Diary of a Madman (short story)

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"Diary of a Madman" (1835; Russian: Записки сумасшедшего, Zapiski sumasshedshevo) is a farcical short story by Nikolai Gogol. Along with "The Overcoat" and "The Nose", "Diary of a Madman" is considered to be one of Gogol's greatest short stories. The tale centers on the life of a minor civil servant during the era of Nicholas I. Following the format of a diary, the story shows the descent of the protagonist, Poprishchin, into insanity. "Diary of a Madman", the only one of Gogol's works written in first person, follows diary-entry format.

Plot introduction[]

Poprishchin. Painting by Ilya Repin (1882)

Although nineteenth century medical authorities noted the accuracy of Gogol's depiction of the course of madness, the text itself (with the exception of the title) never crosses the boundary into objectification. Everything is told exclusively from the point of view of the protagonist, and conclusions about him and what is happening to him can only ever be inferred from the solipsistic and increasingly fantastic narrative of events and thoughts recorded in his diary.[1] The entries haphazardly mix a past tense recounting of events of the day with present time registering of thoughts and associations relating to them. It begins with a standard date-based diary format, but at a certain point even the dates take on an irrational form, as if the writer's sense of conventional time has dissolved.

Plot summary[]

The story centers on Aksenty Ivanovich Poprishchin, a low-ranking civil servant (titular counsellor), constantly belittled and criticized for underachieving. He yearns to be noticed by a beautiful woman, Sophie, the daughter of his department director, with whom he has fallen in love. When he sees her in the street, alighting from her father's carriage, he says: “A footman opened the carriage door and out she fluttered, just like a little bird.” Nothing comes of this love he feels for her; Sophie is effectively unaware of him.

His diary records his gradual slide into insanity. He begins to "understand" the conversations of two dogs and believes he has discovered letters sent between them. The style of the letters, including what Poprishchin terms “dogginess” and “canine nature”, convince him of the letters' authenticity. The letters provide Poprishchin with a much more in-depth view of Sophie's life, including her engagement to another man.

In “The Year 2000, 43rd of April”, it becomes clear that Poprishchin has gone mad. This diary entry is the first of many in which he has lost the ability to distinguish a true sense of time. He begins to believe himself to be the heir to the throne of Spain. He decides to make a Spanish royal uniform so that the common people will recognize him. Believing himself in Spain, waiting for the Spanish deputies to arrive, he then decides that Spain and China are in fact the same country. A series of events which in reality are seizure, transportation, confinement and maltreatment in an insane asylum are interpreted by him as encounters with the Spanish deputies and various dignitaries such as the Imperial Chancellor and the Grand Inquisitor. He is also deeply troubled by an impending event – the Earth sitting on the Moon, and tries to alert people to the catastrophes that will occur as a result, such as everyone's noses being crushed (since noses live on the moon). He convinces the "grandees with shorn heads" to take urgent action to save the moon, but the Grand Inquisitor responds by beating and torturing him.

A heartfelt prayer to his mother for the suffering of her orphan son concludes with the words:

Mother, mother, have pity on your sick child! And do you know that the Bey of Algiers has a wart under his nose?

Themes[]

Madness[]

Gogol evokes common images of madness in his characterization of Poprischkin – auditory hallucination (the talking dogs), delusions of grandeur (thinking he is the King of Spain), and the institutional context of the asylum and its effect on the individual. In the second half of the nineteenth century, "Diary of a Madman" was frequently cited as a realistic case study: medical specialists wrote articles confirming its authenticity as an outline of the progress of paranoid delusion.[2][3] The image of the insane asylum as a house of correction, indirectly presented through Poprischkin's deranged diary entries, is also true to ideological perspectives and institutional practices pertaining to the treatment of madness in the era of European industrialization.[4]

Poprishchin's descent into madness is a result of his alienation from society. His desire to achieve the dignity and authority that he sees around him, but never feels, yields frustration rather than motivation. His lack of motivation causes Poprishchin to wish for power and wealth, instead of actively trying to work toward achieving this goal in reality.[5]

Poprishchin's relationship with three specific characters, the Director, the Section Chief and Sofi, contribute significantly to the disintegration of his sanity. The Section Chief causes Poprishchin the most direct frustration through constant criticism. Poprishchin responds to the Section Chief's attempts to bring him into reality with anger and aggression. The Director takes a much more passive role in affecting Poprishchin. Poprishchin actually idolizes the Director, in large part due to the fact that he remains distant from Poprishchin and never interferes in his personal life with comments or suggestions. Despite this initially peaceful relationship, Poprishchin finds a way to see a menace in the Director. Poprishchin notices that the Director has too much ambition, a quality that Poprishchin desires, but knows he cannot achieve in reality, and therefore turns his admiration of the Director into hatred. Sofi is a beautiful woman to whom Poprishchin has a strong sexual attraction. However, Poprishchin painfully discovers that Sofi finds him unattractive and irritable, and he is unable to cope. Poprishchin is enlightened about both the Director's ambition and Sofi's view of him from letters written by a dog. Poprishchin's imagination conjured the complimentary letter from Sofi, when, in reality, the letter neglects mentioning him. His destruction of the letter evidences his insanity by symbolizing his release of reality.[5]

Alienation[]

One disruptive force contextualized is the relationship between the individual and society. Poprishchin sees a menace in everyone and always finds a way to blame others for his personal frustrations, and consequently treats them with the aggression he believes they deserve. This behavior fuels a vicious cycle that justifies the negative perception and treatment that society exerts toward Poprishchin.[5]

Numbers[]

There have been many analyses of Poprishchin's unique diary entries attempting to interpret their meaning, with special interest taken in the entry: 43 April 2000. A Freudian analysis performed by Ermakov hypothesized that Poprishchin used this absurd date to avoid May 13, because the word maja suggests majat’sja, which in Russian means suffering. Richard Gustafson's analysis of the entry title is more grounded in the contents of the story. He agrees that Poprishchin is indeed trying to avoid May 13, but his reasoning is that the letters from the dogs that exposed the grave reality of Sofi and the Director were presented exactly half a year earlier on November 13.[5][6]

Influences[]

Lu Xun, the pioneer of modern Chinese prose, read widely in Russian literature and was inspired by this story to create his own in 1918. While Lu Xun borrows the Chinese translation of the title of Gogol's story, to avoid confusion, the English title of Lu Xun's version is usually translated as A Madman's Diary.

The story's name was reflected in the name Lina Kostenko's novel Notes of a Ukrainian Madman, which much refers to Gogol's writings.

References[]

  1. ^ Gustafson, Richard F. (1965). "The Suffering Usurper: Gogol"s Diary of a Madman". The Slavic and East European Journal. 9 (3): 268.
  2. ^ Bidoshi, Kristin (2005). "The Stranger in the Fictional Works of Nikolai Gogol's "Arabesques"". New Zealand Slavonic Journal. 39: 19. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  3. ^ Karlinsky, Simon (1992). The Sexual Labyrinth of Nikolai Gogol. University of Chicago Press. p. 118.
  4. ^ Bidoshi, Kristin (2005). p. 20
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Gustafson, Richard (1965). "The Suffering Usurper: Gogol's Diary of a Madman". The Slavic and East European Journal. 9 (3).
  6. ^ Erlich, Victor (1969). Gogol. Yale University Press.

External links[]

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