As Chichikov travels from estate to estate, Gogol introduces us to a hilarious and terrifying lineup of Russian landowners. They are not flat stereotypes, but neurotically individual caricatures:

: A paranoid, superstitious widow who is terrified of being cheated on the price of her dead serfs.

: Landowners had to pay taxes on their male serfs (referred to officially as "souls") based on the latest census.