Table Of Rank In The Overcoat Summary
The Fallen Bureaucracy
Yirong Tang
It is said that Peter’s significance on Russian history is difficult to overestimate. Peter the Great implement a series of reform towards the Russia as a whole, in fields of government, religion, military, and most of them have consistent effect. However, the new order of precedence known as “Table of Rank” that was created by Peter in 1722 has an inconsistent impact on the society and government throughout the history. Although the establishment of table of tank did promote the fluidity of social class, Peter’s creation ultimately produces more negative impact towards the society as a whole.
Historical background of the positive impact of table of rank.
The table divided rank in 14 grades, and everyone …show more content…
Although some hard working and well educated people did reach the top of the hierarchy and acquired wealth and respectable social status, most of bureaucrats remained neither well paid nor well educated. Even so, lower-ranking officials still had arbitrary power to decide local fairs. As a result, officials would demand briberies or attributes to both commoners or minor officials to make decisions or facilitate approval. In The Overcoat, Nicolai Gogol portrays a poor minor official at the bottom of the bureaucratic hierarchy, to criticize the backward, corrupted tsarist government and Russian …show more content…
Akaky was told that “the best thing would be to address a certain important person, so that the important person, by writing and referring to the proper quarters, could get things done more successfully.” So Akaky decided to find the important person, yet “What precisely the post of the important person was, and in what it consisted, remains unknown. I should be realized that this certain important person had become an important person only recently, and till then had been an unimportant person.” And in later part, it is written that he tried different customs and methods to increase his importance “Thus everything in holy Russia is infected with imitation, and each one mimics and apes his superior.” It can be seen that the most important thing for bureaucrats was to copy the patterns of their superiors and tried to blend in a higher circle by doing that.
Such examples show that people in the Russian bureaucratic system were not what they were entitled – they were not doing what they should do as those titles suggested and designated. The most important job for them was to obey the order and look decent for
Yirong Tang
It is said that Peter’s significance on Russian history is difficult to overestimate. Peter the Great implement a series of reform towards the Russia as a whole, in fields of government, religion, military, and most of them have consistent effect. However, the new order of precedence known as “Table of Rank” that was created by Peter in 1722 has an inconsistent impact on the society and government throughout the history. Although the establishment of table of tank did promote the fluidity of social class, Peter’s creation ultimately produces more negative impact towards the society as a whole.
Historical background of the positive impact of table of rank.
The table divided rank in 14 grades, and everyone …show more content…
Although some hard working and well educated people did reach the top of the hierarchy and acquired wealth and respectable social status, most of bureaucrats remained neither well paid nor well educated. Even so, lower-ranking officials still had arbitrary power to decide local fairs. As a result, officials would demand briberies or attributes to both commoners or minor officials to make decisions or facilitate approval. In The Overcoat, Nicolai Gogol portrays a poor minor official at the bottom of the bureaucratic hierarchy, to criticize the backward, corrupted tsarist government and Russian …show more content…
Akaky was told that “the best thing would be to address a certain important person, so that the important person, by writing and referring to the proper quarters, could get things done more successfully.” So Akaky decided to find the important person, yet “What precisely the post of the important person was, and in what it consisted, remains unknown. I should be realized that this certain important person had become an important person only recently, and till then had been an unimportant person.” And in later part, it is written that he tried different customs and methods to increase his importance “Thus everything in holy Russia is infected with imitation, and each one mimics and apes his superior.” It can be seen that the most important thing for bureaucrats was to copy the patterns of their superiors and tried to blend in a higher circle by doing that.
Such examples show that people in the Russian bureaucratic system were not what they were entitled – they were not doing what they should do as those titles suggested and designated. The most important job for them was to obey the order and look decent for