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The protagonist of the story, Akakievitch is described as small, bald, and short-sighted. He is given very little respect by his work colleagues, but he is obsessed with his simple job of copying official documents, which seems to grant him contentment in its mundane repetitiveness. His unwillingness to do anything more than copy documents reveals his diligent yet complacent nature. Akakievitch’s need for a new overcoat for the St. Petersburg winters creates a major problem since he lives in poverty and cannot readily afford one. He approaches the problem the only way he knows how, which is not to seek a promotion or a different, higher-paying job, but to become even more thrifty than he was before. His humility ultimately becomes entwined with his impoverished lifestyle.

When Akakievitch’s newly purchased cloak is eventually stolen, his ineffectual personality is most blatant. He becomes flustered at the police station and with the prominent personage, but he is unable to defend himself or to demand justice. It is only in death that Akakievitch becomes strong and exacting. When the police try to catch his ghost, he talks down to them. After death, he learns how to traverse St. Petersburg with power, treating others cruelly and haunting those who harmed him in life. At the end of the story, his ghost is no longer small and meek but instead tall and commanding. Akakievitch takes on the manner of the prominent personage at last and learns how to navigate his world. 

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