A literary analysis can focus on any number of components of a text, from the way it reflects a societal truth from the era in which it was written to the way an author crafts a theme using various literary devices. I might choose to craft a thesis like this one:

Through symbolism and irony, Pushkin's tale presents a macabre struggle for happiness in the midst of gloom that likely paralleled his own life.

You might want to trace the use, for example, of the color yellow in the story, which appears numerous times. In this story, yellow is not associated with positive imagery but with cowardice, death, and disease. After all, this coffin maker can only enjoy success if others suffer and die. Therein lies the innate irony of a man who finds that he cannot drink to the health of his customers: doing so would mean that he could not prosper and could not support his daughters. He allows his anger to grow, and finally he vows that he will only invite the "orthodox dead" to his home for a feast. What follows is a macabre description of the dead he has helped bury. It turns out to be a dream, but there remains the reality that Adrian's success hinges on others' suffering. It is a paradoxical position and profession.

Perhaps these feelings mirrored events in his own life. I'll link his biographical information below, but Pushkin found himself scrambling to navigate complex emotions in his own life more than once. At one point, he was aligned with conspirators who were against Czar Nicholas I. He lived through a period of being constantly watched by the secret police as a result. He struggled with mounting debts and the anxieties those debts produced. And eventually, his flirtatious wife's behavior captured the attention of a Duke, which led to Pushkin's death via a duel.

While Pushkin is considered a literary success, his own life is littered with the struggle to subdue the grotesque and the threatening elements which seemed to continually silence his happiness, and Adrian's thoughts sometimes echo what Pushkin must have felt in his own life:

"What does that mean?" thought Adrian. "Who can be wanting me again? Can it be a thief come to rob me? Or have my foolish girls got lovers coming after them? It means no good, I fear!"

Perhaps the fears of the author are reflected in the protagonist who bears his same initials.