NOTES ON:THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR (NIKOLAI GOGOL)

Compiled by:  Lawrence Sunday Ogwang

Setting and background of the play

“The Government Inspector” is a comedy by Nikolai Gogol written in 1834 and performed in 1836 but it was published in 1842. The comedy is divided into 5 acts.

The plot is settled in Russia in the first half of 19th century, during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I. the general theme that runs agreeable to the entire play is mistaken identity.

In a small village, The Government Inspector is expected to arrive from the capital but instead, somebody else comes and everyone thinks he is the Inspector. All of that confusion cause funny scenes, anecdotes, unexpected events and misunderstandings.

The Government Inspector is intended to ridicule the extensive bureaucracy of the Russian government under the era of Tsar Nicholas as a thoroughly corrupt system. Universal themes of human corruption and the folly of self-deception are explored through this drama of Russian life.

The governor's famous line, as he turns to address the audience directly, "What are you laughing at? You are laughing at yourselves," illustrates this theme, which is summed up in the play's epigraph, "If your face is ugly, don't blame the mirror." The author wants to show the ugliness of Russia in a mirror. Which mirror becomes the very play with its famous title “The Government Inspector”.

“The Government Inspector” therefore, is a social and a moral satire that laughs out the human nature and the social conditions in Russia at that time. The author observed a wide scale of negative social behaviour and characteristics. This work is, as a matter of fact, is the result of the social evil that the play Wright wants to satirize.

General summary

 “The Government Inspector” is a comic
and satirical/mocking play by the dramatist and novelist Nikolai Gogol. : The play begins with the news of the arrival of the Government Inspector and ends with the same message. As the book opens, the stage is the disorganized room of the Mayor, occupied by the higgledy-piggledy/unsystematic and corrupt officials of the town in their different attitudes of waiting, posing uneasy glances now and then.  The Mayor enters and breaks the sad news of the impending visit of the inspector from St. Petersburg with secrete orders to inspect the province. The corrupt officials of a small Russian town, headed by the Mayor, react with terror to this news that an incognito inspector will soon be arriving in their town to investigate them. They begin to plan how to cover up their scandalous misdeeds.

The flurry/flood of activity to cover up their considerable misdeeds is interrupted by the report that a suspicious person has arrived two weeks previously from Saint Petersburg and is staying at the inn. That person, according to the readers, however, is not an inspector; it is Khlestakov, a civil junior servant with a wild imagination. This is sheer dramatic irony.

Having learned that Khlestakov has been charging his considerable hotel bill to the Crown, the Mayor and his crooked cronies are immediately certain that this upper-class twit/contemptible is the dreaded inspector. For quite some time, however, Khlestakov does not even realize that he has been mistaken for someone else. Cf. the confused conversation between the two (major and khlestakov) Act II Scene I, pgs. 41-47. temporarily, khlestakov enjoys the officials' terrified deference/respect and moves in as a guest in the Mayor's house. After realizing that he has been mistaken for an inspector, he begins to demand and receive massive "loans" from the Mayor and all of his associates. He also flirts outrageously/disgracefully with the Mayor's wife and daughter.

In the mean time, when the towns people got to know of Khlestakov, the supposed inspector`s presence in Mayor`s house, sick and tired of the Mayor's ludicrous/scandalous demands for bribes, the merchants arrive and begin begging Khlestakov to have him dismissed from his post. Stunned at the Mayor's rapacious/greedy corruption, Khlestakov states that he deserves to be exiled in chains to Siberia. Then, taking advantage of this however, he pockets still more "loans" from the merchants, promising to comply with their request.

Terrified that his evil and corrupt misdeeds have been discovered,

the Mayor pleads with Khlestakov not to have him arrested, only to learn that the latter has become engaged to his daughter. At which point Khlestakov announces that he is returning to St. Petersburg, having been persuaded by his servant Yosip that it is too dangerous to continue the charade/pretense any longer.

After Khlestakov and Yosip depart on a coach driven by the village's fastest horses, the Mayor's friends all arrive to congratulate him. Certain that he now has the upper hand, he summons the merchants, boasting of his daughter's engagement and vowing to squeeze them for every kopeck (Russian monetary unit) they are worth. However, the Postmaster suddenly arrives carrying an intercepted letter which reveals Khlestakov's true identity—and his mocking opinion of them all.

The Mayor, after years of bamboozling/confusing Governors and shaking down criminals of every description, is enraged to have been thus humiliated. He screams at his cronies, stating that they, not himself, are to blame. He tells them to laugh at themselves. “…What are you laughing at? You are laughing at yourselves!” (pg. 91).

 While they continue arguing, a message arrives from the real Government Inspector, who is demanding to see the Mayor immediately. At this, the play ends with a comment “Everybody is as if thunderstruck…the whole company remains petrified and transfixed in varied attitudes of wonder, horror, and stupefaction/bewilderment”.

The end of the play that is seemingly tragic is rather comic as we see Mayor trembling with terror and nearly freezing on hearing that the real inspector has arrived and wants to see him forthwith.

SYNOPSIS

COMPLETE PLOT SUMMARY)

This satirical Russian comedy tells the story of what happens when the Mayor and several other self-important officials of a small Russian town mistake a small-time con artist for an important government official. Hypocrisies are exposed and foolishnesses revealed as the officials offer increasingly extravagant gifts in order to placate/appease and impress their visitor at the same time as the visitor becomes more reckless in his greed.

ACT I,

Act one opens in a room in the Mayor's house. The furnishings reveal lack of taste. There is a sofa, a table and numerous chairs. It is morning. When the curtain raises; we see the judge, the Charity Commissioner, and the School Superintendent waiting anxiously. Enter the Mayor in uniform; the judge rises at once and all three pay respectful attention. The Mayor greets them and tells them that he has very unpleasant news for them.

