The Protagonist’s NAME

http://individual.utoronto.ca/h_forsythe/213_gogol.html

AKAKY Akakyevich-

· (like John Johnson, Tom Thompson) his name is ridiculous because it’s repeated

· a given name just like his father’sà stresses the principle of repetition

· he syllable kak means “like” in Russian (tak kak = “just as”)à embeds the principle of sameness in Akaky's name, complementing his single-minded, life-long activity of copying and implicit condemnation to sameness.

The name Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin is calculated to invite contempt, derision.

· Akaky sounds in pronunciation suspiciously as if it might be derived from okakat' or obkakat', "to beshit," "to cover with excrement." Russian adults, who have been familiar with "The Overcoat" and its hero for most of their lives, fail to perceive the connection, but Russian children who hear the name Akaky Akakievich for the first time usually giggle and look embarrassed.

· To Russian ears, kakatj (from the Greek cacos = bad, evil) is children's talk for defecate, and caca in many languages refers to human excrement.

· To be afflicted with such a name clearly relates to the garbage being regularly dumped on Akaky as he walks in the street, and to his being treated with no more respect by the caretakers than a common fly.

· With his hemorrhoidal complexion, his untidy clothes always bespattered with garbage, with watermelon rinds and melon peelings clinging to his hat, and the flies in his soup he eats without noticing them, to say nothing of his excremental name, Akaky Akakievich is a character who would hardly seem calculated to arouse the reader's sympathy or to be appealing.

 The original Greek name Acacius means "immaculate" or "without blemish,"

ST ACACIUS

John Schillinger, "Gogol's `The Overcoat' as a Travesty of Hagiography," in Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring, 1972, pp. 36-41. Reprinted in Short Story Criticism, Vol. 29.

· Schillinger suggests that Gogol is echoing a specific saint’s life (and parodying the hagiographic tradition)

· Origin suggested by Gogol himself at Akakij Akakievic's christening, when an Eastern Orthodox calendar of saints is consulted. Among the saints in such a calendar is sixth-century St. Acacius of Sinai, who resembles Akakij Akakievi quite closely.

· Traditionally, the chief occupation of Orthodox monks was the copying of church documents. We find here a travesty of the monk who praises God by his humble service, for Akakij Akakievic is devoted to the act of copying itself.

· Akakij Akakievic's acceptance of suffering unites him with most saints, particularly with St. Acacius of Sinai.

Akaky's biblical complaint, 500-01

--"Let me be. Why do you do this to me? ... I am your brother"--echoes Jesus's last words about his tormentors, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."