His feet were bare, after the fashion of tailors who sit at work; and the first thing which caught the eye was his thumb, with a deformed nail thick and strong as a turtle's shell. Fire gleamed in his eyes, and occasionally the boldest and most daring ideas flitted through his mind; why not, for instance, have marten fur on the collar? ", "Petrovitch, please," said Akakiy Akakievitch in a beseeching tone, not hearing, and not trying to hear, Petrovitch's words, and disregarding all his "effects," "some repairs, in order that it may wear yet a little longer.". Where have you come from? When Akaky realizes he needs a new overcoat for work, his problems start.
4.5 stars. At the end of every half-year he counted over the heap of coppers, and changed it for silver. Several days after his death, the porter was sent from the department to his lodgings, with an order for him to present himself there immediately; the chief commanding it.
As Bertha Young turns the corner of her street she is overcome by a feeling of bliss. It even had no effect upon his work: amid all these annoyances he never made a single mistake in a letter. do you realise who stands before you?" They christened the child, whereat he wept and made a grimace, as though he foresaw that he was to be a titular councillor. On perceiving Akakiy Akakievitch's modest mien and his worn undress uniform, he turned abruptly to him and said, "What do you want?" Akaky's overcoat allows him to become human instead of a merely bureaucratic tool.
In this manner he became Akakiy Akakievitch. Then he pulled it and fitted it down behind with his hand, and he draped it around Akakiy Akakievitch without buttoning it. "No, it would only be a waste of time and money," said Petrovitch; and Akakiy Akakievitch went away after these words, utterly discouraged. ", Akakiy Akakievitch was still for mending it; but Petrovitch would not hear of it, and said, "I shall certainly have to make you a new one, and you may depend upon it that I shall do my best. "Where did you get such courage? Akakiy Akakievitch shook his head and laughed, and then went on his way. On the walls hung all sorts of coats and cloaks, among which there were even some with beaver collars or velvet facings. For lining, they selected a cotton stuff, but so firm and thick that Petrovitch declared it to be better than silk, and even prettier and more glossy.
The very best thing to do, therefore, would be to go to the district chief, whom she knew, because Finnish Anna, her former cook, was now nurse at his house.
On receiving any one of that rank, he became confused, lost his way, as it were, and never knew what to do. Akaky is not merely introverted, but described as humorously fit for his position as a non-entity. But the porter had to return unsuccessful, with the answer that he could not come; and to the question, "Why?" "No, it is better not to look," he thought, and went on, closing his eyes. He felt neither his hands nor feet. How will this, in fact --", "No," said Petrovitch decisively, "there is nothing to be done with it. The thought troubled him to such an extent that a week later he even resolved to send an official to him, to learn whether he really could assist him; and when it was reported to him that Akakiy Akakievitch had died suddenly of fever, he was startled, hearkened to the reproaches of his conscience, and was out of sorts for the whole day. In Holy Russia all is thus contaminated with the love of imitation; every man imitates and copies his superior. "Where did you get such courage? However much the directors and chiefs of all kinds were changed, he was always to be seen in the same place, the same attitude, the same occupation; so that it was afterwards affirmed that he had been born in undress uniform with a bald head.
Quite recently a complaint was received from a justice of the peace, in which he plainly demonstrated that all the imperial institutions were going to the dogs, and that the Czar's sacred name was being taken in vain; and in proof he appended to the complaint a romance in which the justice of the peace is made to appear about once every ten lines, and sometimes in a drunken condition.
The porter not only did not rise from his seat when he passed, but never even glanced at him, any more than if a fly had flown through the reception-room. [6] Akaky, on the other hand, is presented in a humorous way initially. They received him with a shout, and all thronged at once into the ante-room, and there took another look at his cloak. 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. When and how he entered the department, and who appointed him, no one could remember. THE OVERCOAT is old...torn...threadbare...can no longer be mended. So well done! There was in it something which moved to pity; so much that one young man, a new-comer, who, taking pattern by the others, had permitted himself to make sport of Akakiy, suddenly stopped short, as though all about him had undergone a transformation, and presented itself in a different aspect. The collar was low, so that his neck, in spite of the fact that it was not long, seemed inordinately so as it emerged from it, like the necks of those plaster cats which wag their heads, and are carried about upon the heads of scores of image sellers. He gave no thought to his clothes: his undress uniform was not green, but a sort of rusty- meal colour. Would it not be familiar? The watchman replied that he had seen two men stop him in the middle of the square, but supposed that they were friends of his; and that, instead of scolding vainly, he had better go to the police on the morrow, so that they might make a search for whoever had stolen the cloak. (Kaplan, Porter, 2016) The World Health Organization (WHO) states, "having the option to carry on with an existence with poise originates from the regard of essential human rights including independence and self-assurance." "No," said the good woman, "all those names are poor." One of the department officials saw the dead man with his own eyes and immediately recognised in him Akakiy Akakievitch.