What does the overcoat represent in Gogol's short story, "The Overcoat"?

The overcoat in Gogol's "The Overcoat" represents the
human condition that society offers him Akakiy Akakievitch as he suffers from the lack
of compassion and a parallel lack of warm overcoat. In a complex construction of ideas,
Akakiy Akakievitch struggles to find both compassion and a new overcoat. When he does
achieve half his struggle and has the new coat in his possession, his society shows that
achieving compassion is an even more difficult
struggle.

No
respect was shown him in the department. The porter not only did not rise from his seat
when he passed, but never even glanced at him, any more than if a fly had flown through
... The young officials laughed at and made fun of him
....

His overcoat is
callously taken from him; the "district chief," and the "prominent personage," have no
time or effort to offer Akakiy so he might try to get his coat
back.

The
watchman replied that he had seen two men stop him in the middle of the square, but
supposed that they were friends of his; and that, instead of scolding vainly, he had
better go to the police on the morrow .... “What, what, what!” said the important
personage. “Where did you get such courage? Where did you get such
ideas?"

In the final
analysis, in more specific terms, the overcoat represents Akakiy Akakievitch's basic
human needs--for a coat and compassion--and simultaneously the various mechanisms by
which human needs are not met.