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“But it is plain you must have a new cloak.”
At the word “new,” all grew dark before Akakiy Akakievitch's eyes, and everything in the room began to whirl round.

This quote introduces the main action of the story. Akakievitch must have a new cloak to survive the winter cold according to Petrovitch, the tailor. When he hears this, Akakievitch despairs since he does not have the money for a new cloak. This inciting incident gets the story going, and he must now change his behavior to raise the money for the new cloak.

When he opened them, to see whether he was near the end of the square, he suddenly beheld, standing just before his very nose, some bearded individuals of precisely what sort he could not make out. All grew dark before his eyes, and his heart throbbed.

This quote, which comes directly before the cloak is stolen, describes Akakievitch’s terror at being confronted by robbers. Afraid of the darkness of the town square, he shuts his eyes and walks forward, allowing the robbers to approach him. Once they steal the cloak, the story takes on a tragic aspect as Akakievitch fails to receive help from anyone in his rank-conscious society.

He even began to say: “How dare you? do you realise who stands before you?” less frequently to the under-officials, and if he did utter the words, it was only after having first learned the bearings of the matter.

This quote appears after the story’s climax. After the “dead man,” Akakievitch’s ghost, accosts the prominent personage, he loses his confidence. The very man who treated Akakievitch the worst becomes suddenly less mean and strict to his inferiors. He no longer questions them as harshly or as often as he did before the incident. He even takes the time to learn about the content of an issue before commenting, which is something he never considered beforehand.

But the most noteworthy point was, that from that day forward the apparition of the dead tchinovnik ceased to be seen. Evidently the prominent personage's cloak just fitted his shoulders; at all events, no more instances of his dragging cloaks from people's shoulders were heard of.

This quote comes at the ultimate resolution of the story. Having stolen the prominent personage’s cloak, Akakievitch’s ghost (the tchinovnik) appears satisfied. This satisfaction is evident in the fact that no more cloaks are taken in the street by the dead man. The story’s resolution involves Akakievitch and the prominent personage, showing how power and authority are the true center of Gogol’s tale. When the ghost rights the great wrong, he is no longer seen.

Next section The Rigidity of Social Status

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