Overcoat (story), plot, characters, dramatizations, film adaptations. Overcoat - analysis of the work

The history of the creation of Gogol's work "The Overcoat"

Gogol, according to the Russian philosopher N. Berdyaev, is "the most mysterious figure in Russian literature." To this day, the writer's works cause controversy. One of these works is the story "The Overcoat".
In the mid 30s. Gogol heard a joke about an official who lost his gun. It sounded like this: there lived one poor official, he was a passionate hunter. He saved up for a long time for a gun, which he dreamed of for a long time. His dream came true, but while sailing through the Gulf of Finland, he lost it. Returning home, the official died of frustration.
The first draft of the story was called "The Tale of the Official Stealing the Overcoat." In this version, some anecdotal motifs and comic effects were visible. The official bore the surname Tishkevich. In 1842, Gogol completes the story, changes the name of the hero. The story is being printed, completing the cycle of "Petersburg Tales". This cycle includes the stories: "Nevsky Prospekt", "The Nose", "Portrait", "Carriage", "Notes of a Madman" and "Overcoat". The writer works on the cycle between 1835 and 1842. The stories are united according to the common place of events - Petersburg. Petersburg, however, is not only a scene of action, but also a kind of hero of these stories, in which Gogol draws life in its various manifestations. Usually writers, talking about life in St. Petersburg, covered the life and characters of the capital's society. Gogol was attracted by petty officials, artisans, impoverished artists - "little people". Petersburg was not chosen by the writer by chance, it was this stone city that was especially indifferent and ruthless to the “little man”. This topic was first discovered by A.S. Pushkin. She becomes the leader in the work of N.V. Gogol.

Genus, genre, creative method

An analysis of the work shows that the influence of hagiographic literature is visible in the story "The Overcoat". It is known that Gogol was an extremely religious person. Of course, he was well acquainted with this genre of church literature. Many researchers wrote about the influence of the life of the Monk Akakiy of Sinai on the story "The Overcoat", among them famous names: V.B. Shklovsky and GL. Makogonenko. Moreover, in addition to the conspicuous outward similarity of the fates of St. Akaki and the hero Gogol were traced the main common points of the plot development: obedience, stoic patience, the ability to endure various kinds of humiliation, then death from injustice and - life after death.
The genre of "The Overcoat" is defined as a story, although its volume does not exceed twenty pages. It received its specific name - a story - not so much for its volume, but for its enormous semantic richness, which you will not find in any novel. The meaning of the work is revealed only by compositional and stylistic devices with the extreme simplicity of the plot. simple story about a poor official, who invested all his money and soul in a new overcoat, after the theft of which he dies, under the pen of Gogol, it found a mystical denouement, turned into a colorful parable with enormous philosophical overtones. "The Overcoat" is not just a diatribe-satirical story, it is a wonderful work of art that reveals the eternal problems of being, which will not be translated either in life or in literature as long as humanity exists.
Sharply criticizing the ruling system of life, its internal falsity and hypocrisy, Gogol's work suggested the need for a different life, a different social order. "Petersburg Tales" of the great writer, which includes "The Overcoat", is usually attributed to the realistic period of his work. Nevertheless, they can hardly be called realistic. The mournful tale of the stolen overcoat, according to Gogol, "unexpectedly takes on a fantastic ending." The ghost, in which the deceased Akaky Akakievich was recognized, ripped off everyone's overcoat, "without disassembling the rank and title." Thus, the ending of the story turned it into a phantasmagoria.

Subject of the analyzed work

The story raises social, ethical, religious and aesthetic problems. Public interpretation emphasized the social side of the "Overcoat". Akaky Akakievich was seen as a typical "little man", a victim of the bureaucratic system and indifference. Emphasizing the typical fate of the "little man", Gogol says that death did not change anything in the department, Bashmachkin's place was simply taken by another official. Thus, the theme of man - the victim of the social system - is brought to its logical end.
An ethical or humanistic interpretation was based on the pitiful moments of The Overcoat, a call for generosity and equality, which was heard in Akaky Akakievich’s weak protest against clerical jokes: “Leave me, why are you offending me?” - and in these penetrating words other words rang: "I am your brother." Finally, the aesthetic principle, which came to the fore in the works of the 20th century, focused mainly on the form of the story as the focus of its artistic value.

