The Nose

The police officer immediately suspects Ivan Yakovlevich of a crime once he sees him throw the nose off the bridge, but he treats Kovalyov with great deference. What do the different experiences of law enforcement by these characters tell us about the institution of the police in Imperial Russia?

Kovalyov speaks ill of serfs, abuses his valet and cabbie, and demands servitude from service workers such as his barber Ivan Yakovlevich. What does Kovalyov’s treatment of the poor and working class communicate to us about Gogol’s view of class struggle and identity in 1830s St. Petersburg?

What does the conversation between Kovalyov and the newspaper clerk reveal about the role of the press in determining what is true?

Ivan Yakovlevich is interrogated and arrested for the missing nose, but later happily and eagerly shaves Kovalyov. What does this suggest about how imbalances of power shape interpersonal relationships?

The personified nose is humble and pious in his prayers, while Kovalyov is so discombobulated by his recent experience that he is unable either to pray or to take pleasure in mocking the poor as he usually does. How does the setting of the church highlight the contrast between these two closely related characters?

Gogol makes no effort to explain how the nose is removed from Kovalyov’s face, how it becomes a person, or how it becomes an object again. How does this story respond to the expectation that events in stories make rational sense?

How do the relationships between Kovalyov, Ivan Yakovlevich, and the police officer reveal the relationship between class inequality and the law in Gogol’s Russia?

How do the story’s few glancing references to the Caucasus and to the empire’s span, “From Riga [present-day Latvia] to Kamchatka [far eastern Siberia]” (207) comment on the relationship between the imperial center in St. Petersburg and its distant outposts?