An Investigation into the Structure of Gogol's The Portrait Gogol's The Portrait, is a short story which examined through a formalistic approach, can be understood beyond its obvious storyline and plot. Formalism is the literary theory that literature is not simply a mass of words, but comprised of individual words that each may possess a social stereotype, a spiritual aspect or convey a physical response in the reader. Formalism asserts that the world is full …showed first 75 words of 1934 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1934 total…life tainted by evil. This leitmotif is found in The Nose, by the worship of vanity, prestige, and in The Overcoat, by the worship of social acceptance and success. Certainly, this leitmotif is one of the most commonly found in literature. Gogol absolutely left his everlasting mark upon literature. His innovation of adding psychological factors into his literature, not only developed a new literary style for Russian literature, but for the literature of the world.