Summary
Act I
Scene 1
The mayor announces to the Warden of Charities, Inspector of Schools, Judge, Chief of Police, the Doctor, and two Constables that he has heard that there is to be a government inspector sent from St. Petersburg and that he will be incognito. Not only did he have a dream about it, but his friend also wrote him a letter and warned him that a government official has arrived to inspect the entire province—their district in particular—and is posing like an ordinary person. The friend advised the Mayor to take the necessary precautions.
The other officials are stunned. The Judge wonders if there is a political reason behind it, but the Mayor thinks it is farfetched that St. Petersburg thinks there could be traitors here. Regardless, he suggests to them all that they get their affairs in order. He tells the Warden of Charities that he will probably be inspected first; he suggests that the doctor ought to write something over the patients’ beds in Latin and thin out the patients so it doesn’t look bad. The Warden states firmly that he and the Doctor have their own form of treatment: if a man dies, he dies, and if he recovers, he recovers.
The Mayor tells the Judge to keep the courthouse in line because his watchmen have been raising geese there, there are always clothes hanging in his chambers, and his district assessor always smells bad.
The Mayor then sighs that he knows he has his own “little indiscretions” (222) but that’s how the Lord created people. Worried, the Judge asks if openly taking bribes is a problem, but the bribes, he says, are only puppies. The Mayor shrugs and says that at least he himself is a believer; the Judge is not.
The Mayor tells the Inspector of Schools to corral his teachers, whom he finds very odd and too radical. He once saw one of them making very strange faces, and he wouldn’t want the inspector to be offended. He also saw the history teacher get so worked up about what he was talking about that he smashed chairs. The Inspector of Schools sighs that he has tried to point these things out but nothing works. He doesn’t envy teachers, who are always “scared of putting a foot wrong” and that “everyone wants to prove he’s as smart as the next man” (224).
The Mayor doesn’t care about that, and his thoughts go back to how the inspector will be incognito.
Scene 2
The Postmaster asks the Mayor if it is true that a government inspector is coming, and he posits that it has something to do with war with the Turks. The Mayor scoffs that a war with the Turks is not happening and that he has greater things to worry about. He mentions he is scared a bit because the shopkeepers and townsfolk concern him with their complaints that he works them too hard and that he accepts trifles sometimes. He thinks someone informed on him—why else would an inspector be coming?
The Mayor turns to the Postmaster and asks if he might be able to go through every letter to see if it’s everyday notes or if someone is informing. The Postmaster readily agrees, adding that he already does that because he is curious about what is going on in the world.
Listening to this, the Judge warns them to be careful and states that he has a bad feeling about this whole thing. But a second later, he cheerfully offers the Mayor a puppy.
Scene 3
Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky burst in, talking over each other. They explain hurriedly what they came for, often veering into tangents. Finally, they say that they saw a young man at the inn and that he had very refined features. They asked the landlord about him, and the man told them his name was Ivan Aleksandrovich Khlestakov and he is an official from St. Petersburg. He’d been there for a fortnight and never left the inn, which seemed odd to the landlord. He also kept charging his account.
The Mayor is aghast that the inspector has already been here for so long. The Warden of Charities nervously asks if they ought to make an official visit to the inn. The Mayor says that he will do it while the others get their departments in order.
The Warden of Charities confides to the Judge that he is worried and mentions the nasty stench of cold cabbage in the institution when there is supposed to be oatmeal. The Judge thinks he is okay—after all, who would want to inspect a courthouse? And, if they did, the records are so confusing and messy that no one could find anything anyway. They leave.
Scene 4
On the way out the door, the Mayor, Bobchinsky, and Dobchinsky collide with Svistunov, who tells them Prokhorov cannot come because he is dead drunk.
The Mayor calls for his sword before they go and rues that it is scratched up. He’s told the shopkeeper Abdulin that his sword is damaged, but the man still won’t send him a new one. The shopkeepers are crafty, he asserts, and are probably cooking up petitions against him already.
Scene 5
The Mayor encounters the Chief of Police and asks if he’s taking care of things. The Chief of Police says that some people are cleaning up the pavements.
The Mayor offers more suggestions: station the tall constable at the bridge to create a good impression, tear down old fences so it looks like they’re busy on projects, say the hospital chapel burned down even though they never started building it, and don’t let the soldiers go in the street half-naked. He remembers the huge pile of refuse that cannot be easily removed, and he angrily condemns the townspeople. He begs God to get him out of this, and he is so flummoxed he almost puts a box instead of a hat on his head.
