A Slander
Ahineev loves sturgeon. Too much so. His passion for sturgeon has apparently ruined his life.
Well, that's not entirely true. I'm not one for spreading false rumors but Ahineev seems too preoccupied with his reputation. And that's always a dangerous thing. We can never live up to what others think about us. If we strive to whitewash any unflattering accounts of ourselves we'll need more bleach than even Clorox can muster.
It's much easier to live as Popeye says: "I ams what I ams."
Ahineev instead becomes his own TMZ and trying to rectify some sweet nothings to a sturgeon creates a runaway "telephone game" that gets him into hot water.
But Ahineev doesn't seem the happy sort and if he can't even chill at his own daughter's wedding -- well, I wouldn't want to be his student handing in a paper late.
Listen, I don't want to be too hard on Ahineev because we all have a little Ahineev crawling inside -- putting too much stock on what others say about us and too little account on what we know to be the truth.
If only Ahineev had done a few sessions with Albert Ellis -- he would've saved himself a lot of trouble -- but then again -- Chekhov would've been short a story.
It took me several days and rereadings to figure this one out. On first glance, it appears to be about Ahineev being the victim of a mistaken perception. He is wrongly accused by Vankin, followed by the head master, and finally his wife for doing something he didn't do. The Chekhovian twist is that Ahineev, himself, is doing the same thing throughout the story. When he sees Vankin whispering to the laughing inspector's sister-in-law, he immediately assumes that they are talking about him. Does he know this for a fact? Later, Akineev accuses Vankin of spreading the slander, again without proof. Vankin denies it, but it doesn't change the fact that Ahineev still jumped to an erroneous conclusion. And, in a different case, earlier just before being unfairly reprimanded by the headmaster, Ahineev is seen scolding the "vicious propensities" of a student named Visekin. Do we really know this to be true, or is it yet another slander like the one Ahineev experienced? It's quite possible Visekin is being treated unfairly just as Ahineev was.
ReplyDeleteChekhov begins this story with a conversation among the party guests about people mistakenly being buried alive. It's yet another example of a mistaken perception. The topic proceeds to the guests all agreeing that there are many things in this world which are always beyond the mind of man. In the next room, someone talks about cases where a sentry is justified in firing on passers-by. We can easily see how a mistaken judgement or perception like Vankin's or Akineev's could lead to an innocent person being killed.
Chekhov has turned this story about Ahineev into a commentary on the imprecise perceptions of human beings which can lead to dire consequences.