The Overcoat

Women and sexuality in “The Overcoat” symbolize openness to life and a fullness of experience that is missing in bureaucracy. Akaky Akakievich is described as mostly sexless until his “marriage” to the overcoat (316). The narrator states, “To say that he was zealous in his work was not enough, no, he loved his work” (307), to the point where he does not look where he is going in the street, notice when garbage is thrown at or on him, or want to do anything else in the evenings but continue to copy. For instance, “he gave no thought at all to his clothes [and] he never in his life noticed what was going on or what was being done in the street […] whatever Akaky Akakievich looked at he saw nothing but his clear, evenly written lines” (308). However, once he contemplates getting a new coat his world changes. In his thinking about his new coat, Akaky Akakievich finds a partner of sorts to go throughout the day with. Once he has the coat, he begins noticing pictures of pretty women in shops. The narrator says that “he was even on the point of running, goodness knows why, after a lady of some sort who passed like lightning with every part of her frame in violent motion” (322). Such behavior is the very opposite of Akaky Akakievich and his balding, silent stagnation before his obsession with the coat. Women in “The Overcoat” represent the possibility of leading a more fulfilled and colorful life, whether they be Petrovich’s shrew-like wife or the Person of Consequence’s German mistress.