There is a lot to this story although it spans only a few pages. I love the imagery of the student touching one end of a chain - spanning 1900 years of human history - and seeing movement at the other, present day end. I think that we all forge this chain and each of us, based on age, education and outlook, bring to it an alloy of sorts. The student brings a catalytic agent to the process, giving the chain a capacity to evoke emotion, even if he can’t fully understand what it is he’s stirring up. This reminds me of myself, when younger as I understood feelings and concepts rationally and from a deeply intellectual, almost stoic place. That is not to say that the feelings were not genuine, as I think they are for the student at the end of the story but they weren’t visceral either. In the older widow, I see deep suffering, comprehension of loss, a tangible connection to a self that has experienced betrayal, a self that knows the guilt of infidelity as Peter did. The daughter represents to me the totality of all the unspoken and unarticulated imperfections we all carry within. But all of this necessary as we forge ahead,cyclically, through the combined alloy of loss, imperfection and renewal to reach the “inexpressibly sweet anticipation of happiness, an unknown , mysterious happiness...”
There is a lot to this story although it spans only a few pages. I love the imagery of the student touching one end of a chain - spanning 1900 years of human history - and seeing movement at the other, present day end.
ReplyDeleteI think that we all forge this chain and each of us, based on age, education and outlook, bring to it an alloy of sorts. The student brings a catalytic agent to the process, giving the chain a capacity to evoke emotion, even if he can’t fully understand what it is he’s stirring up. This reminds me of myself, when younger as I understood feelings and concepts rationally and from a deeply intellectual, almost stoic place. That is not to say that the feelings were not genuine, as I think they are for the student at the end of the story but they weren’t visceral either.
In the older widow, I see deep suffering, comprehension of loss, a tangible connection
to a self that has experienced betrayal, a self that knows the guilt of infidelity as Peter did. The daughter represents to me the totality of all the unspoken and unarticulated imperfections we all carry within. But all of this necessary as we forge ahead,cyclically, through the combined alloy of loss, imperfection and renewal to reach the “inexpressibly sweet anticipation of happiness, an unknown , mysterious happiness...”
Thanks Mike.
DeleteYour analysis makes a lot of sense. I'm sure it will be appreciated by anyone reading the post.
Thanks! I’m new to Chekhov after spending a lot of time reading Tolstoy.
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