The Government Inspector, a play set in a provincial Russian town in the 1830s, satirizes the rampant political corruption of local government officials and petty bureaucrats. The play does so by presenting all the town officials as inept and self-serving. The mayor takes bribes and steals from townspeople without scruple. The judge also takes bribes; the Warden of Charities doesn’t feed charity hospital patients properly or treat them with medicine; and the police are often drunk and violent. The local officials know their crookedness is wrong, but they feel no guilt about their misconduct because they benefit from how unjustly they run the town. The mayor himself excuses his misdeeds with the lighthearted claim that every man has “some little indiscretion on his conscience.” Overall, the town officials’ foolish antics throughout the play as they try to hide their blatant corruption showcase the total incompetence of the town’s governance. Additionally, Khlestakov, a visitor to the town who is presumed to be the government inspector, represents the bureaucracy’s inefficacy. Irresponsible and light-minded, he has no real governmental power, and he doesn’t take his work seriously. Nevertheless, even his minor clerical position in St. Petersburg inflates his ego, and Khlestakov is happy to let the ignorant town officials treat him like a magnificent lord. Through Khlestakov, the play mocks bureaucrats whose only importance lies superficially in their titles and who are otherwise self-indulgent simpletons. By portraying the comical absurdity of the officials’ maladministration, stupidity, and self-importance, the play ridicules and criticizes the bureaucratic system of 19th-century Russia.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Corruption and Bureaucracy ThemeTracker
Corruption and Bureaucracy Quotes in The Government Inspector
I had a kind of premonition about this. All last night I dreamt about a couple of extraordinary rats—they were black and absolutely enormous. They came in, took a few sniffs and off they went.
I don’t need to tell you that there isn’t a man alive who hasn’t some little indiscretion on his conscience.
Hell! My sword’s scratched all over. That damned shopkeeper Abdulin knows very well the mayor’s sword’s in poor condition and still he doesn’t send me a new one.
You watch it! You can’t pull the wool over my eyes. What did you do to that draper Chernayev, eh? He gave you two yards of cloth for a new uniform and you swiped the whole roll! You watch out! You’re taking bribes above your rank!
Now you listen, this is what you must do. Constable Pugovitsyn is very tall, so station him on the bridge to create a good impression. And tell them to pull down that old fence by the shoemaker’s and stick up some poles to make it look like a building site. The more we pull down the busier the mayor will appear.
And I’m like you—I’ve no time for two-faced people. I find your frankness and cordiality most gratifying. I do confess that I ask for nothing more out of life than devotion and respect, respect and devotion.
I’m mad about good food. But what else is life for except to pluck the blossoms of pleasure…
This just isn’t how things are done in a well-ordered community […]. We should pay our respects one by one—tête-à-tête so to speak, behind closed doors, so no one sees or hears. That’s how things are done in a well-ordered society.
What are you laughing at? You’re laughing at yourselves, that’s what!
Yes, they say those whom the gods want to punish they first drive insane. Was there anything like a government inspector about that whippersnapper? Absolutely damn all. Not by a long chalk!
I can’t explain how it all came about, for the life of me. I feel as if a thick fog has blinded us. It’s the work of the devil!
