NON-AFRICAN DRAMA
NIKOLAI GOGOL: The Government Inspector
Discuss the significance of the encounter between the protesters and Hlestakov in the Mayor’s house.
Explanation
Having accepted the offer of a delightful room in the Mayor's house Hlestakov is ready to carry out some responsibilities as the "Government Inspector". One of such is attending to the protesters who besiege the house of the Mayor to complain to Hlestakov and denounce his (Mayor's) actions.
The protesters, who belong to the business sector of the society, feel aggrieved at the way the Mayor has been oppressing them. Led by their spokesmen — the three merchants — they tell Hlestakov the ways in which the Mayor has been maltreating them, leaving them with no other option than to commit suicide.
They complain that the Mayor sends soldiers to harass them. He also intimidates them by pulling their beards and calling them "Tartar". According to the merchants, the Mayor expects too much from them. They have to provide dresses for his wife and daughter, presents at Easter, yards and rolls of nice cloth for himself and presents at several Saints' days. They say that failure to do all these earns them severe flogging or torture at the hands of soldiers. Ironically, however, they do not realize that they are making their complaints to a scoundrel who cannot change their situation but rather desires to make profit from them. Hlestakov's acceptance of the bribe of sugar and wine, as well as a "loan" of 500 roubles shows that the merchants' plight is far from over. This further highlights the theme of corruption.
Further complaints come from the wives of the locksmith and the sergeant. The locksmith's wife — Poshlyopkina — complains that the Mayor has conscripted her husband into the army while accepting bribes from others to free them. The sergeant's wife — lvanovna — claims she has been flogged on the orders of the Mayor and could not sit down for two days. To all these protesters, Hlestakov, who has his own trouble of how to get away to deal with, gives a promise. He drives the other protesters away. All these complaints reveal the extent to which corruption and injustice are entrenched in the society. Thus the Mayor's discomfiture at the mention of a government inspector becomes understandable.