St. Petersburg: The Myth and the City In “The Nose” and “The Overcoat,” Gogol makes fun of the rank-conscious Russian society. In “The Overcoat,” he emphasizes the phony world of Russian officials, who are powerless mediators under a hierarchy in which each person fears his superior. Of the two stories, “The Nose” is lighter-hearted and more comedic. On the surface, it is a humorous story about a government official literally losing his nose and searching for it. For much of the time, Gogol makes fun at the official’s expense. In many passages much is stated comically about how stratified Russian society was at the time. Gogol skillfully portrays not just Kovalyov as being an self-important minor official, but also of Kovalyov’s missing nose, first found to be with the barber Ivan Yakovlevich. Gogol further uses the possibilities of this societal satire on wealth and privilege when Kovalyov’s nose decides to have a few adventures. Suddenly he stopped dead near the entrance door of a house. An incredible sequence of events unrolled before his eyes. A carriage stopped at the house entrance. Its door opened. A uniformed gentleman appeared. Stooping, he jumped out of the carriage, ran up the steps and entered the house. A combination of horror and amazement swept over Kovalev when he recognized the stranger as his own nose. At this eerie sight, everything swayed before his eyes. But although he could hardly stand on his feet, he felt compelled to wait until the nose returned to the carriage. He waited, shaking as though he had malaria. (Gogol, 42) This story may seem solely comedic, but within it is a darker tale of a Russia where, in the current times and those prior to it, social rank and position were key. ... ... middle of paper ... ...s tale turns into an attack on the ridiculous, heartless nature of Russian society – especially Russian in civil service. Gogol portrays the trivialness of this through the use of distinct contrasts, mostly between how the poor official in this tale sees his prized overcoat, and how his fellow workers view it, and him, with scorn and mocking laughter. It is not a pleasant tale, and there is no happy ending. But it is effective in how well it presents the absurdities of life at this time in St. Petersburg. “The Nose” and “The Overcoat,” along with Gogol’s other stories in the collection, are early representatives of comedic social commentary. Not only does Gogol engage the reader with components of Russian society, especially the major gap between the privileged people and the commoners, but he utilizes comedy to highlight the absurdity of this social polarization.
In Alexander Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades,” many aspects of the short story have made for considerable debate among scholars. Pushkin fills an integral role in Russian literary history, and there are abundant research sources to use in analyzing and interpreting his texts. Pushkin is often referred to as the Father of Modern Russian Literature, but until just recently much of the criticism on Pushkin focused on Pushkin himself as the author, the innovative simplicity in his prose, or the political relationship between Pushkin and the Russian aristocracy. Pushkin’s personal life was often the subject of public debate among his readers and the Russian aristocracy, forcing him into a some what reclusive state. His prose was innovative, but, in the early research, very few bothered to interpret why the style was so effective. What about the words made Pushkin different? It did not seem to matter as long as the aristocracy was satisfied.
Morson, Gary Saul. “Paradoxical Dostoevsky.” The Slavic and East European Journal 43.3 (Autumn 1999): 471-494.
opened the door and began the next house. After a while they came to the one
This book was also Russian through and through. You get a good piece of an interesting time in Russian history (after the freeing of the serfs) and the philosophy and thought that was going on at the time. St. Petersburg is quite a unique city and the Russian a unique culture. This book captures a piece of both.
Nikolai Gogol was a prominent dramatist, novelist, and short story writer in 19th century Russia. Born in Ukraine, much of Gogol’s writing was satirical of the Russian government during his time. Gogol wrote short stories, plays, poems, novels and more. Through Gogol’s writing prominent themes arise. These themes are relevant to and occur throughout Gogol’s short stories in his Petersburg Tales. Masculinity is shown through the character’s constant need to increase their social standing and their inability to cope with the reality of their positions and how they internalize this. Gogol’s short stories acknowledge the protagonist's dilemmas with their masculinity that emerge from the societal and continue to the individual level.
Everything was changing in Gogol’s life in light of the fact he was moving to college where no one knew him or had any prior expectations. Gogol was attempting to reinvent himself with just the change of a name, which worked for awhile, and it would have continued to work if it would not have been for his parents’. Whenever he went home, his parents’ would refer to him as Gogol and it would pull him back into an inferior,
In following the life of Zhivago, the effects of the Russian revolution on Russia's society are made evident. The strong characterization, believability, powerful imagery, and writing style all help construct a link between the story and the reader. The successful development of this bond draws the reader in the lives of the characters. This union that Pasternak creates is the basis of a universally readable novel, a union that makes Doctor Zhivago a success.
Before maturing into a man, Gogol entangles himself into a set of relationships, all of which are eventually damaged from disagreements and drifts. Nonetheless, in Moushumi, a Bengali family friend, he sees flawlessness and in a matter of months they are engaged. It is afterwards that he experiences disloyalty and discovers that a formal document cannot safeguard a relationship. This reality is better accepted by Gogol in the novel. For example, when Moushumi discloses to her friends that he “changed his name” (Lahiri, 243), he is “stunned” (Lahiri, 243) given the sensitivity of the issue, but chooses to ignore her. On the other hand, in the adaptation he confronts her angrily, stating, “What I told you about my name is . . . not just some joke!” (Nair). Later, after he realizes that she is having an affair, he is “strangely calm” (Lahiri, 282) in the novel, whereas in the adaptation, he aggressively grabs onto her in frustration. In this way, the novel stays true to Gogol’s character. He is one to internalize his feelings, and therefore never openly displays sadness in regards to his many break-ups and father’s death. As a result, the novel more realistically expresses Gogol’s response to his dissatisfying
Schopenhauer, who derived his theory of humor from Aristotle, believes humor is “the understanding of a perceived incongruity”. Their definition of humor accounts for irony, and Gogol’s Wife is one giant irony. It is said the Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, the main character of the story, never had romantic relations with anyone, yet this is the story of his “wife”. It also ironic that Gogol’s so called “wife” “was not a woman. Nor any sort of human being, nor any sort of living creature at all”. When people think of wives they usually think of a human. This adds to the irony in that Gogol never had any romantic relations but in the story the narrator claims Gogol and a wife, made of balloon. The irony is shown when the author writes “certain biographers who were also the personal friends of the Master, and who complained that...they had never seen her and had ‘never even heard her voice’” admitting that most people believe Gogol never had a wife. Freud believes there are two types of humor, tendentious and non-tendentious. Tendentious jokes have an underlying theme, usually involving lust or hostility. Gogol’s Wife contains both lust and hostility. The story is one giant satire of Gogol’s love life. Freud believes one of human’s drives is eros, the sexual drive, which can be seen in Gogol’s Wife. Gogol would “touch her up in various ways so as to obtain more or less the type of woman which suited him at that day or moment”, meaning he would change her to whatever type of women was appealing to him at the time, feeding his eros. Landolfi relies on these different theories to be sure the humor is seen in his
Dostoevsky use of satire in his story “The Crocodile” makes a mockery of society’s principle of economics and he cleverly criticizes the newspapers, writers and others who blindly adhere to it. The humorous element that both Authors use allows the readers to fully comprehend the reality of society thru events that could never occur; this allows their messages about society to solidify in the reader’s minds and hearts which provides a fine example of how individuals should not allow society to dictate their
In a time where the social stratus were highly differentiated and there was not silver lining between the lower, middle and high class. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, most Russian plays were addressed to the middle class while maintaining the lower class apart and excluded from being depicted on stage. Maxim Gorky’s The Lower Depths is known to be one of the first plays to addressed how difficult and struggling is life to those born on the lower class. The ideals placed on Maxim’s play got a big impact into the Russian society of that time. They took Gorky’s work as a guide to eliminated this divisions between classes and create a communist society. The impact created by Maxim Gorky’s play not only influenced the Russian society but other authors across the globe who took this idea as a way to fight against the social classes. Maxim’s play influence is reflected into the Russian revolution and the play’s roots were taken by other author such as Eugene O’Neil in the writing of his play The Hairy Ape, which reflects similar ideals and characters by Maxim’s play.
An analysis of Crime and Punishment written in mid-19th century Russia by Fyodor Dostoyevsky reveals a parallel between the story and the historical period in the which the book written. The setting, plot, and characters reflect back upon the period of major reformation happening in Russia by using accurate situations and ideas from that era.
Duality was the cardinal theme for Imperial Russia. 19th century Russia was a peasant-filled, agrarian empire rushed through the gawky adolescence of industrialisation. The serfs were only freed in 1861, and by 1900 around 2.3 million Russians worked inside factories: in a century, Russia had moved from a feudal system of serfdom to the shores of modernity. A theme of duplicity was carried throughout. The new industries and arterial railroads were European inventions, so was Russia a European nation? Or, did Russia's devotion to the Tsar and the peasant commune separate her from the growingly liberal, economically individualistic West? The theme of duality is spread throughout Crime and Punishment (in Russian, Преступление и наказание) written by F. M. Dostoevsky . Dostoevsky expresses duality through both symbolism and the actions of his characters. The nihilist Svidrigailov and the prostitute Sonya Semyonova are symbols of the internal duality of Crime and Punishment's main protagonist, R. R. Raskolnikov. The plot orbits Raskolnikov's double-edged and Daedal personality, both indulgent and redemptive, active and introverted, murderous and self-destructive.
In order to achieve a deep understanding of the issue, the following peculiarities of the novel should be considered. The novel's narration opens from the perspective of Ashima Ganguli – the mother of Gogol, who is a protagonist of a novel and the “namesake” of the novel's title. The wondering narrative structure allows the reader to get immersed into emotional lives of several characters, still focusing mainly on Gogol (Friedman 112). The narration is shared by the two...
‘Though the letter was sent a month ago, in July, it has yet to arrive’ (Ch.2, pg.25), and during the span of Gogol’s life, has still yet to arrive. The letter not arriving on time leads to Gogol being named by his parents. For some, a name might seem like an assortment of letters, used to give a human some sort of identity in the world, no matter our name, some people always felt rather neutral about their given name. Gogol on the other hand, feels like he is an outlier in the world, his unique name, derived from Nikolai Gogol, the Russian author who wrote ‘The Overcoat’, causes this feeling of hatred towards his name, despite the emotional story that comes from his dad choosing the name. During a class, he learns of the real Gogol and realizes that ‘not only does Gogol Ganguli have a pet name turned good name, but a last name turned first name. And so it occurs to him that no one he knows in the world, in Russia or India or America or anywhere, share his name. Not even the source of his namesake.’ This feeling alone drives Gogol’s dislike for his name. Despite the dislike of his name, Gogol learns that the reason he was given his name was because the book that saved his father was written by Gogol. In the novel, names show a connection to family and nostalgia, because Gogol’s name is a constant reminder to Ashok of the train accident he was in, and