The Real and the Grotesque: Bureaucracy, Alienation, and the Human Condition in Gogol’s “The Overcoat” within the Context of Russian Realism

Abstract

Russian Realism began in the nineteenth century as a reaction against Romanticism and Sentimentalism. Instead of focusing on fantasy and abstraction, it aimed to show the real social and psychological experiences of everyday life. This movement stressed that literature has moral and social duties, and writers became seen as interpreters of humanity and democracy. Nikolai Gogol was a key figure in this tradition, combining Realism, satire, and Gothic elements. His short story “The Overcoat” (1842) is a clear example of Realism’s interest in bureaucracy, alienation, and the loss of human spirit. By telling the story of Akaky Akakyevich, a low-level clerk, Gogol reveals how Russian bureaucracy can turn people into mere cogs in a machine. The story’s use of satire and the supernatural points out the absurdity and cruelty of social hierarchies, turning an ordinary life into a reflection on identity and meaning. Gogol’s mix of the grotesque and the real paved the way for later psychological and existential literature, showing that the fantastic can make social truths even more powerful. “The Overcoat” is both a social critique and a look at the struggles of the common man in modern society, where bureaucracy strips life of meaning and only in death or as a ghost does the individual regain some control.