Truth vs. false
At first he thought that he was imagining things, for it was impossible to believe that dogs could talk! Unfortunately for him, Aksenty Ivanovich dismissed his disbelief rather quickly. The man “ceased to be astonished.” In fact, he knew that such things had already happened. Aksenty Ivanovich remembered clearly how he read “in the paper of two cows who entered a shop and asked for a pound of tea.” The irony of this situation is that it is rather dangerous to believe in everything that is printed in the papers.
Well-educated
Aksenty Ivanovich thought highly of his Excellence. The titular councillor was sure that his director was extremely “clever.” The whole room where they worked was “full of books.” Aksenty Ivanovich read the titles “of some of the boos” and decided that they were “very learned, beyond comprehension of people” of his class. Not to mention that there was special “dignity” in the eyes of the director! He was an example to follow. The irony is that Aksenty Ivanovich doesn’t even know whether his director reads these books or not.
Aristocratic
Aksenty Ivanovich can’t stand those “lackeys!” They just “hang about the vestibules, and scarcely vouchsafe to greet one with a nod.” Sometimes it is “even worse!” “Once one of those rascals” offered him his snuff-box “without even getting up from his chair.” According to Aksenty Ivanovich, it is scandalous behavior, for he is “an official and of aristocratic birth.” The irony is that Aksenty Ivanovich behaves just like those lackeys whom he despises so much.