Scene 6
Anna Andreyevna, the Mayor’s wife, and Marya Andreyevna, his daughter, are looking anxiously for the Mayor to return.
Anna sees him out the window and calls to him, but he cannot say much at the moment.
Anna criticizes her daughter for taking too long to get ready; she preens in front of the mirror for the Postmaster, but he doesn’t like her and makes faces at her.
Anna then screeches out her window at a neighbor to go find out who the inspector is and what he looks like.
Act II
Scene 1
In a small room at the inn, Osip lies on his master’s bed, grumbling about how his master has blown all their money and they’ll never get home. He wants to be back in St. Petersburg and hates the country, but even back there, his master is dissolute and never wants to do an honest day’s work. Osip groans that he is starving.
A knock sounds at the door.
Scene 2
Khlestakov enters, criticizing Osip for lying on his bed. He then orders Osip to go down to the dining room and tell them he wants lunch. Osip protests and says that the landlord said that he will not give them any more food and that he is going to complain to the mayor. Khlestakov is annoyed and reiterates that Osip needs to go down there. Osip says he will go get the landlord himself.
Scene 3
Alone, Khlestakov thinks about how hungry he is and how he’d probably be able to have enough money to get home if he hadn’t gambled in Penza and lost his money.
Scene 4
A waiter arrives and asks what they want, but Khlestakov’s false pleasantries fall away when he demands his food. The waiter explains that the landlord will not be serving them and plans on complaining to the Mayor. Khlestakov implores him to reason with the landlord and try to make him understand that he has to eat. The waiter agrees.
Scene 5
Alone again, Khlestakov wonders if he should just sell some clothes, but he decides that he simply cannot get rid of his St. Petersburg suit. He dreams of what it would be like to show up places in a carriage and scoffs that these country bumpkins don’t even know what it is to “receive” someone.
Scene 6
Osip and the waiter return and announce that food is coming, but it is for the last time. Initially pleased, Khlestakov grows irate when he sees that it is only two courses and there is no gravy, no fish, and no cutlets. Khlestakov insults the waiter, but he shrugs that the other guests get the real food because they actually pay.
Khlestakov tries the soup but spits out that it is disgusting. He flings out invective after invective but still eats it, and the waiter takes the dishes away.
Scene 7
Osip alerts Khlestakov that the Mayor is downstairs and wants a word with him. Khlestakov is terrified and wonders if he will be put behind bars. He passionately proclaims that will not go, and he will tell this to the Mayor’s face.
Scene 8
Khlestakov and the Mayor come face to face. The Mayor offers greetings and says that he has come to see if the visitor has any issues. Khlestakov stammers that he will pay his debts, but he asserts that the landlord is the real problem with the food he serves. The Mayor suggests politely that if he does not like the food here, he can accompany him somewhere else, but Khlestakov becomes frightened and assumes that the Mayor means prison. He bursts out that he has a government post in St. Petersburg.
At this, the Mayor is worried because the inspector seems angry—the Mayor assumes that the shopkeepers must have blabbed. As Khlestakov grows more dramatically heated, the Mayor begs him not to ruin him. Khlestakov insists that he will not go.
The Mayor trembles his confession that he is just inexperienced, his pay is so low, and taking a few trifles does not seem like a problem—people, he says, are just gossips.
Khlestakov is confused why the Mayor is telling him these things but says angrily that he will pay his bill and is only stuck here because he is broke. The Mayor thinks he is being savvy and is laying a smokescreen.
Openly, the Mayor suggests he might lend the inspector money. Khlestakov is mollified and says that he will settle with the landlord and will pay him back as soon as he gets home.
The Mayor is relieved that he took the money and glad that he slipped him more than he asked for.
Khlestakov feels much better and asks the gentlemen to sit, and for Osip to have the waiter come back.
The Mayor assumes that the inspector wants to remain incognito and decides they can play along and pretend they don’t know who he is. He says that he is the sort of mayor who cares about his people and gives visitors a warm welcome. He marvels at Khlestakov’s answers to his questions, for he seems to assiduously try to lie about who he really is and why he is here. To him, Khlestakov is puny, but he is a good liar.
