THE LETTER

The Letter

"To err is human, to forgive divine."

That's the message.

It's easy to blame and make others feel guilty. In the end, we all live the life we choose and sometimes that life is good and sometimes it's not.

When we look at others we can choose to tell them where they've gone wrong -- but mostly that won't be very much help -- so if we look at our own frailties we might be more willing to forgive and love rather than punish and hate.

This story involving two priests and a deacon gets at the heart of religion -- and makes the case that the best way to help others is to offer a hand not a whip.

The Letter is a well-crafted story and holds your interest to the very end.

Will the letter be sent or not?

And the old man, Father Anastasy,  who seems at the beginning of the story to have no hope and no redeeming feature and the vital Father Orlov who appears to be the epitome of virtue at the start -- by the end our impressions of them have been reversed.

Chekhov has made us convert -- we have compassion for the old man and see he is worthy of forgiveness and we feel Father Orlov needs a long way to go before he is truly a man of God.

And that is the miracle of this story.