The Mayor has received a letter warning him of the imminent arrival of a Government Inspector from St. Petersburg. The Mayor calls together the town’s leading officials the Health Commissioner, Education  Director, Magistrate, and Doctor to prepare for the visit of the inspector, who will, according to the letter, be travelling incognito and bearing secret instructions to evaluate the performance of the local government. In a panic, the Mayor instructs his officials to hide their corruption and cover up all of their unethical practices which are profound and widespread. When the Postmaster arrives in a flurry of curiosity, the Mayor instructs him to burn any defamatory letters.

Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky, two local landowners, burst in with the news that there is a young official Khlestakov staying at the inn and refusing to pay his bill. They are certain that he is the dreaded Government Inspector. Frenzied, the Mayor sends his offi­cials to fix up the town and heads off to greet the inspector with Bobchinsky, Dobchinsky, and the Superintendent of Police in town.

At the end of the scene, the Mayor’s wife, Anna, and daughter, Marya, come in just after the Mayor’s entourage/associates has departed. Anna and Marya fantasize about what the Government Inspector might be like, and send their servant, Avdotya, to the inn to spy for them.

Commentary on act one

  Through act one, we find out that the Mayor, as well as the office staff of the country town, are all corrupted in one way or the other. Corruption is everywhere and everybody wants to cover up. That's why they are all worried and anxious when they hear about the unexpected visit of the General Inspector.

 The Mayor himself takes bribes, fur coats and expensive things. The judge takes bribes and shuts his eyes to what goes on in his courthouse. The clerk breeds geese and goslings in the waiting room and he always smells of vodka. The court records are not kept safe and the Judge's own hunting gears are mixed up with paper.

    The hospital is filthy; the patients look like chimney sweepers. They are not given any medicines. The wards (patients’ rooms) are crowded with them. There are no proper records about the patients, their names, what they suffer from when they were admitted and so on.

The teachers of the school are not any better, one teacher is grimace and always shows funny faces, another fills the young heads with Godless ideas and gets hot-headed and breaks government property (chairs)

The constable steals silver spoons and takes more material for his uniform than his rank entitles him. The fund for building a hospital chapel was stolen and it was never built. The streets are filthy, the soldiers run about half-naked in the streets. The employees are all drunk most of the time. The postmaster is dishonest, he opens all the letters reads them and reseals them.

ACT II. SCENE I

 The scene is in a small, poorly furnished room at the inn. Yosif, the servant of Hlestakov, the traveller who is mistaken for a government inspector is lying on his master's bed at the inn. Khlestakov’s servant, Yosip, muses that his master is a government clerk of the lowest rank who is unable to pay his bill because he has lost all his money gambling. Khlestakov comes in and demands that Yosip go down to the dining room and have the landlord send them some lunch despite the fact that he has not paid for anything. Yosip reminds his master that the landlord has refused to feed them until they pay, but Khlestakov will not listen to reason, and Yosip eventually follows orders, return­ing with a sullen waiter who brings Khlestakov lunch and sends Yosip to scrounge in the kitchen. Khlestakov complains extensively about the food and then demands dessert. Yosip returns with the news that the Mayor has arrived at the inn and is “asking questions” about Khlestakov. Khlestakov, certain that the Mayor is there to arrest him, panics. The Mayor appears and offers to show Khlestakov the local institutions, such as the prison, which makes Khlestakov panic even more; his confusion grows as the Mayor invites Khlestakov to stay at his home instead of at the inn. He also gives Khlestakov four hundred rubles and tells him not to worry about paying his bill. While Khlestakov is still not sure what is going on, he is perfectly willing to play along with the Mayor’s generosity.

Comment on Act II scene I     

Through criticizing his master, Yosif sheds highlights on the real character of Hlestakov. He gives us a perfect portrait of his master. The character of the little government clerk who feels self-importance and goes around showing off and getting himself in trouble by living above his means. That character is to be found in many underdeveloped countries.

The arrival of the Mayor is the beginning of misunderstanding that result in very ironic and comic situations. The Mayor has come to the inn believing that the young traveller is the disguised Government Inspector. He is so frightened and is thinking of a way to gain him to his side. On the other hand, Hlestakov is also frightened. He thinks that the Mayor has come to the inn to take him to prison.

The Mayor only feels relieved when Hlestakov says that he has no money to pay his bills. The Mayors seizes the chance and offers him money (a bribe). Hlestakov is so glad because that was a good chance for him to get out of trouble. He gladly accepts the money with a promise to pay it back as soon as he gets home.

 In this Act, more lights are thrown on the character of the Mayor. He is not only a corrupted person, but he is also ready to corrupt all people so as to gain them to his side. His hypocrisy is clear in this act. He knows well that the young inspector is telling lies, but he pretends to believe every word he says. He also claims that inviting the General Inspector to stay in his own house comes out of mere generosity not out of hypocrisy.

           

ACT II, SCENE II.

The same room in the Mayor's house; afternoon of the same day. The Mayor's wife and daughter are standing by the window just as in act I.

Anna and Marya wait impatiently for news of the Government Inspector. When Dobchinsky arrives with a letter from the Mayor, Anna and Marya interrogate him until he explains that Khlestakov is coming to stay with them. Anna and Marya argue about what they will wear and insult each other until Osip arrives, followed by Khlestakov, the Mayor, and the Mayor’s entourage of civil servants. They discuss the lunch they had at the hospital, and Khlestakov launches into an elaborate fantasy of his luxurious and privileged life in St. Petersburg. The Mayor and company believe his grandiose imaginings and are awed and afraid. Exhausted and drunk, Khlestakov retires to take a nap.

Comment on Act II scene II

In this scene, almost all the characters appear liars and hypocrites. We, as the audience as well as themselves, know that they are liars, but they are not ashamed of it. Among themselves, they compete in pleasing the Inspector-General and attracting his attention and gaining his trust.

