The Nose’s image in my head:

I’m not sure if the nose had a face, arms, and legs; but it’s the only way I can imagine a nose walking around and acting on its own. If the nose was really big though, I don’t know how it will fit on Kovaloff’s face and if the nose was regular size, I’m not sure how people will see it walking around. My guess is that the size of the nose grows when it is removed from Kovaloff’s face and it shrinks back when it returns in the same spot. I really don’t know. I think logic is suspended for the existence of the nose.

I’m also not sure how Kovaloff’s face looked like without the nose. I imagine his face would look like the face of the Great Sphinx since Gogol described it as a flat surface in place of the nose.

Throughout the novel, you can clearly see Kovaloff’s deep concerns about his social status and his lady friends. I was shocked by how little he cared about his health and his lost of the sense of smell without the nose. To me, losing a nose has much more effect than simply looking bad to society. This highlights the importance of the social ladder during the 1800s in Russia.  His social role has such a large impact on him to the point that that is all he cares about after losing an essential body part. Also, I found it ironic that his nose was of a higher status than him. As the libretto stated, the reverse spelling of the Russian word “нос” is “сон” which means dream. After I read that, I pictured Kovaloff in his state-councillor attire dreaming of climbing up the social ladder to the position of his nose.

After Kovaloff finally receives his nose back, his immediate thought was that he is back to his social position and he could talk to the ladies now. He was really unaffected by this experience and did not grow as a character at all. He’s still the same guy, which once again, emphasizes how social status dominated the lives of the people in his society.

Despite the serious intention of the story, I actually found The Nose very comical. For example, when Jakovlevitch discovers a nose in his bread, he has a very calm reaction and decides to walk outside with it wrapped up and throw in down from a bridge. I find it funny how he’s taking such a huge risk to do unnecessary work. He could’ve just thrown it in the trash. Another comedic part is when advertisement official offered him snuff right after Kovaloff tells him he is missing his nose. I’m not sure if the official wanted to make fun of him or it was a genuine act of pity and he just wasn’t thinking, but either way, that really gave me a good laugh.

I would also like to point out that I find The Nose by Nikolai Gogol very similar to Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Both stories take place in a realistic world while its main character experience unexplainably catastrophic events that seems weird and unrealistic. In both novels, the main character has a very narrow mindset and has a rather abnormal reaction to their situation.

Before I end my blog, I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed this short story and I liked how Gogol utilized the nose to symbolize the problems of social status rather than directly stating it. The symbolism was hidden so well that if it wasn’t for Monday’s class in the Skylight Room, I wouldn’t have noticed it. However, I was disappointed by how Gogol left so many questions unanswered and open for interpretation. Because the rest of the story is so realistic, I am still asking myself how a nose could possibly be taken off, put back off, and have a life of its own. Anyways, I can’t wait to see someone dressed as a nose at the opera!

 Kovaloff and The Nose at the Opera

Work Citied:

“Great Sphinx of Giza.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 June 2013. Web. 08 Oct. 2013.

Khan, Hasnain. “Climbing the Social Ladder.” DeviantART. DeviantART, 2006. Web. 08 Oct. 2013.

Wilkins, David. “Shostakovich’s Opera ‘The Nose'” Web log post. Music and Vision, 23 May 2006. Web. 08 Oct. 2013.

Link to Clip Art Image