Universal Misuse of Power

In Gogol’s The Overcoat, the main character is portrayed as an outcast of society who nevertheless finds purpose in copying documents at work.  Although he is the target of office jokes and pushed around by society’s needs to target the weak, he nonetheless appears to not let it get to him.  The narrator comments, “never a word did Akaky say to it all, as though unaware of the presence of his tormentors in the office.” At first, it seems like he isn’t able to feel, as if he is numb to society’s attempts to control his emotions and to get a rise out of him. Throughout his life and until death, Akaky is portrayed as a powerless target of mistreatment who doesn’t seem to have his own voice in society.

However, once he gets a new overcoat he is welcomed by his office mates and given an invitation to be part of larger society.  The overcoat appears to be the sole reason that he is given that chance and once the overcoat is taken away he seems to finally become aware of what his life is missing.  It seems that the theft of his overcoat is symbolic of the limitations that he faces.  When the only person (the VIP) who can help him recover what he’s lost fails to do so, it becomes clear that Akaky’s lack of power and place in society will finally have an effect on his well-being. This leads to his sudden death. 

However, it is ironic that the injustice that befell Akaky when his coat is snatched, is later committed by his ghost towards the innocent citizens of St. Petersberg. Akaky, who was, “under the pretext of recovering this lost overcoat, was stripping overcoats off the backs of all sorts of people, irrespective of their rank or calling.” His ghost was also “causing alarm and dismay among all law-abiding citizens of timid dispositions.”  This shows that not only was the VIP capable of a misuse of power but Akaky is also when he is likewise placed in a position of power.  This changes the sympathy that I once had for Akaky, who is also subject to preying on the weak and timid when given the opportunity.  Even the victim in our story is capable of producing victims out of other members of society and will take advantage of that power.  These chain of events depicts that  preying on the weak is a problem built into all of society, an internal problem that is built within.

When reading this story, I was confused if it is Akaky’s inability to have a voice in society that contributes to his downfall.  Before the series of events, Akaky didn’t try to have his own voice.  When he was given the assignment of making a few changes to a document, it “gave him so much trouble that he was bathed in perspiration” and expressed that he could not complete the task. Likewise, when he tried to stand up to the VIP and failed, it ruined him.  This gives a sense of foreboding that he is only safe within the comfort of his own limitations and that stepping outside of those in a chance to be heard will ultimately be futile.  Gogol may have been pointing out that humans are stuck within their own limitations and it is only when Akaky steps outside his human limitations- and becomes a ghost- that is he able to exert himself.