The Overcoat

Satire uses irony or exaggeration to expose or critique popular ideas, institutions, and practices. “The Overcoat” satirizes the rigidity and self-importance of bureaucracy and public officials, as well as the culture of materialism in early-capitalist Russia. Akaky Akakievich’s demise is deeply ironic. He dies from exposure to the weather just as he begins to experience a fuller version of his life after receiving a new overcoat. This turn of events shows the smallness of his experience and lampoons what he chooses to see as important. And yet the broader satire is directed at the Department and the Person of Consequence: By exaggerating the conformity and cruelty of bureaucracy and careerism, “The Overcoat” addresses social and political themes beyond the life of Akaky Akakievich.

A skaz is a traditional Russian form of storytelling. It is a written narrative that imitates an oral account in its use of dialect and slang. A skaz is different from a formal short story in that it is typically written in the voice of a spontaneous narrative and its subject matter is often folklore or a fairy tale.