In my image collage, I chose to focus on Gogol’s criticism of early 1800s Russian society in The Nose. While many of the characters in the story are flawed, I chose to focus on the main character’s superficiality. By making Kovalyov act disrespectfully in changing his interest in Grigorievna’s daughter based on his appearance, Gogol illustrates how shallow people of his society were. Kovalyov values his rank and appearance and is initially not serious about his relationship with the daughter. However, he places himself in a more inferior position when he loses his valuable appearance. This is shown by his need to hide his face as to not embarrass himself. Yet, when he regains his appearance, and this, his power, he once again decides that he is too good to marry Grigorievna’s daughter. Appearances are equated with power in Gogol’s society.

I used images of the moon and sun to show the sudden change of time in which Kovalyov’s nose disappears and reappears; this alludes to the randomness and bizarreness of the story. My use of memes also references the story’s silly character. At the end of The Nose, Kovalyov’s inconsiderate actions towards the daughter made him seem like a troll to me, hence his trollface head.