 First of all Yosif, the servant had to lie to Mishka (a servant of Mayor) when he asked him whether his master was a general. He lied to back up his master and to enjoy the little privileges he began to get. The Charity Commissioner tells lot of lies about the hospital, about his efficiency in running the hospital.

The Mayor also tells heaps of lies about his cleverness and hard work for the sake of his district. He says that he sacrifices his personal life and that his only aim is to satisfy the authority and see his district clean, and his people happy.

Hlestakov gives lots of lies about himself, his life in Petersburg, his important position, and about the important people he mixes with. Everything he says is untrue. He even lies about the luxurious food he eats and the people of high rank who come to his house for a game of cards, or for dancing. He lies about being a gifted writer whose help is sought by all the important newspapers. He lies about the large sums of money he earns through correcting articles for newspapers and about the books he has written. He lies about his firmness in running a big department. He also lies to Anna and tries to flirt with her.

 On the other hand Anna, the Mayor's wife seems to be naïve and believes everything that is said by Hlestakov. She also tries to attract his attention to her flattering him.

ACT III, SCENE I.

  The scene is the house of the Mayor, at about 8 o'clock the next morning. The Mayor, still in his dressing-gown, was blaming the Constables for making noise because Hlestakov was still asleep. He (the Mayor) sends the Superintendent and Constable to keep watch at the gates and refuse entry to any citizens with petitions for the Government Inspector. Anna and Marya then come in, arguing about whom Khlestakov paid more attention to the day before. When Yosip comes in, the Mayor, Anna, and Marya interrogate him about Khlestakov’s rank and how best to keep him happy. Yosip tells them that Khlestakov likes his servant to be well treated, and the Mayor gives Yosip some money. The Mayor, Anna, Marya, and Yosip leave, and the Postmaster, Education Director, Health Commissioner, Magistrate, Doctor, Police Superintendent, Bobchinsky, and Dobchinsky enter. Cautiously, they discuss the most tactful way of bribing Khlestakov.

Khlestakov comes in and the officials flee, returning one at a time to awkwardly extend bribes to him. Khlestakov makes the most of the opportunity—especially once he catches on—and professes to “refuse bribes” while forcefully suggesting that the officials “lend him” money. When the officials ask him whether he has any “wishes or commands” for their civil institutions, he offers only disinterest. With each succeeding official, Khlestakov becomes more direct, taking full advantage of his mistaken identity, as it finally dawns on him that he is being mistaken for someone else.

After the last of the officials have left, Khlestakov orders Yosip to bring him paper and ink and writes a letter to his friend Tryapichkin in St. Petersburg, telling him all about the stupidity of the townspeople and his adventures as the supposed Government Inspector. Yosip urges Khlestakov to get out while the going is good. Khlestakov at first resists, but he eventually admits that Yosip is right and agrees to leave as soon as he has sent his letter. Yosip goes off to send the letter and order the horses for their escape.

Before he leaves, Yosip lets in a horde of shopkeepers bearing petitions, who beg Khlestakov to save them from the Mayor’s oppressive ways. They offer him gifts of wine and sugar, which he refuses, saying that he cannot be bribed. He will, however, accept a gift of three hundred rubles. The shopkeepers give him five hundred, and he promises to take the petitions and show them to the czar. After they are gone, he tears up the petitions. Next, several women enter. They are also angry about their treatment at the hands of the Mayor and plead for Khlestakov’s aid. He agrees to “make the Mayor pay.” After they are gone, a huge, mournful noise is heard, and “The Poor of Mother Russia” appears, begging for relief. Horrified and exhausted, Khlestakov demands to be left alone.

Marya comes in, and Khlestakov flirts with her aggressively. While first interested, Marya becomes confused and resistant as his flirt­ing grows increasingly intense. Khlestakov proposes to Marya as Anna comes in; Anna sends Marya out of the room, and as soon as she is gone Khlestakov begins flirting with Anna. Anna points out that he was just proposing to her daughter and that she is “fairly married,” but Khlestakov persists until Marya bursts back in, whereupon he transfers his attentions back to Marya. The Mayor at first refuses to believe that Khlestakov has asked for his daughter’s hand in marriage, but eventually, he accepts the “honour” and gives Marya and Khlestakov his blessing.

Yosip enters and informs Khlestakov that the horses are ready for their departure. The Mayor is surprised and concerned, but Khlestakov assures him—and Anna and Marya—that he is only going to seek his father’s consent to the marriage. Yosip and Khlestakov leave.

Comment on Act III scene I

In this, scene we get to learn more and more about the Mayor's corruption and bad manners. He is bribed by people so as not to take their sons for soldiers; he is cruel and orders the sergeant's wife to be whipped for something she hasn't done. He is greedy and grabs whatever he comes across regardless of its value as in the case of the three merchants.

Anna's character is also revealed more and more. She is a flirting woman. Though she is married, she is ready to have a relation with Hlestakov. She is also jealous of her own daughter and competes with her in trying to attract the young man's attention.

 Hlestakov also appears to be immoral and opportunist. He seizes the chance of being mistaken for an important government official with a high rank and took large sums of money from all the local officials of the town including the Mayor himself. He flirts with both mother and daughter and doesn't mind having a relationship with both of them at the same time.

ACT III, SCENE II

   Later on the same day, The Mayor and his wife were talking together about their daughter's engagement to the Government Inspector. The Mayor was sure that his wife had never expected to hear such news or even dreamt of it, but Anna claimed that she was aware of everything. Marya was present but as usual, ignored by her parents.

 Mayor and Anna begin to fantasize about their lives in St. Petersburg as the in-laws of a major government official. The shopkeepers come in and the Mayor berates them for bothering the Government Inspector—who is, he points out, now engaged to his daughter.

