The mayor took Herestakov home and arranged a visit

The Governor’s decision to take Khlestakov into his home and arrange a tour of the town’s institutions converts an imagined inspection into a staged demonstration of civic competence. Believing Khlestakov to be an inspector from Saint Petersburg, traveling incognito with secret instructions, the Governor tries to control what his visitor sees. The resulting hospitality and guided display reveal not a functioning administration but the officials’ fear, improvisation, and talent for presenting neglect as order.

Causes and Preparations

The Governor has already warned the officials that an inspector has arrived and urged them to make their departments appear presentable. He singles out the Superintendent of Charities, Artemy Filippovich Zemlianika, because the hospital is an obvious place for an inspection: patients commonly look filthy, so the Governor insists that they be given clean nightcaps. The suggestion is not a plan to improve care; it is a quick adjustment to the appearance of the patients most likely to be seen.

The courthouse offers another revealing example. The Governor tells Judge Ammos Fiodorovich Liapkin-Tiapkin that geese and goslings wander through the entrance hall where petitioners wait, poking their beaks between people’s legs. He acknowledges that household arrangements have taken over a public space, but treats the problem as something to fix now that scrutiny is expected. He also excuses unspecified administrative failings as ordinary human sins, while Ammos openly distinguishes his own accepted bribes, including white greyhound puppies, from more serious wrongdoing. The visit is thus preceded by a candid glimpse of the disorder that its carefully managed itinerary will conceal.

The preparations extend beyond individual offices to the town’s streets. The Governor orders Sergeant Pugovichyn, a tall man, to stand on the bridge for appearance’s sake. He wants an old fence near the bootmaker pulled down and a post topped with straw set up to suggest road grading, even though roughly forty cartloads of rubbish have accumulated against the fence. He also instructs the officials to assure the inspector that everyone is satisfied, threatening consequences for anyone who says otherwise. These measures make the purpose of the tour plain: the administration is arranging visible signs of activity and restricting what can be reported, rather than correcting the conditions that prompted alarm.

The Invitation and the Tour

When Khlestakov asks for money, the Governor offers assistance in the language of public duty, saying he is prepared to help a stranger in town. Khlestakov asks to borrow two hundred rubles, or less, so that he can settle his account with the landlord. The Governor’s response helps shift the encounter from an uncomfortable inn transaction toward a more controlled form of hospitality. He offers Khlestakov a light, comfortable room at home, presents the offer as an act of simple kindness, and suggests that the shabby tavern is no fit place for his guest. Khlestakov accepts, preferring a private house to the inn.

The next step is a proposed inspection of the town’s philanthropic institutions and other establishments. Khlestakov asks what there is to see, but the Governor proceeds with the tour, accompanied by Peter Ivanovich Dobchinsky. The staged character of the visit is visible as the party enters: the Governor points out a piece of paper on the floor, and the sergeants rush to pick it up, jostling one another in their haste. Khlestakov praises the institutions and remarks that other towns have not shown him anything. His approval rewards the officials’ display, though it does not establish that the institutions are well run.

The Hospital Display

At the hospital, Khlestakov remembers beds and observes that there seem to have been few patients. Artemy Filippovich Zemlianika answers that about ten remain and claims that the rest have recovered. He credits the apparent recoveries to the hospital’s order and honesty rather than its medicines, presenting the small number of patients as evidence of successful management. The exchange makes the tour’s central maneuver especially clear: an outcome that might invite questions is recast as proof of competence.

The Governor uses the same encounter to present himself as burdened by public responsibilities. He describes the difficulty of keeping the town clean and arranging repairs and alterations, then insists that he thinks about whether the government will recognize his devotion to duty. He lists swept streets, well-kept prisoners, and few drunkards as marks of the town’s good order, and claims that a clear conscience matters more to him than honors. This self-portrait sits against the preparations already disclosed: the staged work at the fence, the rubbish piled beside it, the geese in the courthouse, and the hurried clean nightcaps. His speech makes the tour a performance not only of institutional success but of personal virtue.

Significance and Limits

The inspection is built on a mismatch of knowledge. The Governor believes he is managing the scrutiny of a powerful official; Khlestakov accepts the lodging and tour without understanding the significance the officials attach to them. The visit therefore allows the Governor to act out the authority he fears: he chooses the route, offers accommodation, and puts the town’s public face on display. Yet the evidence offered by the tour repeatedly points back to what it is meant to hide, from improvised street improvements to the hospital’s unexplained shortage of patients.

The episode’s comedy depends on the gap between administrative language and observable conduct. Hospitality is framed as duty, disorder as a temporary matter of presentation, and a potentially troubling hospital statistic as a triumph. The tour does not resolve the town’s failings; it gives them a guided itinerary and a reassuring explanation. By bringing Khlestakov home and arranging what he will see, the Governor deepens his reliance on a false reading of the visitor while exposing how easily official authority can be performed through gestures, appearances, and claims of service.