Gogol's characters are common people and his stories are rooted in commonplace events, but his realism is simply the doorway to a weird world of broad comedy and lunacy. "Diary of a Madman" recounts one man's struggle to be noticed by the woman he loved. His diary records his gradual slide into insanity, where he finally achieves the greatness that has eluded him in real life.

Gogol's fascination with the demonic and the irrational ultimately contributed to his own death. While he was on an extended fast, his over-zealous doctors applied leeches to his face in an attempt to alleviate his condition. But the reports show that the only effect of this treatment was to hasten the untimely and somewhat grotesque demise of this most unorthodox playwright.