The main character in Gogol's 'The Government Inspector' is Khlestakov. His full name is Ivan Alexandrovich Khlestakov, a minor civil servant from Saint Petersburg who becomes the target of a spectacular case of mistaken identity.
The corrupt officials of a provincial Russian town hear that an inspector is arriving incognito. When they see Khlestakov staying at a local inn, they assume he is the feared government investigator. Khlestakov initially does not understand the mistake, but soon enjoys the officials' panic, accepts their so-called loans, and invents grand stories about his importance.
Khlestakov is not a genuine inspector; the real inspector appears only at the play's close. Gogol uses him to embody vanity, irresponsibility, empty ambition, and self-deception. Readers sometimes confuse him with the Mayor, who drives much of the plot, but Khlestakov is the central figure around whom the mistaken identity revolves.