The mantle (Gogol)

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The coat ( Russian Шинель , Schinel ) is the title of a novella by Nikolai Gogol published in 1842 . It belongs to the Petersburg novellas .

It tells the tragic and at the same time comical story of Akakij Akakijewitsch and the rise of an insignificant to an important person. Akakij Akakijewitsch, whose life begins with a significant naming and baptism, leads a dreary, lonely life in Saint Petersburg . He is a civil servant with body and soul , more precisely: a copyist. The job of copying fills his whole life. He's so excited about it that he even has favorite letters. At times he continues to work at home in the evening, but he does not take part in social life. He is only mocked by his work colleague, which he ignores or does not even notice. His life only changes when he decides to buy a new coat. After a long period of saving (and starving), Akakij Akakijewitsch finally holds his new coat in his hands. The coat transforms Akakij Akakijewitsch both externally and internally.

He suddenly perceives life around him and is also perceived by others. His colleagues even hold a small celebration in honor of the new coat. Akakij receives a warm welcome, but the guests lose interest in him just as quickly.

He is ambushed on the way home. The unknown perpetrator beats him up and steals his coat. In the hope of getting his coat back, Akakij Akakijewitsch turns to a higher authority, but is brutally rejected and killed. At this point his mental decline begins and shortly afterwards he dies of the agony of not having got his beloved cloak back. At the same time, this is also the point where the realistic plot of Akakij Akakijewitsch's life ends. The deceased is now haunted by the Kalinkin Bridge and tries to steal the coats of passers-by. The police then ordered the dead man to be caught, but this did not quite succeed. Finally, the dead Akakij Akakijewitsch frightens the officer who turned him away and appropriates his coat. From then on, according to the narrator, the spirit no longer appears, but apparitions are still reported by “busy people”. At the end of the text, a guard follows the alleged ghost, which finally intimidates him and drives him to flight; however, it bears no resemblance to Akakij Akakievich.

Gogol's novella had a great influence on Russian literature . Dostoyevsky processed the motif of the “poor official” in his two first works, Arme Menschen and Der Doppelgänger, among others .

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