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People in high positions can be cruel. 

In “The Overcoat,” people in high positions are cruel and do not care about the struggles of those below them. Every man above Akakievitch in the social hierarchy treats him poorly. The bosses at his job, the district chief of police, and the prominent personage all treat him with little to no respect. The young officials poke fun at his appearance. Even after the theft of the coat, when his story should inspire pity, some of the officials still ridicule him. The district police chief, instead of gathering details about the robbery, questions Akakievitch’s own actions. The prominent personage is almost outraged at even being asked to help. All of these men are subservient to the social order, and they maintain the social order with their cruel actions. 

Meanwhile, the men in Gogol’s St. Petersburg aspire to become just as cruel as their superiors. The prominent personage is a good example of how people aspire to be ruthless. He takes special care to berate Akakievitch in front of his friend. This man is new to his position of influence and so he wants to make sure that he demonstrates dominance over others. The narrator calls this man wearisome due to his constant assessment of rank. When he meets with someone of higher rank, his confidence shatters. The narrator also describes how a man of Akakievitch’s rank, when promoted slightly over his colleagues, creates a special room in which he makes people wait simply by hanging a partition in his tiny office. This imitation of cruelty goes down through the ranks all the way to the bottom. 

Poverty can dominate a person’s life. 

Akakiy Akakievitch’s life is dominated by his poverty. The room grows dark and starts to spin when it becomes clear he must get a new cloak to replace the old tattered one, and his heart sinks when he realizes this news. He has a physiological reaction to his financial state, proving how poverty can manifest and affect a person physically, mentally, and emotionally. From this point on, Akakievitch must change his behavior radically. The change in his lifestyle creates a drive in him, and he becomes narrow-minded and almost enthusiastic about his extreme poverty. When the coat arrives by way of the tailor, Akakievitch feels almost transcendentally vindicated. 

However, once the coat is stolen, Akakievitch can hardly function as poverty rears its ugly head once more. He screams at the watchman, but he can hardly speak in front of the district chief and the prominent personage. The men of high rank take no interest in a matter as small as a stolen coat, but for Akakievitch, the matter is hardly insignificant—it’s life or death. He eventually dies due to the trauma of the event. The fact that Akakievitch comes back as a ghost demanding people’s cloaks shows just how vital the cloak was to not only his survival, but to his identity. If he were not poor, none of these events would have taken place, but alas, poverty has made him into an angry ghost with no recourse except to haunt the same society that impoverished him in life.

People may feel guilty for their cruel treatment of others. 

People who are cruel may later pay for their cruelty with feelings of guilt. This guilt is first exemplified with the official in Akakievitch’s department who feels badly about teasing Akakievitch at the office. Throughout the rest of his life, instead of hearing Akakievitch’s plea to leave him alone, this one unnamed official instead hears a religiously charged statement telling him that Akakievitch is his brother in this life. This demonstrates the internal guilt he feels over treating Akakievitch so poorly. He wonders why he did what he did, and his life is forever changed by the event. If all men are brothers, why do they belittle one another? This question stays with him for the rest of his life. 

Furthermore, even before Akakievitch haunts the prominent personage, the prominent personage feels remorse at treating him disrespectfully. He demonstrates this guilt by inquiring after the man who lost his cloak. Upon finding out that Akakievitch has died, he is deeply troubled, feeling somewhat responsible. He tries to alleviate his guilt by going out at night, but it is in this act that he is confronted by Akakievitch’s ghost. The prominent personage literally tries to outrun his guilt, but he cannot escape it. He did not help the man when he was in need, and now he is confronted by his own cruelty. After his encounter with the ghost, the prominent personage is rattled, and he runs home. After the incident, he no longer acts with such total disrespect of others, showing that his behavior is forever changed by the experience.

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