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Social status

In “The Nose,” allusion and direct references to class and social status appear frequently throughout the text. Often, these references are made via clothing or physical appearance, although they also pop up in other forms. Chiefly, Kovalyov is a clean, well-dressed man with beautiful whiskers—his immaculate clothing and groomed facial hair suggest that he is a high-status, financially comfortable individual. Ivan Yakovlevich, on the other hand, wears a stained frock coat (not a dress coat) and scruffy trousers, and he’s missing buttons. His beard is ungroomed. These physical markers point to his lower status. Ivan is a barber—a working-class man—while Kovalyov is an upper-class man. To drive the point home, Kovalyov often remarks on the stench of Ivan’s hands. While Ivan himself doesn’t understand what he’s done to make the smell of his hands so offensive to Kovalyov, the collegiate assessor brings up the stink during every shave. This mysterious smell creates the impression that there is a barrier between the upper and lower classes which the lower classes cannot sense or change.

Additionally, Kovalyov notices the ranks and wealth of other people via their clothing. He’s particularly interested in a beautiful girl in church wearing a white dress and yellow hat, suggesting that she is wealthy enough to wear impractical and lovely clothing. Perhaps most importantly, Kovalyov is horrified when he realizes his own nose is dressed in a gold-braided uniform, a plumed hat, and a sword, signifying that the nose has made the rank of state councilor, which is several levels higher than collegiate assessor. Kovalyov constantly takes note of people’s clothing and appearance—and therefore their status—because it is the most dominant lens through which he views the world.

Disorientation and fabrication

The strange, dreamlike qualities of “The Nose” often create a sense of disorientation, both for its characters and its readers. While Kovalyov and others are surprised by the missing nose, they aren’t quite surprised enough, which gives the impression that the story’s events are taking place in an alternate, absurd, and fantastical world. Kovalyov’s initial reaction to finding his nose gone, which is to contact the Head of Police, seems wildly unrealistic and out of place. Kovalyov himself wonders multiple times if he is dreaming, but accepts, perhaps too easily, that these events are happening in reality. Additionally, other characters in the story treat the missing nose as a regrettable or even humorous abnormality, not as an unbelievable feat of nature. This, along with the nose becoming a sentient being, causes readers to question the logic, sanity, and purpose of the story.

The story’s factualness is even questioned in the world of “The Nose,” when the nose becomes a sort of urban legend in St. Petersburg. Scammers set up tourist traps to exploit the gullible public, and some people complain they don’t understand how such obviously nonsensical stories could be believed, especially in the age of scientific enlightenment. At the same time as the public spreads these dubious rumors about Kovalyov’s escaped and sentient nose, which seem far-fetched to some of the story’s own characters, the events of the story are incontrovertible to Kovalyov, Ivan, and the newspaper clerk, all of whom see evidence of the missing nose. What is real and what is fabricated merge together, disorienting and confusing those inside and outside of the story.

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