NON-AFRICAN DRAMA; Nikolai Gogol: The Government Inspector Examine the satire in the play. Robert Bolt

Answer Details

Nikolai Gogol's The Government Inspector is one of the great satirical plays of world literature. Satire is the mocking exposure of human folly and vice in order to correct it, and Gogol turns his satire against the corruption, stupidity, hypocrisy and self-importance of provincial officialdom in Tsarist Russia.

• Corrupt officials. Gogol ridicules the Mayor, the Judge, the Charity Commissioner, the Postmaster and the rest by exposing their bribery, embezzlement and neglect of duty. Their instant panic at the news of an inspector satirises the guilty conscience of a whole class of administrators.
• Bribery and flattery. The parade of officials offering "loans" to Khlestakov is a broad satire on the routine of bribery. Their servile flattery of a man they believe powerful mocks the toadying that greases corrupt government.
• Vanity and self-delusion. The Mayor's dreams of rising to high rank in the capital and his daughter's fantasies of a grand marriage satirise the vanity and social climbing of the provincial gentry. Their hopes are exposed as ridiculous when the truth comes out.
• Stupidity and gullibility. That an entire town of officials is fooled by Khlestakov, a foolish, penniless clerk, is the master-stroke of the satire. Their readiness to see a great inspector in a nonentity mocks their cowardice and lack of judgement.

• Mistaken identity. The central device, the confusion of Khlestakov with the inspector, generates the comic irony that fuels the satire, since the audience knows the truth the characters cannot see.
• Caricature. Gogol draws his officials as exaggerated types, each dominated by a single vice, so that they become comic figures representing whole categories of misrule.
• Irony and comic reversal. The officials bribe the wrong man, boast of their cunning, and are then undone by their own letter. The gap between their self-image and reality is intensely ironic.
• The final tableau. The silent, frozen scene at the end, when the real inspector's arrival is announced, is a powerful satirical device, an image of guilt caught and petrified, warning that folly and corruption meet their reckoning.

Purpose of the satire. Gogol's aim is corrective. By making his audience laugh at the officials, he holds up a mirror to the corruption of the society of his day. His satire is not merely playful but morally serious, exposing a rotten system so that its ugliness may be recognised.

Conclusion. Through mistaken identity, caricature, irony and the unforgettable final tableau, Gogol satirises the corruption, vanity and stupidity of officialdom. The Government Inspector is a comedy that laughs in order to condemn, and its satire remains as sharp today as when it was written.