Satiric absurdism has always been Gogol's predominant way of expressing to the world. His embrace of the bizarre and mad permeated into his stories time after time, stories of talking dogs, noses with consciousness, and a delusional work-from-home king. His Russian audience, in turn, embraced the strangeness with welcoming arms.
“'...You are after all my own nose!'
The nose looked at the Major and wrinkled its forehead. 'There you are wrong, respected sir; I am myself. Besides, there can be no close relations between us.'”
- The Nose (1836)
Though Free Indirect Speech was a common literary device to use at the time, Gogol seemed to have an affinity for building dramatic connection with the audience through Free Indirect Speech. Gogol placed many exclamations and comments that occurs in his stories, developing a sort of comradery with the reader who is also experiencing the same events.
"How strangely, how unaccountably Fate plays with us!"
- Nevsky Prospekt (1835)
It was a notably loving and humorous habit of letting the reader know that the author was always there. Moreover, Free Indirect Speech allowed characters in stories to express joy and macabre in their minds, adding a layer of insanity or absurdism for his sentimentally-touching characters, shown in The Nose and Diary of a Madman.
"They treated him so roughly and disrespectfully that I cannot find words to do justice to this unfortunate incident."
- Nevsky Prospekt (1835)
In conjunction with Free Indirect Speech, Gogol also interjects Hypophora (rhetorical questions) to build suspense for his stories’ absurdist nature and provide a sudden fragment of the characters doubts and skepticisms. Gogol is skilled at using such hypophora to instigate a feeling of apprehension for the character’s motivations. It adds depth to the thought process in decision-making for characters and flavor their arcs with perspective.
"Do we ever get what we desire? Do we ever attain what our powers seem specially fitted for? Everything goes contrary to what we expect.”
- Nevsky Prospekt
Although unlikely to be intentional, Gogol’s writing style features many references to his own morals during his time. Implications for the expectations of women were heavily implied if not explicitly stated. Women often took a predominant role in passively seducing the main character, thus putting them in trouble. Prostitution was also a major theme in Nevsky Prospekt as Gogol projects many of his acknowledges the timely conservative values placed on prostitutes yet contradicts the stereotype as to display a shocking but hopeful reality.
"Schiller’s wife was extremely stupid. Stupidity, however, adds a special charm to a pretty wife. I have known several husbands, anyway, who were enraptured by the stupidity of their wives and saw in it evidence of childlike innocence.”
- Nevsky Prospekt
Through his works, Gogol utilizes a cacophony of these styles to create his absurdist but touching stories. He was acutely aware of the influence of art on a young Russian generation and made his works into an adventure hidden in buoyant and faithful propaganda. The wonders and ludicrously entertaining plots held the 19th century Russia’s audience fervently, and his unique style continues to perpetuate in iconicity today, easily recognizable and dearly treasured.
“Strange events happen in this world, events which are sometimes entirely improbable”
- The Nose