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.
Yes, this is a tragedy. Pyotr has just enough self-awareness to know that he's spineless and cowardly. The Chekhovian twist is that he's so spineless he will never change. All he sees are the horrors that might happen. He can't fall in love, he can't say what's on his mind frankly, he can't confide in the family friend who he meets on the way. He's so limited he can't comprehend the actions of his sister, who is happy. When Pyotr mistakes a rotted post for a man, he doesn't realize the rotted post is him. He's a pitiable human being.
ReplyDeleteI've just finished "Anton Chekhov - A Life" by Donald Rayfield. It'd been ages since I'd read any Chekhov and Audible sent a Richard Armitage read audiobook of stories and suddenly I'm reinvigorated. Too much so I wanted to know more about the man thinking it would help me understand his characters and have had my eyes opened... wide. Highly recommended. It's long, 28 hours, but worth every second. He takes 'write what you know' to extraordinary levels. These stories have more impact, brilliance, if that's possible, because you know who they are, and the why's behind them all for the most part. It's a new publication, the biography. You appear astute to his writings so might find this book, however your read or listen to it fascinating as did I.
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