Penza

Penza enters the play through Khlestakov’s recollection as the place where he squandered the money that might have paid for his journey home. Its significance is personal rather than scenic: the city marks the point at which his appetite for gambling helped leave him stranded and hungry.

The Place of a Lost Fortune

Alone, hungry, and unable to obtain credit in the town where he is staying, Khlestakov looks back on how he dissipated his money in Penza. He blames an infantry captain who, he says, cheated him at cards and took his last penny in less than a quarter of an hour. The loss has a practical consequence: without that money, he would have had enough to get home. Yet his regret is not simple. He says he would give anything for another game with the captain, even as he recognizes that the chance will never come.

An Imagined Return

Penza also belongs to Khlestakov’s fantasy of how he might have returned home if his circumstances had been different. He considers selling his trousers to raise money, then rejects the idea because he will not arrive without a St. Petersburg suit. He imagines instead hiring a carriage, driving beneath a neighbor’s porte-cochere with lamps lit, and having Osip follow in livery. In this imagined entrance, the contrast between his actual lack of money and his desired display of status is stark. His recollection of Penza therefore connects the lost funds not only to hunger and delay, but also to the grand arrival he can picture and cannot afford.