“A dead body is only good to prop a fence with”

The proverb “A dead body is only good to prop a fence with” is Chichikov’s blunt counter to Sobakevitch’s extravagant praise of his deceased serfs. In a negotiation that treats the dead as entries with commercial value, the saying strips the matter to physical remains—and makes the men’s supposed usefulness sound grotesquely literal.

The proverb in the negotiation

Sobakevitch runs through the trades and abilities of the dead men, praising a mason who could build a stove, a bootmaker whose work made good boots, and a serf who had worked in Moscow and paid a tax of five hundred roubles. Chichikov tries to interrupt the catalogue by pointing out that the men are dead, but Sobakevitch’s torrent of speech carries on until Chichikov can get a hearing.

When he finally speaks, Chichikov asks why Sobakevitch lists the deceased men’s talents when, being dead, they can no longer make use of them. He then brings in the proverb: “A dead body is only good to prop a fence with.” Its material image answers the catalogue’s focus on practical skill with a stark limit: the dead body has only the use of an object.

Sobakevitch’s reply

Sobakevitch accepts that the men are dead, though his answer suggests the thought has only just occurred to him. He turns the challenge around: if the men are dead, he asks, what is the point of listing them as alive, and what use are they themselves? He dismisses them as flies rather than human beings.

Chichikov replies that they exist, though only in idea. The exchange therefore places the proverb at the boundary between death as a physical fact and continued existence as a fiction that can serve the transaction. The saying does not resolve that contradiction; it makes its grotesque terms unmistakable.

Meaning and effect

The proverb punctures Sobakevitch’s salesmanship without ending the bargain’s underlying logic. His catalogue grants the dead individuality through their trades, abilities, and tax-paying history, while the conversation also reduces them to bodies, flies, and an idea of continued existence. The sharp shift from skilled labor to a corpse propping up a fence gives the phrase its comic brutality: it exposes how easily human worth is recast as usefulness, even when the people praised can no longer act.