This story of Gogol was published in 1843. She is part of the author's collection "Petersburg Tales".
Below we will give a brief summary of the work "The Overcoat". For a better assimilation, events are stated in terms of their importance in the plot construction (plot, development of events, climax, denouement). The beginning of the story, in which we get acquainted with the main character Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin, can be considered as an exposition.
Gogol’s “Overcoat” also contains an epilogue.
The beginning of the story. Meet the main character
The plot is preceded by our acquaintance with the main character of the story, whose name is Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin. He serves as a petty official in one of the St. Petersburg departments.
The story tells about the birth of a hero: the unfortunate star of Bashmachkin lit up already when they began to look for a name for the newborn: no matter how many people were selected according to the holy calendar, all the names came out intricate and so bizarre that his mother completely despaired and decided to give him the name of his father - and so he is Akaki Akakievich.
The main character is a typical, what is called a "little man." He does not shine with his mind, there are not enough stars from the sky, he did not make a career and did not try. Bashmachkin loves his work until self-forgetfulness, namely, making copies, that is, rewriting various documents.
His whole life is this. At work, he writes. He comes home from the service, eats hastily - and again at the table, takes out a pen with an inkwell and starts working again - rewrites what he did not finish in the department. However, if there was no work, Bashmachkin wrote some paper "just for himself." Among the letters, Akakiy Akakievich even has his favorites.
He fell asleep with a smile, thinking:
Does God send something to rewrite tomorrow?
Bashmachkin is jealous of his occupation. It cannot be said that in his diligence he was completely unnoticed: once the authorities assigned a task that would help him in his career advancement. In total, it was business - to slightly change the content of the document, rewriting it. But for our hero the task turned out to be overwhelming, and he was relieved to return to a simple rewrite.
Appearance and costume of the hero
And Akaki Akakievich does not differ in beauty: he is reddish, pocky, with a bald spot on his head, he doesn’t see anything, he eats without appetite. Diffused, walks, not interested in what is happening around. Sometimes, walking along the street, he thinks about his occupation in such a way that everywhere he fancies written lines. Then he comes to himself, looking - and he stands in the middle of the road.
Says Akaki Akakievich little, and if explained, then for the most part by pretexts, interjections and particles.
He has no friends, does not go on a visit, often offends others and patiently endures the ridicule of clerical colleagues. Only sometimes, when they push him by the arm and prevent him from writing, will he say:
Leave me, why are you offending me?
Tie
Bashmachkin wears a uniform, once green. But a long time ago he turned red from old age. And the old overcoat, which is mocked by others as the “hood”, was completely wiped off, and its matter began to resemble a sieve in some places.
So, in a brief summary of “The Overcoat,” we note that the plot of the story is the old hero’s clothing that has become unusable.
And the hero would be glad not to pay attention to his "skinny overcoat", but somehow the wind began to grasp it thoroughly. He took off his overcoat, looked - and the cloth was completely full of holes on the back and shoulders, and the lining fabric was spreading.
Bashmachkin then turned to the tailor, whom everyone called Petrovich. When he was not drunk, he was successful in repairing all sorts of bureaucratic and other clothes - tailcoats, overcoats, and a pantalon. However, Petrovich said that, they say, you can’t patch such a cloth in any way, you can’t put a patch on the rotten fabric - it will immediately creep away. So, you definitely need to sew a new greatcoat.
This was a scary message for the hero. However, having thought it over, Akaki Akakievich decided to go to the tailor on Sunday, when after Saturday glass he would be more kind - maybe, and then he would take up work. However, on his next visit, Petrovich authoritatively declared that it was impossible to fix the overcoat.
The new overcoat, which the same tailor Petrovich undertook to sew, would have taken more than one and a half hundred rubles. Akaki Akakievich began to wonder. He decided that the tailor, as usual, had broken the high price, and that his greatcoat would be eighty rubles to him.
But in his piggy bank lay only forty rubles. It was necessary to dial somewhere else forty.
Development of events
And Bashmachkin started saving: he doesn’t have dinner,
expels tea in the evenings
and does not buy candles. Poor Bashmachkin even walks, stepping softer and more carefully so that the soles of the shoes do not wear out quickly. And in order not to give laundry once again, he wears only a bathrobe at home.
Now, for days on end, the hero thinks about his overcoat, about its style and matter. He walks around the shops, asking the price of cloth and pretending to be. He was already used to sitting hungry in the evenings. Bashmachkin, as the author tells us,
became somehow more lively, even firmer in character, like a person who has already determined and set a goal
All these habits of a new lifestyle occupy the hero, as should be mentioned in the summary of "The Overcoat," for several months.
