While reading this story and then the libretto, I felt many different emotions. At first, I thought it was going to be as weird as Metamorphosis when Ivan cut the loaf and found the nose. Then, I thought this was really bizarre – can you imagine eating breakfast and all of a sudden you find a nose in your bread? How did it get there in the first place? I also enjoyed how the entire time that Kovaloff is looking for his nose and then finds it and realizes that he is now a rank higher than him, he continues to treat it as a person and worries how to approach it. While reading I remember thinking, who cares how you approach him? It’s your nose, why did it leave your face in the first place? Also, on that same note, what I was wondering about was if Ivan recognized the nose in the first place, why didn’t he just return it? He went to throw it out and just caused more problems.
The scene where there was a choir involved and more than one gentleman or police officer, reminded me of the munchkins gathering around Dorothy when she landed on the Wicked Witch and just kept shouting everything in unison as if it was supposed to make her believe them even more! 
And also, I didn’t like either of the translations of those scenes either because in English it was grammatically wrong, but since I know both Russian and Ukrainian, the Russian translate didn’t make much sense either. Maybe the language has changed that much throughout the decades, but the wording and some of the analogies seemed very off. I found myself jumping back and forth between the English and the Russian translations at times when neither made sense.
The person that I really liked from the being was the mother of the daughter that Kovaloff was supposed to marry. I just thought she was so great in her character because she interprets the letter in a totally different way and thinks that she has offended Kovaloff in some way instead of doing anything wrong. She is so worried about marrying her daughter off that she apologizes for leaving him with only his nose when he had just accused her of stealing his nose. I thought that was a great moment. 
I also thought The Nose was going to be a strange story like The Metamorphosis. It was unsurprising that it was as strange. Finding body parts in my breakfast is definitely the strangest way to start a morning. As I read he story I found Ivan’s response to finding Kovaloff’s nose ridiculous. Why would he not try and return the nose, if he were to recognize it? If he knew that the nose belonged to Kovaloff I wonder what would drive him to throw it into a river.
I thought that your knowledge of other languages would provide an interesting interpretation of the story’s message. Maybe a more clear understanding of the original language and definition of certain words, in which the story was written, can reveal interesting points that may not easily be found.
I also thought when starting The Nose that it would be similar to Metamorphosis. To some degree it was. The Nose was a very weird story with unbelievable and even implausible events. Losing a nose overnight vs. turning into a bug. Both stories were narrated fantasy, but similarly, these fantastic elements were metaphors that were commenting on issues in reality. We concluded in our latest session that The Nose was commentary about social status. Aside from what The Nose represents (which I’m still unclear about) I identified with that confusion and series of questions that followed your reading. Like Evans, I would also like to comment on your dual reading of The Nose. I would imagine that it gave you some interesting insight into what Gogol was trying to say, and perhaps even more details about the text, and ultimately it’s effect might be more profound in the source language. SInce you not that even you had trouble in the original language, perhaps it becomes a matter of culture or society. The rules of grammar may be incompatible with your understanding of the language, but at the time in Gogol’s society, it was probably correct. Similarly, although you don’t have a language barrier perse, you might be just as lost as we are when it comes to understanding the ‘zeitgeist’ or spirit of the times.
The scene you pointed out in which the Major is hesitant about how to approach his nose is one I find most comical. He falters with his words and has trouble communicating one simple statement “You, my nose, belong on my face.” However, I found it strange that he was addressing his own nose in such a manner because, like you said: “It’s your nose, why did it leave your face in the first place?” This really emphasizes the theme of social status within the short story. Yes the nose is dressed as one of a higher class, but it is SIMPLY a nose. Maybe this was Gogol’s way of communicating that class differentiation is ridiculous as everyone is a person and they should not be separated based on wealth.
Kovaloff’s approach to the walking and talking nose is strange. You are very right about that. As I was reading this scene I laughed. It is a well-dressed and talking a nose. A nose that is higher in rank than Kovaloff is. It does not matter what it is because if it is higher in rank and social status. I do not know if Gogol’s theme in “The Nose” is the separation of social classes, but that is the theme I felt. Your comparison to “The Wizard of Oz” is funny. I did not think about it, but after you mentioned it, I agree.