The Nose

by

Nikolai Gogol

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The story's protagonist. After Kovalev's nose disappears without explanation, he spends two weeks struggling to confront, locate, and reattach the nose. Despite being the story’s protagonist, Kovalev is wholly unlikeable: from beginning to the end, Kovalev is cruel and pretentious. He's rude to his barber, Ivan Yakovlevich, castrating the man for his smelly hands. He's mean, laughing at the disfigured faces of beggar women. He's also devious, frequently lying about his rank to get women to sleep with him. In beefing up his credentials from collegiate accessor to major, Kovalev also reveals himself to be incredibly pompous and self-conscious. The closest thing to an act of kindness Kovalev commits in the story is giving the police officer who returns his nose a bit of cash. Even then, Kovalev hesitates to fork over the meager sum to the financially unfortunate officer. What's more, Kovalev's story arch doesn't produce the slightest bit of change in his character. In the end, he appears to have learned nothing from the story's events. After the nose—symbolizing his particularly toxic brand of masculinity—returns to his face, Kovalev returns to his old ways, harassing women, deeming himself better than other men, and deceitfully working his way up the ladder of Russian society.

Kovalev Quotes in The Nose

The The Nose quotes below are all either spoken by Kovalev or refer to Kovalev. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Fashion, Appearances, and Status Theme Icon
).
Section 2 Quotes

Kovalev stretched and asked for the little mirror that stood on the table. He wished to look at a pimple that had popped out on his nose the previous evening; but, to his greatest amazement, he saw that instead of a nose he had a perfectly smooth place!

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Kovalev
Related Symbols: The Nose
Page Number: 304
Explanation and Analysis:

“Of course, I . . . anyhow, I’m a major. For me to go around without a nose is improper, you must agree. Some peddler woman selling peeled oranges on Voskresensky Bridge can sit without a nose; but, having prospects in view . . . being acquainted, moreover, with ladies in many houses: Chekhtareva, the wife of a state councillor, and others . . .Judge for yourself. . . I don’t know, my dear sir . . .”

Related Characters: Kovalev (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Nose
Page Number: 307
Explanation and Analysis:

The clerk himself seemed to be moved by Kovalev’s difficult situation. Wishing to soften his grief somehow, he deemed it fitting to express his sympathy in a few words:

“I’m truly sorry that such an odd thing has happened to you. Would you care for a pinch? It dispels headaches and melancholy states of mind; it’s even good with regard to hemorrhoids.”

Related Characters: The Newspaper Clerk (speaker), Kovalev
Related Symbols: The Nose
Page Number: 314
Explanation and Analysis:

But nothing in this world lasts long, and therefore joy, in the minute that follows the first, is less lively; in the third minute it becomes still weaker, and finally it merges imperceptibly with one’s usual state of mind, as a ring in the water, born of a stone’s fall, finally merges with the smooth surface. Kovalev began to reflect and realized that the matter was not ended yet: the nose had been found, but it still had to be attached, put in its place.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Kovalev
Related Symbols: The Nose
Page Number: 318
Explanation and Analysis:

He called Ivan and sent him for the doctor, who occupied the best apartment on the first floor of the same building. This doctor was an imposing man, possessed of handsome, pitch-black sidewhiskers and of a fresh, robust doctress, ate fresh apples in the morning, and kept his mouth extraordinarily clean by rinsing it every morning for nearly three quarters of an hour and polishing his teeth with five different sorts of brushes.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Kovalev, The Doctor
Related Symbols: The Nose
Page Number: 319
Explanation and Analysis:
Section 3 Quotes

Perfect nonsense goes on in the world. Sometimes there is no plausibility at all: suddenly, as if nothing was wrong, that same nose which had driven about in the rank of state councillor and made such a stir in town was back in place—that is, precisely between the two cheeks of Major Kovalev.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Kovalev
Related Symbols: The Nose
Page Number: 323
Explanation and Analysis:

