“Piskarev’s death”
When “poor Piskarev – the victim of a mad passion, died” the irony of a man’s life is portrayed. It doesn’t matter how many good features one has, he can’t be absolutely sure that he is loved, that he is not lonely in the whole world as “no one wept over him; no one could be seen near his soulless corpse”. The irony of one’s life, its wretchedness, and unimportance from the side are described. But still he was a human, and if not very vivid, he “was quiet, shy, modest, childishly simple, he had a spark of talent, which would probably have erupted widely and brightly over time” and has left some track in this world.
“I don’t want, I don’t need my nose!”
It’s a kind of reference to another Gogol’s work (“The nose”, 1833). While in that story Gogol’s protagonist loses his nose and looks for him, there a hero wants to get rid of his nose. The author laughs at the hero, describing him to be blaming his nose in everything bad, that has happened to him. Thus, on two different works Gogol mocks on humans’ lack of common sense, but he mocks rather the conditions of life that lead to this lack.
“He did not remember anything in that condition, in which he was, but he felt that he had done something stupid, and therefore he entertained the officer with a very harsh view.”
Here we see a kind of absurdity in the character of a hero. His behavior is quite illogical and not well-considered. The hero cannot behave in new situations for him, thus the lack of wit and sociability is mocked, but again not the very Piskarov, but the society of deep moral degradation is an object of this mockery.
