Nicolai Gogol's astute observation on a typical happy, harmonious Russian household.

‘You scoundrel! You drunkard! I’ll report it to the police myself, I will.” - When at breakfast Ivan Yakovlevitch, the barber, discovers there's a nose in his bread, a nose he recognizes as belonging to one of his customers by the name of Major Kovalev, his wife’s immediate reaction is to accuse him of committing a violent crime and then heap on the abuse. “You beast, whose nose is that you’ve cut off?’ she cried furiously. Here are a batch of my modest comments linked with direct quotes from the tale itself: The fact that Gogol picked a pompous, conceited major to mock simply makes the story funnier. However, the Marxists acknowledge any man or woman of any class, high or low, would be gravely upset at losing their nose. It appears staunch Marxists grudgingly admit the story is simply meant to be funny, a story that's entirely ridiculous and absurd, an instance of complete nonsense or, at best, a satire of Russian society since Kovalev's rank accords him high social status. I was completely unsuccessful in locating a Marxist interpretation of Gogol's The Nose. One develops an eye for painting, an ear for music, a taste for fine food, a feel for movement (one's kinesthetic sense) but how many people will admit publicly they are cultivating their nose? Still, I have my doubts about raising the status of the nose.

However, she is undaunted and suggests: 'What we must recognize here is that any expression of odor assessment and preference is not inevitably given or fixed but leaves room for contextual evaluations and the individual acquisition of expertise and taste.' In other words, we would be well to recognize some individuals may take steps to cultivate their sense of smell and become connoisseurs of the nose. When it comes to the field of aesthetics and the philosophy of art, philosopher Ann-Sophie Barwich acknowledges the low status customarily assigned the sense of smell. The last thing a person wants when meeting others for the first time is for those others to come away thinking: 'What a nose!' No doubt about it, people want a nose that doesn't stick out for any reason whatsoever. Rhinoplasty is the most common procedure performed among facial plastic surgeons. Nose surgery or rhinoplasty is a surgical procedure to correct a prominent, unusual, asymmetric or irregular nose.

Thus, by my eye, three issues surrounding the old schnozzle pop into view: Much of the story's humor focuses on the prevailing preoccupation with social rank within the Russia of the time. The Nose - Nikolai Gogol's beloved tale of civil servant Major Kovalyov waking up one morning to discover his nose has left his face and is living a life of its own.

Gogols the nose