NON-AFRICAN DRAMA NIKOLAI GOGOL: The Government Inspector Compare the characters of the Mayor and Anna Andreyevna.

Answer Details

In Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector, the Mayor (Anton Antonovich) and his wife, Anna Andreyevna, are a memorable comic pair. Though husband and wife, and alike in vanity and ambition, they are also sharply contrasted in their chief preoccupations.

Similarities.

• Vanity and social ambition. Both are intensely eager to rise in the world. When they believe the great inspector Khlestakov favours their family, both are swept up in dreams of grandeur, imagining a splendid life among the elite in St Petersburg.
• Gullibility. Both are completely deceived by the penniless impostor Khlestakov, taking the empty young clerk for a powerful inspector. Their shared self-importance blinds them to the truth.
• Pretension and self-interest. Neither is guided by honesty or humility. Both are ready to flatter, scheme and use others to advance their own standing.

Differences.

• Sphere of concern. The Mayor's world is that of corrupt public administration. His energies go into managing bribes, concealing the misdeeds of his town, silencing complaints and, above all, protecting himself from exposure. Anna's world, by contrast, is entirely social and domestic; she thinks of fashion, admirers, gossip and status.
• Cunning versus frivolity. The Mayor is shrewd, experienced and calculating, a seasoned rogue who has long survived by his wits. Anna is frivolous, coquettish and shallow, more concerned with charming Khlestakov and outshining other women than with any practical scheme.
• Flirtation. Anna is vain and flirtatious, even competing with her own daughter, Marya, for Khlestakov's attention. The Mayor shows no such romantic vanity; his ambitions are those of power and security.
• Temperament. The Mayor is fearful and anxious beneath his authority, haunted by the dread of discovery. Anna is comparatively carefree, absorbed in her own charms and social daydreams.

Dramatic significance. The pairing sharpens Gogol's satire. Through the Mayor, Gogol ridicules official corruption and hypocrisy; through Anna, he mocks social vanity, snobbery and empty affectation. Their shared humiliation at the end, when the deception is exposed, completes the comic and moral lesson.

In conclusion, the Mayor and Anna Andreyevna are alike in vanity, ambition and gullibility, but differ markedly in focus and temperament: he is the cunning, corrupt and fearful official, she the frivolous, flirtatious and status-hungry wife. Together they embody the follies Gogol sets out to satirise.