Find all the moments when Kovalev is comparing himself to other men (the dude with the young woman at the shopping center, for example, or the dude with a small nose at the end of the story).Why does the nose take Kovalev's ambition? Why not his insecurity or some other quality? Is a nose particularly well matched with a particular aspect of human character? (Think about the phrase "nose in the air."). Would Kovalev been more successful at confronting the nose if it had become a small-time tradesman like the barber? Or would that have been such a low position that Kovalev would have ignored the nose entirely as being beneath his dignity? What emotions does Kovalev seem to feel about the nose?.Gee, the whole "social class" thing is starting to look pretty silly, isn't it? Questions About Society and Class Even the owner of the nose himself is scared to speak to it because it looks like it outranks him. Even something as nightmarish or ludicrous as a nose detached from a human face and dressed as a State Councilor causes envy, admiration, and feelings of inferiority in onlookers-every emotion, basically, except those that you'd expect a normal person to feel. In "The Nose," Gogol is making fun of a society that is so obsessed with status that anyone-or anything-with the outward insignia of an important official passes muster.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |