Diary of a Mad Man

A person’s perception of himself is ideally an image they wished others would hold of them, but their outlook may be flawed. This is true in regards to the protagonist, AksentyIvanovich in The Diary of a Madman. He has a high self-confidence, but others do not see himin such an elevated manner.  He loathes the class that he belongs to, but that does not denote from the fact that he thinks that he has a respectable position. Ivanovich considers people in his social class inferior, which he believes gives him the right to belittle them. However, people in all classes are repulsed by him. He craves to be part of the upper class culture, but they do not think he is suitable for such a standing. The “King of Spain”, known as Aksenty Ivanovich, displays the exaggeration of his title in society, while others ridicule his name.
They have this idea that people are jealous or threatened by their capability. These people often choose to ignore the similarities between them and people with comparablecharacteristics; They identify themselves as superior than others, so they frequently have a conscious belief that people are out to get them which causes them to be disrespected. People perceive themselves as better than those of a similar class, and more like those of a higher social standing. Ivanovich, despite the factthat he is a civil servant, demands better or equal respect as that given to a general or head of department because he believes his position is not that of a lower class. “A court chamberlain doesn’t have a third eye in the middle of his forehead, and his nose isn’t made of gold either. It’s just like mine or anyone else’s (Gogol 87)”,  in this quotation from the short story,Ivanovich utters these words to compare himself to someone of a higher authority signifyingthat they are both human beings. In response to his distance,people in his rank respond with the same malice. His negative views toward people of his own class create awful encounters with them.
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