Korobochka’s journey to town to ask the price of dead souls converts her private misgiving over a sale into a public consequence for Chichikov. After three sleepless nights worrying that she may have sold the dead serfs for far less than their true value, she sets out to investigate; her arrival in town links the country transaction to the gossip and social unease gathering around him.

Cause and Decision

The journey follows Korobochka’s sale of dead souls to Chichikov. Rather than accept the bargain as settled, she becomes consumed by uncertainty about what the transaction was worth. For three nights after his departure she cannot sleep, imagining that she may have sold the souls at roughly a third of their true value. Her concern is practical and retrospective: she wants to know how the dead souls are faring in the market and whether she has been cheated by her own lack of knowledge.

The Journey and Arrival

Korobochka travels to town despite the fact that her horses are not shod. The vehicle that brings her through the outlying streets and alleys is so peculiar and rickety that the narrator compares it to a large watermelon on wheels. It draws up at the house of a church archpriest. A young woman in a jerkin and headscarf jumps out first and pounds on the gate until the dogs bark; only after the gate opens does Korobochka herself alight. The ungainly conveyance and forceful entrance make her private anxiety conspicuous in the town’s streets.

From Private Bargain to Public Talk

Korobochka’s arrival occurs as Chichikov’s purchases have already become a subject of conversation. The town discusses whether it is sensible to acquire peasants for transfer, and some citizens advise Chichikov to take an escort for the journey. He answers that the purchased peasants are peaceable and willing to be transferred. The publicity has also elevated him in local opinion to the status of a millionaire, making his dealings more visible and his reputation more valuable.

At the same time, discontent is building among the women at the Governor’s ball after Chichikov neglects their company while talking to the Governor’s daughter. His social position does not protect him from their displeasure: the women’s dissatisfaction becomes a tacit proscription against both him and the young woman. Korobochka’s arrival adds another strand of disturbance to this already unsettled public scene, though the narrator withholds the consequences of her visit and reserves them for the next chapter.

Narrative Function

The episode turns the dead-soul transaction outward. What Chichikov treated as a discreet bargain has become a topic of town discussion, while Korobochka’s journey supplies a concrete route by which private uncertainty enters public life. The narrator’s comic attention to the eccentric carriage, the unshod horses, and the three sleepless nights gives her financial anxiety a vivid physical form. Her arrival foreshadows further consequences without yet disclosing them: the journey itself is the hinge between the sale and the next stage of the town’s gossip.