Drew Canole's Reviews > The Inspector General

Gogol was the first great Russian novelist with Dead Souls (and Taras Bulba). But also well known for his short stories and this plays. This perhaps being his most popular.

It's an outrageous comedy. At times it nearly reminded me of movies like Airplane. It's not quite that absurd, but the way the characters get so scared of Khlestakov and wrapped up in their theory that he's the government inspector is hilarious.

There's also two characters that are clear inspiration for the Tintin characters Thomson and Thompson. Here we have Pyotr Ivanovich Bobchinsky and Pyotr Ivanovich Dobchinsky - two guys that are always together and talk over each other. They argue about who discovered what, and are the two responsible for the town thinking that Khlestakov, just a random broke nobleman travelling through town, is in fact the incognito Government Inspector the town is worried about.

Khlestakov is more than happy to have the whole town doting on him, in fact he's so shameless he almost expects it without even realizing they have him mistaken for someone else.

The Plot:
The officials of a little town headed by the mayor are panicked when news hits that an incognito government inspector is arriving in their town. They need to cover up all their misdeeds! Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky tell the Mayor about Khlestakov, a guy that's been staying at the inn for two weeks. Khlestakov is just a lowly broke civil servant waiting to go back home and beg money off his upper class father.

Khlestakov's been living at the hotel on IOUs but the hotel is now fed up and refuses to feed him. The Mayor arrives and invites Khlestakov to his house. Only Khlestakov and Khlestakov's servant Osip know the truth.

Khlestakov obliges and while there talks to the Mayor and all the high ranking townspeople individually - asking for loans from each of them, which they oblige thinking it'll prevent Khlestakov from saying anything bad about them. The Mayor ends up thinking Khlestakov is close to the emperor! His and the other towns people's imagination runs wild. The Mayor's wife and daughter both think Khlestakov is into them.

Later the town's merchants tell Khlestakov all the bad thing the Mayor has been doing. Khlestakov just asks for more "loans" and promises to report the Mayor.

Khlestakov proposes to the Mayor's daughter. Later Khlestakov leaves the village with his servant Osip taking all the loans with him. The postman opens a letter Khlestakov sent to a friend and read it - it absolutely ridicules the whole town. Later its announced that (the real) government inspector has arrived.