired Akaky or when he started working there. Akaky lives entirely in his interior world, enjoying his copying work above all worldly concerns. However much he is bullied by his coworkers, Akaky seems to contain a kind of supernatural power, as is first shown when he unintentionally haunts a young clerk for the rest of his life, and eventually when he becomes a literal ghost and steals coats on the streets of St. Petersburg. His life changes, first for the positive and then for the negative, when he is forced to replace his extremely worn overcoat. He makes many sacrifices over the course of 6 months to save for a new overcoat, and the day he receives it is the happiest day of his life. However, an absurd and unfortunate turn of events leads to the theft of the overcoat and Akaky’s death.
The Important Person Quotes in The Overcoat
The The Overcoat quotes below are all either spoken by The Important Person or refer to The Important Person. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one: ).
The Important Person Character Timeline in The Overcoat
The timeline below shows where the character The Important Person appears in The Overcoat. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
What is Akaky's personality?
Akaky progresses from an introverted and hopeless but functioning non-entity with no expectations of social or material success to one whose self-esteem and thereby expectations are raised by the overcoat. Akaky is not merely introverted, but described as humorously fit for his position as a non-entity. He is not oppressed by the nature of bureaucratic work because he enjoys performing bureaucratic tasks. Akaky "labored with love" and longed for nothing but copying. He found it "a varied and agreeable employment. Enjoyment was written on his face." A good contrast would be Melville's Bartleby, the Scrivener. Bartleby is quite adept at his job as a copyist, but arrives "incurably forlorn" when he is first employed. Bartleby begins rejecting his work saying "I would prefer not to," gradually rejecting more and more, until he finally dies staring at a wall having rejected life itself. Bartleby's antisocial, otherworldly and melancholy features make him uncanny and he has been interpreted as a provocateur of existential crisis. Akaky, on the other hand, is presented in a humorous way initially. This is partly because he represents a "type" presented in anecdotal form by Gogol. He enjoys copying because he lacks an inner life. Gogol makes light of his fitness for mundane bureaucratic activities by joking that Akaky was always "to be seen in the same place, the same attitude, the same occupation; so that it was afterwards affirmed that he had been born in undress uniform with a bald head." When Akaky is asked to make a minor change in a document instead of merely copying it, he cannot do it.
What does the name Akaky Bashmachkin mean?
The name Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin in Russian means "Akaky Bashmachkin, the son of Akaky Bashmachkin", similarly to "John Johnson", and has similar comedic value; it also communicates Akaky's role as an everyman.
What happens to Akaky after the party?
His superior decides to host a party honoring the new overcoat, at which the habitually solitary Akaky is out of place; after the party, Akaky goes home, far later than he normally would . En route home, two ruffians confront him, take his coat, kick him down, and leave him in the snow.
What does Akaky mean?
It is used in an expression "быть под башмаком" which means to be "under someone's thumb" or to "be henpecked". Akaky progresses from an introverted and hopeless but functioning non-entity with no expectations of social or material success to one whose self-esteem and thereby expectations are raised by the overcoat.
What language was Gogol's Overcoat written in?
Eichenbaum also notes that Gogol wrote “The Overcoat” in a skaz —a difficult to translate colloquial language in Russian deriving from or associated with an oral storytelling tradition.
Why is Gogol named after him?
The protagonist in the 2003 novel The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri, is named for Gogol because of the importance that "The Overcoat" had on his father as a young man in Calcutta. The "Gogol" of this novel finds meaning in the story, after struggling with the name given to him by his father.
Who is the overcoat?
A stamp depicting "The Overcoat", from the souvenir sheet of Russia devoted to the 200th birth anniversary of Nikolai Gogol, 2009. The story narrates the life and death of titular councillor Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin (Russian: Акакий Акакиевич Башмачкин), an impoverished government clerk and copyist in the Russian capital of St. Petersburg.
What does the narrator say about Akaky?
The Narrator states that the official... (full context) When Akaky visits the Important Person, the official is chatting with an old friend, and uses Akaky ’s... (full context) Akaky, feeling numb, walks home in a snowstorm. The next day, he is overtaken by a... (full context)
What is Akaky Akakievich?
A low-level official clerk in an unknown department in the Russian government . Akaky Akakievich is a short man with an “unmemorable” appearance. He is somewhat educated, and not at the lowest rank of bureaucracy, but he is still very poor. Akaky lives an extremely mundane life: both in and out of his department, he spends all of his time diligently copying documents. While his fellow officials are out socializing, Akaky prefers to spend his evening hours at home, finding contentment in his repetitive labor. Gogol’s story revolves around Akaky’s struggle to contend with St. Petersburg’s bitter cold, which forces him to purchase a new overcoat —a mission that endows Akaky’s existence with greater meaning.
What does the narrator say after Akaky is kicked out of his office?
He notes that after kicking Akaky out of his office, the Important Person felt guilty, and thought of the clerk frequently... (full context)
How does Akaky live?
Akaky lives an extremely mundane life: both in and out of his department, he spends all of his time diligently copying documents. While his fellow officials are out socializing, Akaky prefers to spend his evening hours at home, finding contentment in his repetitive labor.
Why did Akaky have a face?
The child was christened and during the ceremony he burst into tears and made such a face it was plain that he knew there and then that he was fated to be a titular counsellor. So, that’s how it all came about. The reason for all this narrative is to enable our reader to judge for himself that the whole train of events was absolutely predetermined and that for Akaky to have any other name was quite impossible.
What do the colored dots and icons indicate?
The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance. The Overcoat. ...the start of the story, the Narrator stops himself from naming the department in which Akaky Akakievich, the main character in his tale, worked.
Where does Akaky run to the watchman?
When he recovers, Akaky runs to the watchman in the middle of the square. Sobbing, he shouts at the... (full context)
