When
reading the fiction of Anton Chekhov, the reader is transported to a world that
is bathed in harshness. The settings are
typically bleak and poor and the characters are generally in a sad state of
affairs. Usually, there is little hope
for the character's situation and Chekhov seemingly leaves the reader
floundering with a pitiful insight on a pitiful life. That is the end to it, right? Or is it? Chekhov stated, "Only fools and
charlatans know everything and understand nothing." So let the reader be not a fool, nor a
charlatan. Let him instead say, ''Maybe
there's more, I want to understand." To do this, it is imperative to take a long
hard look at Chekhov the man, Chekhov the writer, and Chekhov the visionary. Only as a sum of these parts can the whole
story of his work truly be revealed.
There are the usual things a person
investigates in studying a person, his birthplace, his family, his schooling
and such. In the case of Chekhov though,
most of these details are either well known or they are simply mute points to
the overall picture of the person of Chekhov. The understanding of Chekhov the man that is
needed to interpret his fiction is a comprehensive idea of his passions and
aversions. It is well noted that Chekhov
had no tolerance for vulgarity in any form. It was documented that Chekhov once said to
his friend Maxim Gorky, ''Russia is a land of greedy idlers. People eat and drink enormously, love to sleep
in the daytime, and snore in their sleep." (Chekhov, 284) He then went on to criticize his people, the
Russians, as having the mentality of a dog, "Beat them and they squeal
meekly and sneak off to their kennels. Caress
them, and they lie on their backs with their paws up, wagging their
tails." (Chekhov,284) But Chekhov
was not without heart. Gorky noted,
"A cold, sorrowful contempt underlay these words. But while despising, he could pity, and when
anyone was abused in his presence, Anton Pavlovich was sure to stick up for
him." (Gorky,284) Chekhov also had
a great passion and love for teachers. It
was his belief that teachers should be revered instead of reviled. He complained mightily to his friends that
teacher's were kept, "in rags, shiver[ing] in a damp, dilapidated school,
be poisoned by fumes from badly ventilated stoves, be always catching cold, and
by the age of thirty be a mass of disease." (Gorky, 277) He wanted social reform in the area of
education. He was noted for saying time
and again, "In Russia we have simply got to create exceptional conditions
for teachers, and that as soon as possible, since we realize that unless the
people get an all-round education the state will collapse like a house built
from insufficiently baked bricks." (Gorky, 276) Another of Chekhov's passions was the
environment, or the management of the environment. His play, Uncle Vanya, is arguably the first
ever "green" play. Chekhov
disliked the fact that his Russian countrymen were not managing and preserving
the natural resources that was in their control. He wrote, ''The Russian forests are groaning
under the ax, millions of trees are being destroyed, the dwellings of wild
beasts and birds are despoiled, rivers are subsiding, drying up, wonderful landscapes
vanish never to return… Man is endowed with reason and creative powers so that
he may increase what has been given to him, but up to now he has not created
but only destroyed." (Uncle Vanya, Act III) Chekhov seems to show both a love and hate in
almost everything he holds dear. Whether
the issues are vulgarity, education, or environment he seems to hold a passion
that always equals his aversion. For
example, he only seems to hate a situation because he loves something in that
situation that is not being correctly treated. He seems to crave common sense and wisdom in
those around him and he doesn't understand or accept that his fellow countrymen
don't understand these issues as well.
In trying to understand Chekhov the
man, the reader comes face to face with Chekhov the writer. He is known as one of the most important
figures in the area of writing short fiction in the modem world. There are many reasons for this, but the
aspect that is crucial here is the idea that Chekhov lets the reader decide the
outcome of the stories. At first glance,
a Chekhov story seems sad and desperate and then it seems to just end. Usually, it seems Chekhov led the reader right
back to where he started and the story seems to have been for nothing, but this
only appears that way because the reader is expecting a finale. It is something the modem reader expects, an
ending. Without it there seems to be no
point. But this was Chekhov's great
gift, the ability to conclude it from a personal level. He could have ended every work of fiction that
he wrote, but how would that help the reader attain any kind of appreciable
understanding of his own power? No,
Chekhov wants a thinking society. He
introduced a grand idea, let the people write their own endings and in doing
so, they write their own story. Chekhov
wanted social reform. He wanted common
sense; and he wanted a better Russia. He
gave the people a vehicle in which to begin to understand their own power and
in doing so he changed the rules of short fiction writing. Chekhov was concerned with the average
Russian. He wrote about Russian issues
and Russian life, sometimes even in a brutal fashion, but it was always
relevant to the common person. As one
critic put it, "Most of the stories are, broadly speaking, satirical,
taking aim at weakness and propensities deemed peculiarly Russian, such as
laziness, stubbornness, ignorance, and xenophobia, as well as stereotypes that
are the familiar butt of humor everywhere: pompous bureaucrats, drunks, old
maids in pursuit, and bachelors in flight. Chekhov's satire is, however, rarely
one-sided, nor is it bitter or moralistic." (O'Connor, 200) Chekhov knew how to relate and in doing so he
turned the world of short fiction on its head!
