Korobotchka’s journey to town to investigate the sale

Korobotchka’s journey to town to investigate the sale is driven by a belated fear that she has undersold the dead serfs to Chichikov. After three nights without sleep, the widow sets out to learn what the transaction is worth, bringing her private uncertainty into the town’s widening disturbance around Chichikov’s scheme.

The Journey from the Estate

Korobotchka’s unease grows after Chichikov’s departure. She cannot sleep for three nights, worrying about the possible outcome of what the narration calls his whim and wondering whether she has let the dead souls go for something like a third of their true value. Her concern is commercial: she wants to know how the sale fares and whether a better price was available.

She makes the journey despite her horses being unshod. Her conveyance, clattering through the town’s outlying streets and alleys, is described as a rickety, melon-like vehicle difficult to classify. A damsel in a jerkin and headscarf leaps out to beat at the gates of the archpriest’s house, setting the dogs barking; the gates eventually open to admit the vehicle, and Korobotchka herself alights. The awkward, drawn-out arrival gives physical form to her anxious pursuit of information.

Timing and Narrative Consequences

The journey takes place while Chichikov is already blaming Nozdrev for the troubles that have vexed him. The narrator presents Korobotchka’s arrival elsewhere in town as a further blow to the hero’s position: her inquiry is an independent consequence of the deal, not an action coordinated with him. What began as a private worry about price is now entering the same town where his scheme is becoming increasingly precarious.

The chapter break suspends the outcome. Korobotchka has gone to town to learn the value of the dead souls, but the narrator reserves the consequences of her venture for a conversation between two ladies in the ensuing chapter. The episode therefore turns on a reversal in her understanding of the sale: the transaction she had completed now appears uncertain, and the need to check its value carries her from her estate into the social world where the deal can acquire consequences beyond the bargain itself.