This is further explored by examining what happens once he succeeds in acquiring enough funds through extreme parsimony over years, which finally allows him to purchase a richly crafted overcoat-suddenly we see people treat him differently than they did before, simply because now they perceive only value based upon outward appearances rather than any inherent human worth or dignity shown due to being part of the same species as them: 'they respected His Excellency,' i.e., believed he could control/command people, even though previously going unrecognized, but provided nothing substantive showing personhood inside, remarkably became a 'man of consequence,'

This highlights how bourgeois-capitalist societies were structured at this time so that everyone except those with money or status was denied basic needs and rights despite working hard all day long for little pay, Akaky had no hope whatsoever when it came to seeking material betterment. The protagonist, Akaky Bashmachkin, is an impoverished clerk who has to spend most of his meager salary just to put food on the table for himself and perhaps a few other members of society as such, he can rarely afford anything else (such as new clothes). A Marxist reading of Gogol's 'The Overcoat' would focus on the exploitative class structures that are in play throughout the story.

The nose and the overcoat