"Gogol's 'Perfectly True' Tale: The Overcoat' and Its Mode of Closure," in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 14, No. 1, Winter, 1977, pp. 35-40.

Here, Proffitt examines the purpose of the "fantastic ending" of "The Overcoat," concluding that it was intended by the author as a parody of poetic justice.

Gogol's "The Overcoat" has recently been called "one of the most elusive as well as one of the greatest of literary creations" [Charles Bernheimer, "Cloaking the Self: The Literary Space of Gogol's 'Overcoat,'" PMLA 90, January, 1975]. That it is great few would deny. And that it has proven elusive none could dispute. But wherein lies its elusiveness—in the twists and turns of the text itself or in the habitual evasions of the mind of the beholder? I suggest the latter, at least when it comes to the work's "fantastic ending," as Gogol would trick us into believing.

But before we...