Coats Symbol Analysis

Semyon and Matryona’s coats represent the idea that while selfishness may seem necessary and prudent, it is also destructive for both the person who needs help and the person who refuses to help. At the beginning of the story, Semyon and his wife, Matryona, are so poor that they can only afford one winter coat between them. The two of them are single-mindedly focused on scraping together enough money for sheepskin to make a second coat—but Semyon’s neighbors (who are similarly poor) refuse to pay the money they owe him or to allow him to buy the sheepskin on credit, which makes him resentful. Initially, then, the couple’s fixation on a new coat represents their self-centered mindset, which seems logical and necessary to them as they struggle to survive the frigid Russian winter. But their inability to get the coat because of other people’s stinginess shows how this same pragmatic selfishness can hurt other people.

Then, as Semyon is walking home wearing the couple’s shared coat with one of Matryona’s thin jackets layered on top, he finds Mikhail naked outside in the cold. After much internal debate, he decides to take off Matryona’s jacket and give it to this stranger in need. When Semyon brings Mikhail home, Matryona berates him for giving up her jacket and tries to rip it off of Mikhail—but she tears the sleeve in the process, rendering the garment useless. This outcome—in which Mikhail’s only source of warmth is taken away from him, and Matryona’s selfishness destroys the very thing that was important to her—again shows that selfishness (even when motivated by practical concerns) hurts both those who need help and those who refuse to give it.