The idea of ​​the story "Overcoat"

“Why, then, portray poverty ... and the imperfections of our life, digging people out of life, remote nooks and crannies of the state? ... no, there is a time when otherwise it is impossible to direct society and even a generation towards the beautiful, until you show the full depth of its real abomination, ”wrote N.V. Gogol, and in his words lies the key to understanding the story.
The author showed the "depth of abomination" of society through the fate of the main character of the story - Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin. His image has two sides. The first is spiritual and physical squalor, which Gogol deliberately emphasizes and brings to the fore. The second is the arbitrariness and heartlessness of others in relation to the protagonist of the story. The ratio of the first and second determines the humanistic pathos of the work: even such a person as Akaky Akakievich has the right to exist and be treated fairly. Gogol sympathizes with the fate of his hero. And it makes the reader involuntarily think about the attitude to the whole world around, and first of all about the sense of dignity and respect that every person should arouse for himself, regardless of his social and financial situation, but only taking into account his personal qualities and merits.

The nature of the conflict

At the heart of N.V. Gogol lies the conflict between the "little man" and society, a conflict leading to rebellion, to the uprising of the humble. The story "The Overcoat" describes not only an incident from the life of the hero. The whole life of a person appears before us: we are present at his birth, naming him, find out how he served, why he needed an overcoat and, finally, how he died. The story of the life of the “little man”, his inner world, his feelings and experiences, depicted by Gogol not only in The Overcoat, but also in other stories of the Petersburg Tales cycle, firmly entered Russian literature of the 19th century.

The main characters of the story "The Overcoat"

The hero of the story is Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin, a petty official of one of the St. Petersburg departments, a humiliated and disenfranchised man "short in stature, somewhat pockmarked, somewhat reddish, somewhat even blind-sighted, with a slight bald spot on his forehead, with wrinkles on both sides of his cheeks." The hero of Gogol's story is offended by fate in everything, but he does not grumble: he is already over fifty, he did not go beyond the correspondence of papers, did not rise above the rank of titular councilor (a state official of the 9th class who does not have the right to acquire personal nobility - if he is not born a nobleman) - and yet humble, meek, devoid of ambitious dreams. Bashmachkin has neither family nor friends, he does not go to the theater or visit. All his "spiritual" needs are satisfied by rewriting papers: "It is not enough to say: he served zealously - no, he served with love." No one considers him a person. “Young officials laughed and made fun of him, as long as clerical wit was enough ...” Bashmachkin did not answer a single word to his offenders, did not even stop working and did not make mistakes in the letter. All his life Akaky Akakievich has served in the same place, in the same position; his salary is meager - 400 rubles. a year, the uniform has long been no longer green, but a reddish-flour color; co-workers call an overcoat worn to holes a hood.
Gogol does not hide the limitations, the scarcity of the interests of his hero, tongue-tied. But something else brings to the fore: his meekness, uncomplaining patience. Even the name of the hero carries this meaning: Akaki is humble, gentle, does no evil, innocent. The appearance of the overcoat reveals the hero's spiritual world, for the first time the hero's emotions are depicted, although Gogol does not give the character's direct speech - only a retelling. Akaky Akakievich remains wordless even at a critical moment in his life. The drama of this situation lies in the fact that no one helped Bashmachkin.
An interesting vision of the main character from the famous researcher B.M. Eikhenbaum. He saw in Bashmachkin an image that "served with love", in the rewriting "he saw some kind of diverse and pleasant world of his own", he did not think at all about his dress, about anything else practical, he ate without noticing the taste, did not indulge in any entertainment, in a word, he lived in some kind of his ghostly and strange world, far from reality, was a dreamer in uniform. And it is not for nothing that his spirit, freed from this uniform, so freely and boldly develops its revenge - this is prepared by the whole story, here is its whole essence, its whole whole.
Along with Bashmachkin, the image of the overcoat plays an important role in the story. It is quite comparable with the broad concept of "honor of the uniform", which characterized essential element noble and officer ethics, to the norms of which the authorities under Nicholas I tried to attach raznochintsy and, in general, all officials.
The loss of the overcoat turns out to be not only a material, but also a moral loss for Akaky Akakievich. Indeed, thanks to the new overcoat, Bashmachkin for the first time in the departmental environment felt like a man. The new overcoat is able to save him from frost and illness, but, most importantly, it serves as protection for him from ridicule and humiliation from his colleagues. With the loss of his overcoat, Akaki Akakievich lost the meaning of life.