 As the shopkeepers leave, the town officials enter, congratulating the Mayor and Marya on the advantageous match. As everyone rejoices, however, the Postmaster arrives with Khlestakov’s letter, in which he describes how he has deceived and cheated the townspeople.

 Everyone is horrified, the Mayor most of all: “I’ve lied to the liars, I’ve cheated the cheats,” he says. “Never once has anyone made a fool of me. Until now.” The Mayor is furious at himself for being such a fool; he blames Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky for first sug­gesting that Khlestakov could be the Government Inspector and demands of the audience, “What are you laughing at? You’re laugh­ing at yourselves!”

Just then, a z/gendarme (French policeman) enters and informs everyone that they are ordered, by imperial decree, “to come to the inn, where a Government Inspector awaits you.” The play ends with a famous tableau: each character frozen in a posture of surprise and fear at the announcement that the real gov­ernment inspector has arrived.

Comment on Act III scene II

 In the final scene we find the Mayor and his wife so excited. They are so happy that their daughter is going to be married to such an important government official. They keep dreaming of their new life and their new future. They make plans and decide to start a new fresh life.

 When the news spread around, lots of people come to pay their respect, and both the Mayor and his wife behave very proudly and they scold the people.

 But in the midst of their joy and happiness, they receive a great shock; The Postmaster comes to announce that Hlestakov was not a real inspector; he has cheated everyone in town. To add to their panic, a French policeman comes in to announce that the real Inspector General has arrived, and he wants to see the Mayor immediately.

The play that begins with a blinding flash of lightning ends in a thunderclap. In fact, it is wholly placed in the tense gap between the flash and the crash.

MAJOR AND MINOR THEMES AND IDEAS IN THE PLAY

Satire of Russian Bureaucracy/ System of Government

As was readily apparent to Gogol’s contemporaries, The Government Inspector is a satire of the extensive bureaucracy of nineteenth-century Russian government. According to D. J. Campbell, writing in the forward to The Government Inspector, Gogol once stated that “In the Government Inspector I tried to gather in one heap all that was bad in Russia.”

Through the regular practices of “bribery and extortion,” according to Beresford in his introduction to Gogol’s The Government Inspector: A Comedy in Five Acts, most public officials “tyrannized over the local population” of Russian towns. Beresford goes on to characterize Russia under the yoke of this vast bureaucratic system: “The whole of this immense empire was strangled by red tape, cramped by administrative fetters, and oppressed by a monstrous tyranny of paper over people.”

Nigel Brown in his Notes on Nikolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector states that, in The Government Inspector, “Gogol was the first Russian writer to examine the realities of the official world in literature, exposing it to hilarious satire.”

 In Gogol’s play, Hlestakov, the young man mistaken for the government inspector, belongs to the lowest of fourteen possible levels within the hierarchy of the Russian civil service. The fact that he successfully poses as a public official occupying a much higher level in the bureaucracy thus demonstrates both the ignorance of the townspeople he has duped and his own sense of self-importance.

 The chaotic atmosphere of the office of the governor in the opening scene immediately establishes the image of small-town Russian bureaucracy as ridiculously inefficient and unprofessional. Nothing of any value seems to get accomplished by the masses of paper and the proliferation of characters holding official government titles.

The lack of communication between the small town and the government center in Saint Petersburg also indicates that the Russian bureaucracy was so geographically extensive there was no means of regulating the behaviour of civil servants or the effectiveness of local government offices.

Corruption

All of the public officials in the town are thoroughly corrupt. It must however be made clear from the beginning that the term corruption is synonymous to bribery, extortion and embezzlement. All these are used interchangeably.

The judge “openly admits to taking bribes although he thinks it is a small offence. The postmaster indiscriminately opens and reads letters addressed to others; and the police are drunken, brawling, and given to flogging women.

 Most corrupt of all is the highest ranking official of the town, the governor/Mayor. He regularly takes bribes, spends money allotted to the building of a church for his own purposes, and seizes money from the local shopkeepers.

 In satirizing the corruption within the Russian bureaucracy, Gogol addressed more universal themes of human corruption. Beresford asserts that the play is “an attack on all forms of moral depravity, of which bribery and corruption are but examples.” Because of this universal theme, Beresford insists that “Gogol’s play is thus as relevant to the world of the twentieth century as it was to its own time, and it points to a perennial evil of civilized societies.”

We find in the hospital all sorts of corruption. The nightcaps and bedclothes are all worn out. There are lots of dirty patients who all look like chimney sweepers. The patients aren't given any medicines as nobody cares about their lives. They are even allowed to go around the hospital smoking filthy tobacco. The doctor who is responsible for them doesn't speak Russian. The wards are crowded with patients and there are no records for the patients, with their names, the diseases they suffer from, when they are admitted and such things.

According to the Mayor's story, the Constable was involved in a lot of corruption. First of all he was seen stealing silver spoons and hiding them in his boot, secondly, he took more cloth for his uniform than his rank entitled him.

During the conversation between the Mayor and the Judge, the Mayor tells the Judge what should be done to clean the courthouse and put everything in good order. He was drawing the Judge's attention to his sins; taking bribes from people. Judge defends himself that he only received little bribes while others received expensive fur coats for their wives.

The Mayor is another corrupt official. He confesses before the self-imposed Government Inspector that he has been taking bribes because his official salary is too little to meet his daily demands. For him, what he takes as bribes is too little anyway but it satisfies his needs.

In deciding which army officers as to who is to be be taken for duty and which one is left, the Mayor takes bribes from them. This report was given by the townspeople as they come to pour out their grievances to the self-imposed Government Inspector, Hlestakov.

The town officials in their attempt to cover up their misdeeds willingly offer bribes to Hlestakov in order to stop the “Government Inspector” from inspecting their province.