The Mayor asks if Khlestakov would like to stay at his own home, and Khlestakov delightedly accepts. He comments that he really only asks nothing of life but respect and devotion from people.
Scene 9
When the waiter returns, Khlestakov asks for the bill, but the waiter says he gives them to him every day. Angrily, Khlestakov says he cannot keep track of everything and it’s absurd to itemize like this. The Mayor orders the waiter out and says the bill will be paid.
Scene 10
The Mayor asks if Khlestakov would like to inspect some of the facilities. Khlestakov asks why, and the Mayor replies that he could see how they run things. Khlestakov likes this idea and goes along with the Mayor in his carriage.
The Mayor sends Dobchinsky with a letter to Zemlyanika at the charity hospital and one to his wife. He wonders how things will go with Khlestakov after a good lunch and a bottle of Madeira. Perhaps then he can find out what his game is.
Analysis
From the moment The Government Inspector begins, it is clear that Gogol is sparing pulling no punches when it comes to satire and criticism of corrupt Russian officials. These characters articulate their various foibles as they scramble to figure out how to make their town look efficient, healthy, and pleasant. Lies and cover-ups circulate along with plans to deal with the inspector. The Mayor’s main point of anger is that the inspector is traveling incognito, revealing that he cares only about having enough time to make the town appear to be something it isn't.
If Gogol turns audiences/readers against the bumbling civil servants, he does not compensate by making us sympathize with Khlestakov. Indeed, Khlestakov is even more laughable, more dissolute, and more obnoxious than most of the civil servants are, though it is important to remember that the officials have other people’s lives in their hands, whereas Khlestakov mostly only makes his own life—and Osip’s—tedious.
There is probably a reason for the distinction in the way the characters are depicted, as critic Thomas Seltzer notes. Russian literature is very much woven into the very fabric of its people’s lives; it is not luxury or diversion but rather “is completely bound up with the life of Russian society, and its vitality is but the measure of the spiritual vitality of that society.” There is no disputing the fact that Gogol audaciously chose a subject that attacked the foundation of the state through the official Russian bureaucracy. He “showed the rottenness and corruption of the instruments through which the Russian government functioned” and showed how each town was ruled by a petty town-governor whose corruption trickled down to all the officials below him. However, it is important to note that Gogol was conservative: “while hating the bureaucracy…he never found fault with the system itself or with the autocracy.” It was the characters themselves that were to be scorned and ridiculed, “not the conditions which created the characters and made them act as they did.” Khlestakov ends up being more absurd and unlikeable than the civil servants in this regard.
Returning to Khlestakov specifically, he proves himself within mere moments of his introduction to be overly interested, if not obsessed, with food and drink. He despises the landlord for not letting him have free meals after racking up charge after charge on his bill, and when he finally gets free food that is too spare and disgusting for him, he eats it anyway. Ronald D. LeBlanc probes the semiotics of food and eating in the text, first explaining that critics see eating as either manger, eating as power or violence, or gouter, eating for pleasure. The Mayor thinks that Khlestakov is adhering to the former and thus continues to feed him because he is afraid of him. Khlestakov, though, is doing the latter. He is a vulgar epicurean/gourmand, and the complaining to the Mayor about his food is not because he is an inspector trying to comment on the town’s institutions (Khlestakov’s staring at the food in the inn is what help Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky decide that he is their man, because who would look at it so closely but an inspector?) but rather because nothing is more offensive to him personally than poor food. Ironically, Khlestakov’s servant Osip is the complete opposite of his master: he sees food just as something necessary for survival, and he laments how his master’s gluttony means that they are constantly out of money.
LeBlanc writes that once the Mayor is able to satisfy Khlestakov’s hunger for food with the feast of food and wine, Khlestakov starts to open himself up to all the other pleasures he enjoys, especially those of an oral nature—cigars and excessive bragging, much of it about food. Khlestakov “attempts to create an image of St. Petersburg as a gastronomical paradise of pleasure” and “seems to derive enormous pleasure from telling lies.” Both eating and lying earn him attention and also have “many of the same psychological benefits” such as “the ‘serenity’ syndrome: They bring about a state of relaxation and amicability.” Khlestakov also, perhaps unsurprisingly, links women and food. This is certainly a mainstay in western culture and European literature, and Khlestakov is a perfect example of the linked pleasures. He jumps from women to food from one sentence to another, demonstrating that he views them both as appetites that need to be satisfied.