Plot and composition

The plot of The Overcoat is extremely simple. The poor little official makes an important decision and orders a new overcoat. While sewing it, it turns into a dream of his life. On the very first evening when he puts it on, thieves take off his overcoat on a dark street. The official dies of grief, and his ghost roams the city. That’s the whole plot, but, of course, the real plot (as always with Gogol) is in the style, in the internal structure of this ... anecdote, ”V.V. retold the plot of Gogol’s story. Nabokov.
Hopeless need surrounds Akaky Akakievich, but he does not see the tragedy of his situation, as he is busy with business. Bashmachkin is not burdened by his poverty, because he does not know another life. And when he has a dream - a new overcoat, he is ready to endure any hardships, if only to bring the implementation of his plans closer. The overcoat becomes a kind of symbol of a happy future, a favorite brainchild, for which Akaki Akakievich is ready to work tirelessly. The author is quite serious when he describes the delight of his hero about the realization of a dream: the overcoat is sewn! Bashmachkin was perfectly happy. However, with the loss of Bashmachkin's new overcoat, real grief overtakes. And only after death is justice done. Bashmachkin's soul finds peace when he returns his lost thing.
The image of the overcoat is very important in the development of the plot of the work. The plot of the plot is connected with the emergence of the idea to sew a new overcoat or repair the old one. The development of the action is Bashmachkin's trips to the tailor Petrovich, an ascetic existence and dreams of a future overcoat, the purchase of a new dress and a visit to the name day, at which Akaky Akakievich's overcoat should be “washed”. The action culminates in the theft of a new overcoat. And, finally, the denouement lies in the unsuccessful attempts of Bashmachkin to return the overcoat; the death of a hero who caught a cold without an overcoat and longing for it. The epilogue ends the story - fantasy story about the ghost of an official who is looking for his overcoat.
The story of Akaki Akakievich's "posthumous existence" is full of horror and comedy at the same time. In the dead silence of the Petersburg night, he rips off the overcoats from officials, not recognizing the bureaucratic difference in ranks and acting both behind the Kalinkin bridge (that is, in the poor part of the capital) and in the rich part of the city. Only having overtaken the direct culprit of his death, “one significant person”, who, after a friendly bossy party, goes to “one familiar lady Karolina Ivanovna”, and tearing off the general’s overcoat from him, the “spirit” of the dead Akaki Akakievich calms down, disappears from St. Petersburg squares and streets. Apparently, "the general's overcoat came to him completely on the shoulder."

Artistic originality

Gogol's composition is not determined by the plot - his plot is always poor, rather - there is no plot, but only one comic (and sometimes not even comical in itself) situation is taken, which serves as if only an impetus or reason for developing comic tricks. This story is especially interesting for this kind of analysis, because in it a pure comic tale, with all the methods of language play characteristic of Gogol, is combined with pathetic declamation, which forms, as it were, a second layer. Gogol does not allow his characters in The Overcoat to speak much, and, as always with him, their speech is formed in a special way, so that, despite individual differences, it never gives the impression of everyday speech, ”wrote B.M. Eikhenbaum in the article "How Gogol's Overcoat" was made.
The story in "The Overcoat" is in the first person. The narrator knows the life of officials well, expresses his attitude to what is happening in the story through numerous remarks. “What to do! the Petersburg climate is to blame, ”he notes about the deplorable appearance of the hero. The climate forces Akaky Akakievich to go to great lengths for the sake of buying a new overcoat, that is, in principle, directly contributes to his death. We can say that this frost is an allegory of Gogol's Petersburg.
All the artistic means that Gogol uses in the story: a portrait, an image of the details of the situation in which the hero lives, the plot of the story - all this shows the inevitability of Bashmachkin's transformation into a "little man".
The very style of narration, when a pure comic tale, built on a play on words, puns, deliberate tongue-tied tongue, is combined with an elevated pathetic recitation, is an effective artistic tool.