Hlestakov on his part takes advantage of his mistaken identity and openly extorts money from the town officials in the name of loan. He extorts sixty five roubles from Dob and Bob, three hundred roubles from the townspeople who are even more willing to offer more as long as Hlestakov promises to come to their aid. He finally extorts eight hundred roubles from the Mayor even after falling in love with his daughter and seducing his wife.

Inefficiency (Irresponsibility and Incompetence)

All the town officials are all incompetent. We find in the hospital all sorts of incompetence and irresponsibility, the nightcaps and bedclothes are all worn out. There are lots of dirty patients who all look like chimney sweepers.

The patients aren't given any medicines as nobody cares about their lives. They are even allowed to go around the hospital smoking filthy tobacco. The doctor who is responsible for them doesn't speak Russian. The wards are crowded with patients and there are no records for the patients, with their names, the diseases they suffer from, when they are admitted and such things.

The Charity Commission is very inefficient. He waits for the orders from the Mayor to get some clean nightcaps and bedclothes and to put a sign over each bed with the name of the patient, what he suffers from, and when he was admitted. He was also asked to get rid of some patient so as to give the impression that the doctor knows his job. Patients should be cleaned and should be ordered to stop smoking that filthy tobacco. All these, he needed not to be told.

The CC and the doctor are very irresponsible. They believe that the more natural their treatment is the better. They don't bother with expensive medicines! These patients are very simple people! If they die, well, they die! If they get better even without being giving any medicines.

The Judge is very incompetent. He had to be told by the Mayor what to be done to put order in the courtroom. During the conversation between them, the Mayor was telling him what should be done to clean the courthouse and put everything in good order. He was drawing the Judge's attention to his sins; taking bribes from people when the Judge began to defend himself . He said that he only received little bribes while others received expensive fur coats for their wives.

The judge takes bribes and the courthouse smells very bad because the porter breeds poultry in the waiting-rooms. The offices are full of all kinds of rubbish.

One of the clerks smells vodka. That is why the Mayor asked the Judge to get the court records in order. This is a bad sign of incompetence and irresponsibility for the court clerk.

The teachers behave in a most peculiar manner. One teacher is always making ugly faces. Another one, the history teacher, teaches the students godless ideas. He always breaks the chairs and no one understands him. This is a clear sign of incompetence.

The postmaster is very incompetent. The mayor asked him to open every letter and read it. If there was nothing against him, he could reseal it and send it. But if there was any complaint against him, he must keep it back. The Postmaster said that this wasn't something new for him to do as he had been doing this for years. Not as a precaution but for fun. This is a sign of lack of trust, incompetence and dishonesty.

The town is full of chaos. The prisoners go hungry, there is rampant beating, the streets have not been swept for days and now it stinks like rotten cabbages.

Soldiers move half-naked. No military uniforms for them. They only wear shirts and tunics without any trousers. A clear sign of negligence of duty and irresponsibility on the side of those concerned.

The police constables are also a bunch of incompetent fellows. They resort to heavy drinking instead of doing their work. One called Prohorov resorts to drinking when he goes to deal with a fight in the outskirt of the town. He abandons duty and gets too drunk to understand anything.

Deception and Self-deception

Reality lies beyond the obvious, is one statement that is clear here. How one appears may not necessarily be the reality and that is why appearance is in conflict with reality. Government Inspector is one play that is full of deception that leads to the identity of one being mistaken. All these are narrowed down to deception.

 The Government Inspector is a story of deception and self-deception. The townspeople deceive themselves into believing that Hlestakov is the government inspector, whereupon Hlestakov takes advantage of the case of mistaken identity, further extending the deception to his own advantage. Hlestakov takes such a liking to his assumed role that he almost appears to be convinced by his own deception, imagining himself to be the venerable high official he pretends to be.

Although Hlestakov had no initial intention to deceive anyone, his appearance that is far from reality deceives and leads the two landlords Dob and Bob into thinking that he is the expected ‘Government Inspector’. The same ‘cancer’ is later spread to all the town officials. They are all convinced that Hlestakov is the man. As a result, the whole town is in terror from the beginning to the end simply because of this mistaken identity and deception.

The townspeople attempt to deceive the government inspector as to the true corruption within the local government, but find that they have only deceived and cheated themselves in the process. Gogol made use of the plot motif of mistaken identity “to reveal a fundamental state of chaos in human life.” It is no accident that the plot of most of his works hinges on deception because for him deception was at the very heart of things. He saw human beings as enmeshed in a web of confusion and deceptions, misled not only by appearances but also by their own delusions and lies.

The Mayor deceives ‘The Government Inspector’ that he spends most of his time in serving the government. So he has no time for games and gambling. He says he has never seen or looked at them because one time he had a nightmare when he built a house of cards for children. This is seer deception because the reader knows that in truth, the Mayor has no time for Government service.

The charity commission on his part deceives Hlestakov that the patients were not many in the hospital because the management is very good and things are well organized. This is surely not true because the reader knows that it is just a planned thing to keep the patients away so that it does not appear like the medical personnel there does not work.

Yosif on his part, when asked by Mishka (Mayor`s servant) whether Hlestakov is a general, he replies that he is a general inside out and back to front (pg 51). Again when asked by Anna (Mayor`s wife) whether Hlestakov is always visited by many counts and princes, he made no delay in answering that he is visited by lots of them. Twisting every question to his advantage, he answered the Mayor that Hlestakov likes things well run. Everything must always be just so… he goes on to say that his master likes being well received and entertained (pgs 60-61). All these are smart deceptions that lead the Mayor and his associates into thinking that truly Hlestakov is the Inspector.

The mayor successfully deceives Hlestakov that he works very hard always to ensure that the town is clean and is in good order. He says he has kept the bad roads clean; the convicts are always properly looked after and yet they go on empty stomachs for long, drunkenness kept down. All these are naked lies for we the readers know that the town that he claims to be in order is just in chaos and drunkenness is the order of the day. The court clerk and the police constables are always drunk.

