Gloumov's Diary is said to represent the hero's "inner monologue". Ostrovsky’s play tells of the adventures of Gloumov, an ambitious and unscrupulous young man. His uncle instructs him to watch over his wife, in exchange for which, Mamaev will help him to make a beautiful marriage. But Gloumov deceives Mamaev by seducing his aunt and deceives her by looking for a rich wife.
Focus on Eisenstein: he greets the audience with a big hat. The first sequence shows an elegant man in a top hat: an elegant woman looks at him with lust. They disappear, replaced by three faces wearing ceremonial hats, decked out in tinsel and puzzled expressions, underlined by clownish makeup. Then follow a series of scenes of acrobats: the man in evening dress climbs, in top hat on the towers of the church, then jumps in a military car in the middle of the courtyard of the Military Academy . The white clown appears, disappears, makes a joke. Pantomimes and metamorphoses are multiplying (the clown turns into a donkey, a provocative woman, a child). The last sequence shows the burlesque, transvestite marriage of the two heroes.