He is then regarded with flattering opinions by all of the elites, even the Chief of Police's wife, as a result of being able to hold his own, no matter what comes up in conversation. He eventually meets all of the elites and gets invited to their parties. The reader then follows Chichikov as he travels through the town, in an attempt to meet the elites of the town. Those of higher ranking take the utmost pride in their rank, and Gogol includes the 'rank' or social status, of every character mentioned in the novel. Everyone seems to be in the lower class, except for the elite of the town: the Governor, the Public Prosecutor, the President of the Local Council, the Chief of Police. The 'ranks' of people are very important throughout the novel and to the main character, Chichikov. For the most part, people in the town live mundane lives, which is made evident by the stir that the arrival of Chichikov causes. Gogol goes on to describe the town as compact and not particularly wealthy, but even so, there are still wealthy elites in the town. Essentially, Chichikov was an average man in almost all regards.

Chichikov is described to be an average man, 'not over-elderly, he was not over young,' etc. He describes the inn where Chichikov will be staying but purposefully leaves out the name of the town the story takes place in and waits four pages to provide the reader with the main character's name, Paul Ivanovitch Chichikov. Gogol begins this story by giving a detailed description of the setting, but carefully omits specifics.

Dead souls gogol