The town officials deceive themselves in Act three, scene one; when they come in one after another to offer bribes to the self-imposed Government Inspector so that the Inspector does not come and inspect their offices. By doing this they thought they were successful and yet the reader of the play at the end knows that the real Inspector is still to come. This is seer deception.

The Mayor of the town also falls in the same trap of self-deception. He thinks by offering to keep the mistaken low ranking Hlestakov in his house, he would earn promotions to higher offices and above all, by giving him bribes, the Inspector would not go to inspect some parts of the province. He is later hard-struck at the end of the play as the truth dawn on him that Hlestakov is not the Inspector he had thought of.

Hlestakov himself becomes a victim of self-deception. He writes a letter to his friend back in St. Petersburg, telling him how he has succeeded in fooling the town officials. He thought his identity would not be known. Thanks be to the postmaster who opens the letter before posting and from that, the true identity of Hlestakov is known.

CHARACTER AND CHARACTERISATION

A character is an individual person within the work of art. When a writer writes, he creates characters, develops them and presents them to the readers. This process is known as characterization. Characters are fully involved in the action of the play or Novel; as a result, they determine the flow and the development of the plot.

There are different ways through which characters can be understood:

Ø  What the writer says about the character.

Ø  What characters say about themselves.

Ø  What other characters in the story say about them.

Ø  How that person behaves and relates with the various characters.

Hlestakov

Simple, penniless and desperate: Although as the play opens Hlestakov is not on stage, he is one of the main characters in the play alongside with the Mayor. He influences the development of the plot right away from the time he appears on the stage in Act II scene I to the end of the play. At his appearance on stage, he appears a simple, penniless and desperate man at the brink of starvation.

Though the soliloquy of the servant Yosif, we also learn that Hlestakov is extravagant, irresponsible and vain. He loves an expensive life-style albeit he is only a junior clerk. His extravagance is portrayed by the way he misuses money in various ways. Yosif says, he loses a tremendous amount of money in gambling (pg 36).

Hlestakov likes showing off. He goes everywhere by cab and buys theatre tickets every day. Even when his father sends him money, he does not keep a grip on it but instead goes off on a spending spree. In spite of his junior position, he goes for expensive meals according to Yosif and likes staying in expensive hotels (pg 36).

He is an abusive man. He abuses the waiter that he is a low animal for refusing to give him food before he clears the old bill. He calls Yosif oaf, an idiot for hesitating to go downstairs to bring him food. He calls the waiter a fool, dirty pig for not serving him a better meal. He calls the management of the inn thieves… (pg 40-41).

He is ungrateful. He spends nearly two weeks in the Inn, eating without pay but he goes on to express his displeasure with the food he has been served instead of being grateful that he has been tolerated for long. Instead of being appreciative for the food served, he says “…this is like the back of the tree… (pg 14).

He is an opportunist. He takes advantage of the Mayor's generosity and his mistaken identity to extort money from the Mayor and all his associates in order to clear his hotel bills.

He is sometimes a bully character. Using force to get what he wants. When he became hungry, he forces Yosif his servant to get for him what to eat despite his bulging debt in the Inn.

He is romantic.  He says it himself that he has been flirting with the daughter of the shop-keeper next door (pg 41). As if that is not enough, he goes on to flirt with both the wife of Mayor and the daughter (Anna and Marya). He makes the parents of Marya believe that he is truly in love.

Hlestakov is corrupt through and through. He accepts bribes with pleasure and engages in extortion of money from the government officials.

He Shameless liar. He bluntly deceives the Mayor that his father is annoyed because he has not been promoted in the government service. He also deceives the wife of Mayor that he wrote a book “Youri miloslavsky” and yet the daughter of the Mayor knows it well that it is written by Mr Zagoskin (pg 56).

He plays a significant role in revealing the rot in the town. It is because of his presence that the inefficiency, corruption and all forms of moral decadence are revealed. He also plays a significant role in the development of the plot character traits of some characters in the play.

Hlestakov is a very irresponsible character. This is portrayed in the way he desires to show off and lead an expensive lifestyle. From the very words of yousif, ‘when the money is finished, he ponds his clothes for almost nothing’. He is a man who sells all his clothes because of living above his standard. This is irresponsibility (pg 36-37).

He is extravagant. On his journey from St. Petersburg, he spends carelessly and squanders all his money in expensive dinners and lavish lifestyles inexpensive hotels. He then gets stranded with debts to pay for his lodging in the Inn.

The Mayor (Anton Antonovitch)

He is one of the central characters in the play. He is the head of one of the Russian towns.

He is a coward: When the play opens, we straight away realize that he is in a panic because he has learnt through a letter from his friend that a Government Inspector is coming to inspect his province and especially his district. The fear and Panics that he displays from the beginning of the play to the end serves to help us understand his character.

He is a liar. He lies to Hlestakov that his purpose for passing by the Inn is to find out how travellers are treated. He lies that his action is meant to express love for mankind. However, we know for sure that the Mayor has come to find more information about the Inspector and bribe him so that he does not inspect the province (pg 42).

He is revengeful. After the “Inspector” had gone, he put his ego high. He begins to demand the list of those who went to accuse him to Hlestakov. He even swears that he is going to make it hot for all those fellows who came running to Hlestakov to put forth their complains and petitions to the Inspector (pg 80).

Inefficient. The mayor is very inefficient in his work. He is the chief authority in the town but the town is in a real mess. The streets are dirty and so are most of the government institutions such as the Hospital, courts room and others. The Mayor admits this himself when he holds a crisis meeting about the expected government Inspector. In his own words, as found on page 33, he says “…Behind that fence, there is a pile of stinking rubbish… what a dirty rotten town this is!”

He is shrewd and opportunistic. When he learns that the government Inspector is around, he rushes to the Inn to bribe him so as to ensure his own security. He employs different tactics including lies, flattery and eloquence to create a favourable impression of himself.