''I bought it. The cherry orchard is mine. Mine! Tell
me I'm dreaming. . . If my father and grandfather could see me now -me, their
ignorant little Yermolay, almost illiterate, their little Yermolay who was
beaten, who went without shoes in winter. Now that same little Yermolay has just bought
the most beautiful estate in the world!" (Chekhov, Act IV) This scene from Chekhov's "The Cherry
Orchard" is the ultimate representation of the unstable economic and
social conditions in Russia; and it is the ultimate representation of Chekhov
the Visionary. The moneyed middle class
is usurping the landed aristocracy and finally seeing a hope of some equality. This play, "The Cherry Orchard", is
one of Chekhov's most loved works of fiction in that it is openly visionary. In this play even the slowest mind can understand
the implications and hope for the future. Chekhov started slowly at first in his
literary career as a man with visionary capabilities. But as the years passed by and Chekhov put
more and more of himself into his fiction a new persona was born. Where there was once a man who saw the world
too clearly and was crushed by that, there is now a man who rises up and leads
the people, albeit in his own quiet way, towards such elusive and wonderful
things as equality, fair treatment, and just a good old fashioned chance at
life. But Chekhov helps the average man
with a price. It is said that Chekhov
was more cruel and far-sighted than many of his contemporaries. One critic says this of Chekhov' s help,
"He does not pity the little man, he also accuses him. He poses the question of man's personal
responsibility for his own fate."(Kostiukov, 48) Chekhov knew that even if he could solve the
problems of the people it would be pointless unless they knew how to help
themselves. Chekhov lived during a time
in Russia's history when the class system was in effect and there was not much
a person could do to change their status. However, there were a few times during his
lifetime when the prevailing ruler wavered from liberalism to conservatism and
by being prepared, a person could make an advantage of these times. Chekhov is seen as a link between the old
Russia and the new, 1800 versus 1900 Russia, even though he only lived fewer
than four years into the 1900's and he wrote very little during those years. This seems irrelevant until the reader takes a
look at the history of Russia. In
January of 1905, Russia had its first of many revolutions. It took place on January 22, just six short
months after Chekhov's death. The people
did not gain the freedoms that Chekhov seemed to want for them but it was a
start and thirteen years later they revolted again. Chekhov never tried to lift the people of
Russia out of their gutters. He tried to
show them the stairs to get themselves out. He was a compassionate writer with a broken
heart who was just as let down in the nobility as he was in the lower classes,
but the man did have vision. He just
didn't always get the reader to see the same possibilities in the same light.
Chekhov is a complex idealist. If the reader of his work can learn to see the
unspoken words, they would learn a whole new story is there. Their story is there. Hidden under the history of Russia and hidden
under the assumptions of the mind is a writer that was a wonderful oddity of
the modern world. He offered something
great to the reader who could understand, and he gave something no other writer
had ever given, the ability to let the reader write his own story. He had great wisdom as a man, he was an
outstanding revolutionary of the written word and he had the vision to take
Russia to a better place; but through all this he was only a man, and in being
only a man he proved what wonders a single person can do if they only take the
time to do as he did personally, and finish the story. As he said, ''We are accustomed to live in
hopes of good weather, a good harvest, a nice love affair, hopes of becoming
rich or getting the office of Chief of Police, but I've never noticed anyone
hoping to get wiser. We say to
ourselves: it'll be better under a new tsar, and in two hundred years it'll be
still better, and nobody tries to make this good time come tomorrow.
"(Chekhov, 286) Let the reader
understand and may the good times come tomorrow.
Sources:
Chekhov,
Anton. "The Cherry Orchard." Translated ITom the Russian by
Paul
Schmidt. Russia, 1904
Chekhov,
Anton. "Uncle Vanya." Translated by Michael Frayn. Produced
by
the Moscow Arts Theater. Russia, 1899
Kostiukov,
L. "The Twentieth Century." Russian Social Science Review
Nov/Dec
1999: p48
Matlaw,
Ralph. Anton Chekhov . By Maxim Gorky.
Norton
Critical. New York. W.W. Norton & Company, 1979
Matlaw,
Ralph. Anton Chekhov. By Anton Chekhov.
Norton
Critical. New York. W. W. Norton & Company, 1979
O'Connor,
Katherine Tieman. The early work of a Russian Master." The
Boston
Globe Ian 1999: p F2
