Expensive Lessons
A fat man hires a pretty young tutor to teach him French and he soon realizes she is a lousy teacher. But he doesn't have the heart to fire her. Soon he falls in love with her. She, however, is disgusted by him. When he makes his move she stops him cold. He figures that's the end. He'll never see her again. But she shows up at her regular time. And he is stuck with her and she is stuck with him. C'est la vie.
The Goal: Read. Reflect. Respond. Over two hundred Chekhov stories. Constance Garnett translations.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
AT HOME
At Home
Great story. A beautiful, clever, young woman goes back home to the steppe. At first she is full of nostalgia and everything looks perfect. But with time she begins to hate it. She finds it monotonous and uninspiring. She comes to the realization that this is her life and her dreams and hopes and ambitions will never be fulfilled out in the steppe. Her only choice is to marry and conform herself to life in the steppe. Dreams, hopes, ambitions, and happiness at some point meet reality. And reality usually wins. We have two choices: to forcefully fight reality and somehow overcome the odds stacked against us and attempt to live a truthful and meaningful life or accept reality and blend with it and try to make do. The beautiful young woman who seemed so full of life at the start of the story decides to accept reality and make the best of it. As sadly, most of us eventually do.
Great story. A beautiful, clever, young woman goes back home to the steppe. At first she is full of nostalgia and everything looks perfect. But with time she begins to hate it. She finds it monotonous and uninspiring. She comes to the realization that this is her life and her dreams and hopes and ambitions will never be fulfilled out in the steppe. Her only choice is to marry and conform herself to life in the steppe. Dreams, hopes, ambitions, and happiness at some point meet reality. And reality usually wins. We have two choices: to forcefully fight reality and somehow overcome the odds stacked against us and attempt to live a truthful and meaningful life or accept reality and blend with it and try to make do. The beautiful young woman who seemed so full of life at the start of the story decides to accept reality and make the best of it. As sadly, most of us eventually do.
Friday, January 1, 2010
NEIGHBOURS
Neighbours
"And thinking about his life, he came to the conclusion he had never said or acted upon what he really thought, and other people had repaid him in the same way." Who hasn't felt that way at one time or another? Reading Chekhov I have noticed that he seems preoccupied with this idea. Living a lie. Doing things that are expected of you but inside not being happy about it. In fact, inside harboring a deep feeling of unhappiness.
In Neighbours, Chekhov presents us with a family story that may or may not be a tragedy. A beautiful vivacious young woman has gone to live with the neighbor, an older married man. Society would say that is a tragedy. The neighbour has nothing going on for him and nobody can guess what would possess this young woman to go off and live with him. The brother decides to visit the house where the sister now lives to talk with her. When he gets there instead of being forceful and pressing his case for the sister to return, he acts weak and returns home alone without telling the sister how he really feels.
If you want to add some psychology to the story -- the brother seems too taken with the sister -- you get the sense that he might even be in love with her and possibly what attracted the sister to the neighbor is that he reminds her of her brother. I might be reading too much into this.
So is this a tragedy? Chekhov is ambivalent. We can castigate the young woman for acting irrationally or we can admire the young woman for having the courage to live life on her own terms.
"And thinking about his life, he came to the conclusion he had never said or acted upon what he really thought, and other people had repaid him in the same way." Who hasn't felt that way at one time or another? Reading Chekhov I have noticed that he seems preoccupied with this idea. Living a lie. Doing things that are expected of you but inside not being happy about it. In fact, inside harboring a deep feeling of unhappiness.
In Neighbours, Chekhov presents us with a family story that may or may not be a tragedy. A beautiful vivacious young woman has gone to live with the neighbor, an older married man. Society would say that is a tragedy. The neighbour has nothing going on for him and nobody can guess what would possess this young woman to go off and live with him. The brother decides to visit the house where the sister now lives to talk with her. When he gets there instead of being forceful and pressing his case for the sister to return, he acts weak and returns home alone without telling the sister how he really feels.
If you want to add some psychology to the story -- the brother seems too taken with the sister -- you get the sense that he might even be in love with her and possibly what attracted the sister to the neighbor is that he reminds her of her brother. I might be reading too much into this.
So is this a tragedy? Chekhov is ambivalent. We can castigate the young woman for acting irrationally or we can admire the young woman for having the courage to live life on her own terms.
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