Gullible. The Mayor is too gullible. This is demonstrated by his blind acceptance of the story of the arrival of the government Inspector and the fantasies of hlestakov. Even when he discovers the lies of Hlestakov, he thinks it is only a trick to cover the identity of the Inspector. He wrongly believes that since Hlestakov is drunk, he must be telling the truth about himself (pg 59).

Dishonest. The Mayor is also portrayed as a dishonest man. He tells Hlestakov that he is very hardworking and has created order in the town, kept cleanliness, fed the convicts, dealt with drunkenness. All these are however lies as we see many drunkards including constables and the court clerk.

He is very corrupt. He heavily deals in bribes, embezzlement and extortion to thrive. He bribes Hlestakov to cover up the inefficiency and his incompetence. He takes bribes from the townspeople and extorts their merchandise. No wonder, he is termed as the worst Mayor to have ever worked in the town.

He is very insensitive. He does not care about the plight of the people he leads. He does not care about the plight of the patients as long as his neck and those of his cronies are saved. The townspeople are crying of fair treatment and good services but he scolds them instead, a sigh that he is very insensitive.

He is ambitious. Despite his high post as the mayor, he still dreams of promotion to higher post especially when he learns that his daughter is going to get married to the Inspector. He begins to fantasize, seeing himself in Petersburg and holding high post. This is sheer ambition.

He is very irresponsible. Being the head of the province, he is thought to be in control of all the different aspects of development. Unfortunately, he is not concerned. Everything is in a mess. Worst of all, he does not care about the workers in the district. The soldiers, for instance, have no proper uniform. They only put on shirts and their tunics (pg 34). Some convicts have not been fed now for two weeks (pg 31).

Satire of the Russian Government. He is used by the author to depict and satirize the ineffectiveness of the Government leadership system in Russia.

Themes development. He is used to develop many themes in the play. Through him, the audience clearly sees the excesses of incompetence, irresponsibility, corruption and other social evils.

Plot development. He is used in the development of the plot. It is through the Mayor at the beginning of the play that mention is made of a government Inspector supposed to come to the town incognito and this sets the stage for the entire unfolding events that follow.

Significance and roles of Dob and Bob in the play The Government Inspector.

Ø  These two are landowners in the town who are also great friends and are close to the Mayor. They are known for being very talkative and they love roumermognering.

Ø  They are the ones who sparked off the drama by mistaking Hlestakov for the government inspector.

Ø  They are so convincing in their description of Hlestakov that everybody believed them.

Ø  They are very dramatic as they compete and argue as to who should tell the story to the Mayor and the other officials.

Ø  They are used by the author to depict the exploitation and unfairness of the land system.

Ø  Their failure to coordinate their communication shows the disorganized town officials.

Ø  They help to help to reveal the gullibility of the town’s official.

Ø  Dobchinsky is portrayed as a laughing stock since it is believed that the judge fathered children with his wife.

Ø  The two landlords help to reveal the social ills in the city like moral decadence, cowardice, corruption, irresponsibility among others.

Ø  They help to develop the plot of the play. They come with the information that there is a traveller at the Inn behaving like the dreaded government Inspector.

Ø  They also help in the development of themes.

Ø  Character development.

Ø  At the end of the play, their denial for having started the rumour of the government inspector shows the dishonesty among the town's official.

Ø  They are a great source of humour in the play through the way they behave and talks, the way they struggled to get who should communicate to the Mayor the news of the traveler in the Inn.      

Consequences of bad governance as revealed in the play Government Inspector.

                                      OR

Why do you think there is need for the government Inspector in the Russian Local Government?

                                    OR

Why do you think the town officials were afraid of the Government Inspector?

Ø  Failure of regular government inspection from the central government.

Ø  Town’s streets are very dirty and no one feels concern.

Ø  No medicine in the hospital.

Ø  The courthouse is equally dirty with no proper records.

Ø  There is no privacy as the postmaster open and reads all the letters

Ø  The Mayor has no one to check him. He takes bribes from the people.

Ø  Judicial structures are wanting since the people’s pleas are not addressed.

Ø  School superintendent has no control over teachers.

Ø  There is negligence of duty by the town's official (soldiers walk half-naked).

Ø  The hospital is very dirty and the patients are not attended to.

Ø  All the town’s officials are very corrupt.

Ø  Most of the government officials are very inefficient.

Ø  The police constables and the court clerk are always drunk.

Ø  The landlords in the town are grabbing people’s property.

What makes the mistaken identity possible in the Government Inspector?

                                  OR

How does Hlestakov succeed in fooling the town officials in The Government Inspector?

Hlestakov is a young officer who is mistaken for the government inspector in the play.

Ø  His lifestyle while in the Inn made the officials think that he is the government Inspector since he lived a very expensive lifestyle.

Ø  The fact that he is an official coming from St. Petersburg was enough to convince the town officials that he is the government Inspector.

Ø  He moves with a servant, proving that he is a high ranking official.

Ø  His boastful talk while at the Mayor's house convinces the town officials of his status back in St. Petersburg.

Ø  When he asked them to lend him money, they think he is asking for a bribe.

Ø  His willingness to listen to the merchants complains makes them believe he is investigating them.

Ø  The insincerity of Yosif, his servant who did not disclose the identity of his servant but confirming further to the town officials that he is a high ranking man, convinced the town officials.

Ø  His arrival coincides with the coming of the government inspector.

Ø  His revelation that he works for the government.

Ø  The gullibility of the town officials.

Ø  The kind of coat he was wearing convinced the officials that he is an official.

Ø  The fact that he was very critical, inspecting everything including plates made the town landlords to believe his the government inspector.

Ø  His acceptance to get engaged to the mayor`s daughter convinces them of his immunity.

Ø  Lack of proper communication between the central gov`t and the local government.