The meaning of the work

The great Russian critic V.G. Belinsky said that the task of poetry is "to extract the poetry of life from the prose of life and shake souls with a true image of this life." It is precisely such a writer, a writer who shakes the soul with the image of the most insignificant pictures of human existence in the world, is N.V. Gogol. According to Belinsky, the story "The Overcoat" is "one of Gogol's deepest creations." Herzen called "The Overcoat" "a colossal work." The enormous influence of the story on the entire development of Russian literature is evidenced by the phrase recorded by the French writer Eugene de Vogüe from the words of "one Russian writer" (as is commonly believed, F.M. Dostoevsky): "We all came out of Gogol's "Overcoat".
Gogol's works were repeatedly staged and filmed. One of the last theatrical productions"Overcoat" was undertaken in the Moscow "Sovremennik". On the new stage of the theatre, called "Another Stage", intended primarily for staging experimental performances, directed by Valery Fokin, "The Overcoat" was staged.
“Staging Gogol's Overcoat is my old dream. In general, I believe that there are three main works by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol - these are The Inspector General, Dead Souls and The Overcoat, ”said Fokin. - I already staged the first two and dreamed of "The Overcoat", but could not start rehearsing in any way, because I did not see the performer leading role... It always seemed to me that Bashmachkin is an unusual creature, neither feminine nor masculine, and someone here had to play such an unusual, and indeed an actor or actress, ”says the director. Fokine's choice fell on Marina Neelova. “During the rehearsal and what was happening in the process of working on the performance, I realized that Neyolova is the only actress who could do what I was thinking,” says the director. The play premiered on October 5, 2004. The scenography of the story, the performance skills of the actress M. Neelova were highly appreciated by the audience and the press.
“And here is Gogol again. Again "Contemporary". Once upon a time, Marina Neyolova said that sometimes she imagines herself as a white sheet of paper, on which each director is free to depict whatever he wants - even a hieroglyph, even a drawing, even a long catchy phrase. Maybe someone will plant a blot in the heat of the moment. The viewer who looks at The Overcoat may imagine that there is no woman named Marina Mstislavovna Neelova in the world at all, that she was completely erased from the drawing paper of the universe with a soft eraser and a completely different creature was drawn instead of her. Gray-haired, thin-haired, causing in anyone who looks at him, both disgusting disgust, and magnetic cravings.
(Newspaper, October 6, 2004)

“In this series, Fokine’s “Overcoat”, which opened a new stage, looks like just an academic repertoire line. But only at first glance. Going to the performance, you can safely forget about your previous performances. For Valery Fokin, "The Overcoat" is not at all where all humanistic Russian literature came from, with its eternal pity for the little man. His "Overcoat" belongs to a completely different, fantastic world. His Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin is not an eternal titular adviser, not a miserable copyist who is unable to change verbs from the first person to the third, he is not even a man, but some strange creature of the middle gender. To create such a fantastic image, the director needed an incredibly flexible and plastic actor, not only physically, but also psychologically. Such a universal actor, or rather an actress, the director found in Marina Neelova. When this clumsy, angular creature with sparse matted tufts of hair on a bald head appears on the stage, the audience unsuccessfully tries to guess at least some familiar features of the brilliant prima Sovremennik in it. In vain. Marina Neelova is not here. It seems that she physically transformed, melted into her hero. Somnambulistic, cautious and at the same time awkward old man's movements and a thin, plaintive, rattling voice. Since there is almost no text in the performance (Bashmachkin's few phrases, consisting mainly of prepositions, adverbs and other particles that have absolutely no meaning, serve rather as a speech or even sound characteristic of the character), the role of Marina Neelova practically turns into a pantomime. But the pantomime is truly mesmerizing. Her Bashmachkin settled comfortably in his old giant overcoat, as in a house: he fumbles there with a flashlight, relieves himself, settles in for the night.
(Kommersant, October 6, 2004)

