THE «LITTLE MAN» THEME IN THE WORKS OF GOGOL AND PUSHKIN (A COMPARATIVE STUDY)

Аннотация

The article compares the «little man» in A.S. Pushkin’s «The Stationmaster» (1830) and N.V. Gogol’s «The Overcoat» (1842) through close reading and quantitative analysis of thematic vocabulary, the naming of the hero and his direct speech. Family vocabulary is ten times more frequent in Pushkin’s story (17.8 against 1.7 per 1,000 words), while clothing and rank prevail in Gogol’s. Vyrin is named by his social role 47 times and by his surname once, whereas Akaky Akakievich is named by name and patronymic 88 times. Both heroes speak 342 words, but hedging particles make up 17.0% of Akaky’s speech against 3.2% of Vyrin’s. Pushkin’s little man is a father deprived of his child, Gogol’s is a man deprived of a voice.