What are the general characteristics and the relevance of the town officials in The Government Inspector?

Ø  All the town officials are generally corrupt.

Ø  They are all incompetent in their duties.

Ø  They are very irresponsible.

Ø  They are gullible (Easily duped or deceived).

Ø  Insensitive to the needs of others.

Ø  They are all dishonest. None of them is will to stand for the truth.

Ø  They are also unjust in the way they treat the subjects (flogging and forcing them)

Ø  They are all hypocrites. Pretending to look good in the eyes of “the inspector”.

Ø  They are not patriotic (not devoted to serving the country).

Ø  They are not democratic (they rule the way they like, self-governing).

·         They are relevant in the development of other characters.

·         They help in the development of different themes like corruption, gullibility, etc

·         They help also in the development of the plot.

·         They are used to portray the rot in the Russian government.

·         They are great source of humor in the play by the way they conduct themselves.  

How is what happens in the play a mirror of what happens in your country?

What is the relevance of the play to your country?

Ø  Hlestakov`s escapades reflect the many conmen we see in Uganda today.

Ø  Poor services in the hotel are evident in some hotels in Uganda.

Ø  The filth in the hospital is terribly similar to Uganda`s hospital

Ø  The inept mayor is just like many government officials in Uganda.

Ø  The mayor exploits and extorts money from people just like many government officials in Uganda.

Ø  Officials and characters like Dob and Bob are sycophants to the mayor just like many politicians in Uganda are to the president.

Ø  The mayor servants are mistreated just as civil servants in Uganda.

Ø   The panic at the coming of the inspector is similar to what happens when an investigation is announced.

Ø  Cleaning and ordering of the town for the inspectors visit is what happens in Uganda when big officials are expected eg. President.

Ø  The desperate masses in the play are just like the desperate poor citizens of Uganda.

Ø  The corruption of the town officials are seen in the many corrupt government officials in Uganda.

Ø  The immorality of the government officials in the play relates to the many immoral officials in the Ugandan government.

Ø  The inefficiencies of the school superintendent and teachers is compared to the many inefficient teachers in Uganda who simply known not what to do.

Ø  ( A student is expected to point out the evils in the play relating it to Uganda)

Point out the rot/evil and dirt in the play ‘Government Inspector’

(NB: the rot and the dirt are not just about the physical appearance/filth but also the poor services and corruption)

Ø  Poor health services and state of the hospital.

Ø  Dirty and poor state of the court room.

Ø  Dirty streets.

Ø  Immorality of the mayor and his officials.

Ø  The alarming state of corruption of the officials.

Ø  The ill-treatment of the people by the mayor.

Ø  Poverty of the people.

Ø  Inefficiency of the government officials.

Ø  Poor education services and state of the school.

Ø  Rumor mongering among the town officials.

What do you find interesting in the play The Government Inspector?

Introduction

The government inspector is a play that satirizes the weakness in the civil and political institutions of the Russian government. What makes the play interesting is the way Gogol strategically attacks the town`s officials by describing their feelings in a humorous way. (2 Mks).

Ø  When Hlestakov broke and gets into a heated argument with the hotel management.

Ø  The town`s mayor and officials learn of the coming of the inspector and also hear about the presence of a man from Petersburg at the Inn and imagines he is the inspector.

Ø  When the mayor goes to meet the inspector, he finds Hlestakov who thinks he has come to assault him.

Ø  The way Dob and Bob competes themselves to explain the presence of a suspected Inspector.

Ø  The honorable treatment the mayor and the officials lavish on Hlestakov having mistaken him for the inspector.

Ø  The sorry state of the town and how they try to make it appear plausible for the inspector.

Ø  The way mayors wife and daughter fight for the attention of Hlestakov

Ø  The way Hlestakov lies to the mayor and his house hold about life in Petersburg.

Ø  The town`s people come to complain to Hlestakov about Mayor thinking he is the Inspector.

Ø  The way the town`s official meet Hlestakov in turns to seek favors and how he asks for money from them.

Ø  The way Mayor behaves after realizing he has been duped by Hlestakov. “… you are laughing at your selves…”    (Any 9*2=18)

Referring closely to the play, comment on the way the mayor treats his subjects.

Introduction

In the play the government Inspector, the Mayor is seen as a middle aged man, married with one daughter. He is however a rough man who mistreats his subjects. (2Mks).

Ø  He is always asking for bribes from people especially traders whenever they ask him to do something for them

Ø  He creats several festivals in his honour to which every trader  must bring a gift for him

Ø  He lets his subjects to be mistreated by his officials and he does not intervene such as the sergents wife who was flogged.

Ø  He fails to ensure the welfare of his subjects by making the hospital clean.

Ø  The convicts are not fed for two weeks.

Ø  He allows the court officials keep poulty in the court room making it very dirty and an inconvenience.

Ø  He is always charging tasks on traders with no due consideration.

Ø  He practices discrimination by having  a clique of people around him who enjoy privileges at the expense of others (Dob and Bob).

Ø  He does nothing about the state of the town, leaving people to live in a dirty environment.

Ø  When the people complain to the ‘Inspector’ about him, he retaliates by threatening them and promising heavy penalties.    (Any 9*2= 18)

 

How do the mayor and his officials try to please the government inspector?

Ø  The mayor rushes to ensure that Hlestakov is well taken care of at the inn.

Ø  What Hlestakov asks for 200 rubbles, the mayor gives him 400 instead

Ø  They rush to organize the cleaning of the streets, hospital and the court house.

Ø   They offer to take him on a tour of the town.

Ø  They host him to a luncheon party at the mayor`s residence.

Ø  They marble at his elegance and shower him with praises.

Ø  Each of the officials meets him privately and offer him money

Ø  The mayor arranges to marry off his daughter to the “Inspector”.

Ø  They offer him gifts.

Ø  They organize for him transport at his departure.