The comedy The Government Inspector was the first of its kind. It was a comedy made up of realistic characters meant to comment on society and promote change. The front page of Nikolai Gogol’s work begins with a popular saying, “If your face is askew don’t blame the mirror.” This quote sets up his purpose and message quite aptly. Gogol wanted his play to be a reflection of real life in Russia so his audience could see the skewness of Russian life. As a scholar once noted about Gogol, “His is the theater of destruction, distortion and hyperbole, and it is also a moral and angry theater in that it teaches, through tragic-comic slapstick, a lesson in shattered complacencies.” This is an accurate depiction of The Government Inspector, which
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Hyperbole is defined as “exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.” The hyperbole in The Government Inspector adds a comedy of the ridiculous. Showing his audience how ludicrous these town people are and while he is exaggerating, Gogol is also able to point out flaws in the Russian system. The audience can especially see these flaws in the different sectors of town life. The Warden of Charites remarks, “…we don’t use costly medicines, we leave it all to nature. The common man is a simple creature. If he dies, he dies, if he recovers, he recovers.” (22) That a hospital would have no medicine is ridiculous, and yet, probably not that far from the truth in provincial Russia in the nineteenth century. The Mayor also complains to the judge that, “The ushers are raising a family of geese in the waiting room, and goslings get under people’s feet. I’m all for husbandry and why shouldn’t the ushers try their hand at it too?—but the courtroom’s not the place for it.” (22) The imagery painted by Gogol in the statement is hysterically absurd. The reader can see in their mind a court proceeding interrupted by squawking goslings. This hyperbole paints the provinces as backward, and that they do not take the law seriously, which was true, even if there were not geese in the
Hyperbole is defined as “exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.” The hyperbole in The Government Inspector adds a comedy of the ridiculous. Showing his audience how ludicrous these town people are and while he is exaggerating, Gogol is also able to point out flaws in the Russian system. The audience can especially see these flaws in the different sectors of town life. The Warden of Charites remarks, “…we don’t use costly medicines, we leave it all to nature. The common man is a simple creature. If he dies, he dies, if he recovers, he recovers.” (22) That a hospital would have no medicine is ridiculous, and yet, probably not that far from the truth in provincial Russia in the nineteenth century. The Mayor also complains to the judge that, “The ushers are raising a family of geese in the waiting room, and goslings get under people’s feet. I’m all for husbandry and why shouldn’t the ushers try their hand at it too?—but the courtroom’s not the place for it.” (22) The imagery painted by Gogol in the statement is hysterically absurd. The reader can see in their mind a court proceeding interrupted by squawking goslings. This hyperbole paints the provinces as backward, and that they do not take the law seriously, which was true, even if there were not geese in the