Comment on the style used by Gogol in acts 3 and 4

Gogol ups the irony, comedy, and incisive commentary on these bureaucrats’ failings in this middle act. Khlestakov is even more laughable with his ludicrous stories of life in St. Petersburg, the Mayor continues to do everything in his power to impress a nobody, the Mayor’s wife Anna acts as a model of vanity and selfishness, and the civil servants continue to quake in their boots at the thought that this man—who, again, is actually a nobody—might discover their ineptitude. It is abundantly clear that this is a comedy, intended to provoke laughter as it exposes the ways of the world and encourages moral behavior.