Genre
The narrative
Setting and Context
The story happens in Mirgorod in the mid-19th century
Narrator and Point of View
First-person limited
Tone and Mood
The tone of the story is mostly ludicrous and expressive, most of all when two quarrels between the protagonists take place.
Protagonist and Antagonist
These roles are hard to allocate, ‘cause we don’t know who is “good” for the narrator and who is “bad”, but we see two main enemies in the story: Ivan Ivanovitch and Ivan Nikiforovitch.
Major Conflict
The major conflict of the story – the quarrel, develops because of one word, which was carelessly thrown by one man concerning another.
Climax
The culmination of the story is when I. Nikiforovitch calls I. Ivanovitch in a bad way. After this moment, being the best friends, they become the worst enemies.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
Gogol uses this method when he describes the protagonists. He intentionally gives them just one bright characteristics: they are fine. But through the plot of the story we open for ourselves a huge number of other their traits: good and bad ones.
Allusions
N/A
Imagery
The author uses imagery when describing nature. Also common day situations are very vividly and expressively described.
Paradox
The main paradox of the story is that two best friends because of a ridiculous quarrel become the worst enemies. These people are not able to appreciate friendship
Parallelism
N/A
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The author uses sometimes a whole as a part of something, or vise verse to make the expressions more saturated: “Ivan Ivanovitch reflected; and meantime his eyes, in their search after fresh objects”, “Then came a blue Cossack jacket”, “If two one-horse carts chanced to meet they could not get out”.
Personification
The author often uses this method to make the image more vivid, such as here: “A willow, an oak, and two apple-trees lean their spreading branches against it. Through the trees peep little windows with carved and white-washed shutters.