Then the director, as if feeling that Bashmachkin needed new clothes, gave him as much as sixty rubles of salary instead of the forty.
And Akaki Akakievich and the tailor headed to the shops to buy matter. We got a good cloth and an excellent lining calico. But the marten was not bought for the collar - the road turned out to be a marten. But they bought a cat's fur, which in appearance seemed quite decent and looked like a marten.
New overcoat
The tailor delivered the hero a new overcoat early in the morning - just when it was necessary to go to service. Akaki Akakievich went out into the street in a new clothes, and Petrovich even escorted him to once again admire his work.
Suddenly, news spread over the department that Bashmachkin had a new overcoat, and
the hood no longer exists.
Everyone congratulates him - the official is burdened by increased attention - and insist,
that you need to sprinkle a new greatcoat and that at least he should ask them all the evening,
to celebrate this event.
Bashmachkin does not know how to refuse. It’s good that there was an official who said that he is a birthday today, and therefore invites everyone to his place tonight.
This day becomes a holiday for Akaky Akakievich. When he returned home, he looked at the old and new overcoats and laughed, comparing and rejoicing at the new thing. Having supper and lounging on the bed, which was generally not in his rules, Bashmachkin went on a visit.
The official lived in the best part of the city, where the lights shone brighter and the streets were not as deserted as near his house. At evening, at first he felt uncomfortable, but then, having drunk champagne, he became cheerful. And yet among the people playing cards and chatting merrily, he became bored, and, seeing that it was already after midnight, Bashmachkin quietly left the celebration.
Climax
In a brief summary of the story "The Overcoat" we come to the main event of the plot.
On one of the deserted streets some people appeared in front of the main character. One of them, showing him a fist, ordered to be silent and shook it out of his greatcoat. Then they gave him such a kick that he fell into the snow and lost consciousness.
The next day, on the advice of his landlady, Akaki Akakievich visited a private bailiff, hardly received an appointment, but he asked some ridiculous questions and did not say anything sensible.
He had to go to the service in his old "hood". Many of his colleagues, having heard the sad story of the robbery, sympathized with him, and someone advised to ask for help from a “significant person”.
The "significant face" was the general. Bashmachkin waited a long time in the waiting room while he was talking with a friend. After hearing the story of the "inhuman robbery", the general became angry with Akaki Akakievich, shouting at him, partly out of a desire to show off in front of his former acquaintance. Frightened and almost losing his feelings, Bashmachkin returned home.
Denouement
Akaki Akakievich fell ill with fever. All his painful nonsense revolved around the stolen overcoat and unscrupulous thieves.
A doctor came, but prescribed nothing but a symbolic poultice. And the landlady said that in a day and a half, the end would certainly come.
And Akaki Akakievich is dying. There was only property left after it - just a bunch of goose feathers, a few sheets of paper, a couple of buttons and his old “hood”.
But in the service of the absence of an official, Bashmachkin was not immediately noticed, but they were seized only four days later, when he was already buried.
One of the most significant constituent elements of the story - the epilogue, which gives it a fantastic connotation and additional interesting meaning, must be mentioned in the summary of The Overcoat.
Scary epilogue
Alarming rumors are creeping around Petersburg that a ghost supposedly wanders around the Kalinkin bridge at night, pulling off all the greatcoats it meets without looking at what kind of greatcoat, poor or rich. One of the officials managed to make out the dead man and recognized him as Akaky Akakievich.
And the general, who had treated Bashmachkin so rudely, felt remorse, remembering the unfortunate visitor. He even sent to him, wishing to give him any help. When the courier reported that a recent visitor had died in a fever, the general was upset.
Wanting to unwind, he went to a party with his friend, and at the end, completely in a good mood, decided to visit the familiar lady Karolina Ivanovna. He rode to her in a sleigh, comfortably wrapping himself in a warm overcoat.
Suddenly someone pulled him by the gate. Turning around, the general was horrified to see the very deceased official in the old military uniform. Akaki Akakievich was white as snow. But the general was even more frightened when his previous visitor said:
A! so here you are at last! I finally caught you by the collar! I need your overcoat! He didn’t bother about mine, but he also scribbled, - now give yours!
The frightened general unquestioningly complied with the order of the ghost and gave him his greatcoat, and then ordered the coachman to rush home. He forgot to think about Karolina Ivanovna. And the dead man has since disappeared - probably the general’s overcoat turned out to be just right for him.
The story is not divided into chapters, due to the lack of such, we could not give a brief summary of the chapters of the "Overcoat" of Gogol.