The story fluctuates between humor and earnestness as it simultaneously praises and critiques sociopolitical life in Imperial Russia. Drawing from Ukrainian folk traditions, Gogol embraces archetypal characters whose actions are somewhat predictable, like the well-meaning but bumbling general. However, inspired by 19th-century literary Realism, he also takes pains to develop the interior worlds of his more idiosyncratic characters; Chertokutsky, for example, has an opaque but apparently scandalous personal history and is driven by motives that are less straightforward (and therefore more psychologically plausible) than those of other figures. Finally, Gogol’s narrator fluctuates between omitting detail in the name of mystery and the impulse to describe everything. This tendency, according to some scholars, is evidence of the dual influence of both Gothic romance and early impressionism.

“The Carriage” is thus a text that insistently mixes genres, voices, and stylistic devices. However, these disparate elements are held together by the theme of Depth and Shallowness and the closely related concept known as poshlost. Poshlost is a Russian term that has no direct equivalent in English, but it refers generally to banality, triviality, pettiness, and lack of spiritual depth. Gogol has long been associated with poshlost, and many scholars argue that his texts contain ideal examples of the concept.