This is interesting

“As part of the Chekhov Festival, on the Small Stage of the Pushkin Theatre, where puppet performances often go on tour, and only 50 people fit in the audience, the Chilean Theater of Miracles played Gogol’s “The Overcoat”. We don’t know anything about the puppet theater in Chile, so we could expect something very exotic, but in fact it turned out that there is nothing special foreign in it - it’s just a small good performance made sincerely, with love and without any special ambitions. It was only funny that the heroes here are called exclusively by their patronymics, and all these “Buenos Dias, Akakievich” and “Por Favor, Petrovich” sounded comical.
Theater "Milagros" is a sociable affair. It was created in 2005 by the famous Chilean TV presenter Alina Kuppernheim along with her classmates. Young women say that they fell in love with The Overcoat, which is not very famous in Chile (where the Nose, it turns out, is more famous there), while still studying, and all of them studied as drama theater actresses. Deciding to make a puppet theater, for two whole years they composed everything together, adapted the story themselves, came up with scenography, and made puppets.
The portal of the theater "Milagros" - a plywood house, where four puppeteers are just placed, was placed in the middle of the Pushkinsky stage and closed a small curtain-screen. The play itself is played in a “black office” (puppeteers dressed in black almost disappear against the backdrop of a black velvet backdrop), but the action began with a video on the screen. First, there is a white silhouette animation - little Akakievich grows up, he gets all the bumps, and he wanders - long, thin, nosy, hunching more and more against the background of conditional Petersburg. The animation is replaced by a ragged video - the crackling and noise of the office, flocks of typewriters fly across the screen (several eras are deliberately mixed here). And then through the screen in a spot of light, the red-haired Akakievich himself, with deep bald patches, gradually appears at a table with papers that everyone brings and brings to him.
In fact, the most important thing in the Chilean performance is the thin Akakievich with long and awkward arms and legs. Several puppeteers lead it at once, someone is responsible for the hands, someone for the legs, but the audience does not notice this, they just see how the puppet becomes alive. Here he scratches himself, rubs his eyes, groans, with pleasure straightens his stiff members, kneading every bone, here he carefully examines the network of holes in the old overcoat, ruffled, trampling in the cold and rubbing his frozen hands. This is a great art to work so harmoniously with a puppet, few people master it; Quite recently, at the Golden Mask, we saw a production by one of our best puppet directors, who knows how such miracles are done - Evgeny Ibragimov, who staged Gogol's The Gamblers in Tallinn.
There are other characters in the play: colleagues and bosses looking out of the doors and windows of the stage, a small red-nosed fat man Petrovich, a gray-haired Significant person sitting at a table on a dais - all of them are also expressive, but they cannot be compared with Akakievich. With the way he humbles himself humbly and timidly in Petrovich's house, how later, having received his lingonberry-colored overcoat, he giggles in embarrassment, twists his head, calling himself handsome, like an elephant on parade. And it seems that the wooden doll even smiles. This transition from jubilation to terrible grief, which is so difficult for "live" actors, comes out very naturally with the doll.
During the holiday party hosted by colleagues to "sprinkle" the hero's new overcoat, a glittering carousel spun on the stage and small flat dolls made from cut out old photographs twirled in a dance. Akakievich, who used to worry that he couldn’t dance, returns from the party, full of happy impressions, as if from a disco, continuing to make knees and sing: “boo-boo-to-do-to-do.” This is a long, funny and touching episode. And then unknown hands beat him and take off his overcoat. Further, much more will happen with running around the authorities: the Chileans unfolded several Gogol lines into a whole anti-bureaucratic video episode with a map of the city, which shows how officials drive a poor hero from one to another, trying to return his overcoat.
Only the voices of Akakievich and those who are trying to get rid of him are heard: “You are on this issue with Gomez. - Gomez, please. - Do you want Pedro or Pablo? “Should I be Pedro or Pablo?” — Julio! - Please, Julio Gomez. “You go to another department.”
But no matter how inventive all these scenes may be, the meaning is still in the red-haired sad hero who returns home, lies down in bed and, pulling on the blanket, for a long time, sick and tormented by sorrowful thoughts, tossing and turning and trying to nest comfortably. Quite alive and desperately lonely.
(“Vremya novostei” 06/24/2009)

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