NON-AFRICAN DRAMA; Nikolai Gogol: The Government Inspector
Discuss the theme of corruption in the play.
Explanation
The theme of corruption in the play
In this play, a penniless young traveler is mistaken for a government inspector from St. Petersburg by the Mayor and his officials. The Mayor and his officials are easily fooled because of guilt caused by their corrupt practices. The play therefore highlights the corrupt practices of the Mayor and his officials which render them vulnerable to panic and consequently, easily taken in by the fake 'Inspector General'.
(i) Both the mayor and his officials are corrupt. They handle government affairs with nonchalance. They display lackadaisical and hypocritical behaviour towards their duties to the government and the people.
(ii) The Mayor condones the negligence of duty among his officials and this leads to the great panic which makes them mistake a common traveler (Hlestakov) for the Inspector General.
(iii) The Mayor orders the postmaster to unseal every letter passing through the post-office and read through it for any implicating information or petition.
(iv) The Mayor starves the convicts and orders the flogging of the sergeant's wife. He knows that the streets are dirty and the whole town is like a `pothouse' but does nothing about it.
(v) The Mayor and his officials see the proposed visit of the Government Inspector as a punishment for their corrupt practices and that is why they bribe the Government Inspector. Other instances of corruption perpetrated in the play include the following
- The judge takes bribes.
- The post-master has been opening and reading people's letters.
- The Charity Commissioner pays lip service to his job; he does not care whether the patients get well or not before they are discharged since the doctor does not understand a word of the Russian Language.
- The School Superintendent condones the teachers' unorthodox approach to teaching since he cannot control them.
- The Mayor gets the police superintendent to accept that the police are perfectly contented' when they are not.
- The Mayor engages in petty dealings with the traders and orders soldiers to harass them. He collects their goods without paying and compels them to pay tributes to him on All Saints days.
- The Mayor's handling of the supposed Government Inspector (Hlestakov) clearly shows how deeply corruption has eaten into the system. The Mayor lures Hlestakov to his house as an important guest and this proves his undoing as Helestakov woos his daughter (Marya) after flirting with his wife (Anna)
- All the officials bribe Hlestakov in the form of 'loans' in order not to have the skeletons in their cupboards exposed.