And Major Kovalev strolled on thereafter as if nothing was wrong, on Nevsky Prospect, and in the theaters, and everywhere. And the nose also sat on his face as if nothing was wrong, not even showing a sign that it had ever gone anywhere. And after that Major Kovalev was seen eternally in a good humor, smiling, chasing after decidedly all the pretty ladies and even stop­ping once in front of a shop in the Merchants’ Arcade to buy some ribbon or other, no one knows for what reason, since he was not himself the bearer of any decoration.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Kovalev
Related Symbols: The Nose
Page Number: 325
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Nose PDF

Kovalev Quotes in The Nose

The The Nose quotes below are all either spoken by Kovalev or refer to Kovalev. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Fashion, Appearances, and Status Theme Icon
).
Section 2 Quotes

Kovalev stretched and asked for the little mirror that stood on the table. He wished to look at a pimple that had popped out on his nose the previous evening; but, to his greatest amazement, he saw that instead of a nose he had a perfectly smooth place!

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Kovalev
Related Symbols: The Nose
Page Number: 304
Explanation and Analysis:

“Of course, I . . . anyhow, I’m a major. For me to go around without a nose is improper, you must agree. Some peddler woman selling peeled oranges on Voskresensky Bridge can sit without a nose; but, having prospects in view . . . being acquainted, moreover, with ladies in many houses: Chekhtareva, the wife of a state councillor, and others . . .Judge for yourself. . . I don’t know, my dear sir . . .”

Related Characters: Kovalev (speaker)
Related Symbols: The Nose
Page Number: 307
Explanation and Analysis:

The clerk himself seemed to be moved by Kovalev’s difficult situation. Wishing to soften his grief somehow, he deemed it fitting to express his sympathy in a few words:

“I’m truly sorry that such an odd thing has happened to you. Would you care for a pinch? It dispels headaches and melancholy states of mind; it’s even good with regard to hemorrhoids.”

Related Characters: The Newspaper Clerk (speaker), Kovalev
Related Symbols: The Nose
Page Number: 314
Explanation and Analysis:

But nothing in this world lasts long, and therefore joy, in the minute that follows the first, is less lively; in the third minute it becomes still weaker, and finally it merges imperceptibly with one’s usual state of mind, as a ring in the water, born of a stone’s fall, finally merges with the smooth surface. Kovalev began to reflect and realized that the matter was not ended yet: the nose had been found, but it still had to be attached, put in its place.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Kovalev
Related Symbols: The Nose
Page Number: 318
Explanation and Analysis:

He called Ivan and sent him for the doctor, who occupied the best apartment on the first floor of the same building. This doctor was an imposing man, possessed of handsome, pitch-black sidewhiskers and of a fresh, robust doctress, ate fresh apples in the morning, and kept his mouth extraordinarily clean by rinsing it every morning for nearly three quarters of an hour and polishing his teeth with five different sorts of brushes.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Kovalev, The Doctor
Related Symbols: The Nose
Page Number: 319
Explanation and Analysis:
Section 3 Quotes

Perfect nonsense goes on in the world. Sometimes there is no plausibility at all: suddenly, as if nothing was wrong, that same nose which had driven about in the rank of state councillor and made such a stir in town was back in place—that is, precisely between the two cheeks of Major Kovalev.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Kovalev
Related Symbols: The Nose
Page Number: 323
Explanation and Analysis:

And Major Kovalev strolled on thereafter as if nothing was wrong, on Nevsky Prospect, and in the theaters, and everywhere. And the nose also sat on his face as if nothing was wrong, not even showing a sign that it had ever gone anywhere. And after that Major Kovalev was seen eternally in a good humor, smiling, chasing after decidedly all the pretty ladies and even stop­ping once in front of a shop in the Merchants’ Arcade to buy some ribbon or other, no one knows for what reason, since he was not himself the bearer of any decoration.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), Kovalev
Related Symbols: The Nose
Page Number: 325
Explanation and Analysis: