The Death of a Government Clerk Literary Elements

Short story

Late nineteenth-century Russia

The story is told from the perspective of a third-person narrator and follows the thoughts and experiences of its protagonist, Ivan Tchervyakov.

The tone of the story is ironic and critical. The mood of the story is desperate and absurd.

The protagonist of the story is Ivan Tchervyakov. There is no real antagonist in the story, though Tchervyakov is convinced Brizzhalov will punish him for his social transgression.

The central conflict of the story is that Tchervyakov, a low-level government employee, accidentally sneezes on Brizzhalov, a higher-ranking official. Tchervyakov then becomes committed to apologizing to Brizzhalov out of fear of what might happen to him.

Tchervyakov meets with the general and attempts to apologize on multiple occasions, but the general never formally accepts his apology and Tchervyakov goes home, lies down, and dies.

Tchervyakov's desperation and persistence foreshadows his eventual demise, as he is unable to complete his apology to Brizzhalov.

Many of Brizzhalov's remarks are examples of understatement, as he is attempting to ignore the incident altogether and therefore does not wish to elaborate on his feelings the same way Tchervyakov does.

The story alludes to the hierarchy present in the Russian government by having Tchervyakov, a clerk, develop anxiety over how his sneeze may have affected Brizzhalov, a general.

The only true imagery in the story occurs when the narrator describes Tchervyakov's face before his sneeze, emphasizing the drama of the event.

The story's overall style is a paradox, as it features elements of both realism and absurdism. The central paradox of the story is that Tchervyakov's sneeze means nothing to Brizzhalov but everything to Tchervyakov.

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Brizzhalov is a metonymical representation of the higher echelons of the Russian government.

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