Gogol’s vain, self-centered civil servant is emblematic of the moral shortcomings that characterize his rigidly hierarchical, status-obsessed milieu. Unlike more conventional literary protagonists, who often go through a process of moral improvement from which they emerge wiser and more self-aware than they were at the beginning, Kovalyov learns nothing from the bizarre events that befall him. He sees the loss of his nose as an affront to his status, as if sudden, unexplained noselessness is a perfectly acceptable condition for a commoner. When his nose is returned to him, he takes it for granted once again, becoming even more smug and self-satisfied than he was before.

After encountering a personified manifestation of his nose, Kovalyov is thrown into something of an existential crisis—one exacerbated by the difference in apparent rank between his nose and himself: “‘How am I to approach him,’ thought Kovalyov. “It is clear from everything, from his uniform, from his hat, that he is a state councilor. I’m damned if I know how to do it” (210). By placing these markers of rank on the “body” of an ambulatory nose, Gogol creates a juxtaposition that highlights The Absurdity of Social Hierarchy.