Heartache by anton chekhov analysis

Conflict, Theme And Setting In "Heartache" By Anton Chekhov - Observation Assessment

Conflict, Theme and Setting in "Heartache" by Anton Chekhov
After reading the lesson and short story "Heartache," submit answers to the following questions:

1. Short story writers must be very precise in their use of language, as their narratives must not exceed a certain length. Examine Chekhov’s use of language or figurative devices in this story. Select and discuss passages that illustrate his precise use of word choice that create clarity and suggestiveness. Also, what effects does the dialogue have upon your understanding of the conflict? In what way has the death of Iona’s son “changed everything”?

2. Speculate about the implicit theme Chekhov develops in the story. Examine aspects of Iona’s conflict which suggests that at the bottom of his despair comes the moment of salvation or redemption. In what way does Chekhov suggest that the bleakest moment is also the moment when the real message of transformation is possible.
3. Write a guest column for your school newspaper in which you express your views on the value of a particular struggle or conflict. Consider the audience for this column in deciding how to describe your views. Keep the length of the column reasonable for newspaper columns. When you are satisfied with your writing, revise it for style and content suggestions. After a final revision, submit your column.

LESSON 4: THE JOURNEY WITHIN

Learning Goals: R2. recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate meaning W1. generate, gather, and organize ideas and information to write for an intended purpose and audience; W2. draft and revise their writing, using a variety of literary, informational, and graphic forms and stylistic elements appropriate for the purpose and audience; W3. use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills and strategies, and knowledge of language conventions, to correct errors, refine expression, and present their work effectively Success Criteria: Successfully complete the assigned questions on “Heartache” by Anton Checkhov

CONFLICT

Conflict: a struggle between opposing characters or forces. All conflicts are either:

• external (physical in nature) OR

• internal (emotional, moral, psychological or spiritual).

Conventional literary theory suggests there are three basic types of conflicts:

1. “Man versus Man”: conflict between two characters

2. “Man versus the Environment”: conflict between characters and their life circumstances,

physical surroundings or social conditions.

3. “Man versus Self”: conflict in which a character experiences an internal struggle

particular to human nature

The last “S” includes the Supernatural (ghosts, fantastic creatures, aliens, etc—which make

up the foundation of Science Fiction & Fantasy genres.

SETTING: Setting refers to:

• general site or locale (geographical location, time of year, day)

• social environment (social-economic status, social values- prejudices, rural vs. urban)

• historical time (past/ present/ future) in which the action of the story takes place.

Examples of SITE in setting:

• “Evening twilight.”

• “But now evening dusk is descending upon the city. The pale light of the street lamps changes to a vivid color and the bustle of the street grows louder.”

• “Large flakes of wet snow are circling lazily about the street lamps which have just been lighted, settling in a thin soft layer on roofs, horses̓ backs, peoples’ shoulders

• “To the Vyborg District” repeats the officer. “Are you asleep, eh? To the Vyborg District!”

• “You won’t find a worse one in all Petersburg—” (St. Petersburg)

Examples of SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT in setting:

• But now evening dusk is descending upon the city. The pale light of the street lamps changes to a vivid color and the bustle of the street grows louder.

• Anyone who has been torn away from the plow, from the familiar gray scenes, and cast into this whirlpool full of monstrous lights, of ceaseless uproar and hurrying people, cannot help thinking.

Examples of HISTORICAL TIME in setting:

• “As a sign of assent Iona gives a tug at the reins, which sends layers of snow flying from the horse’s back and from his own shoulders. The officer gets into the sleigh”

• “...the street lamps which have just been lighted…”

• “Twenty kopecks is not fair, but his mind is not on that. Whether it is a ruble or five kopecks, it is all one to him now, so long as he has a fare.”

ACTIVITY

“Heartache” By Anton Chekhov After reading the short story, answer the three questions. SUBMIT YOUR ANSWERS IN THE ASSIGNEMNT SECTION Setting a Context for Reading Writing in your journal, consider some difficult experiences of everyday life. What are several of the most trying experiences in your life thus far? Why do you consider these to be difficult? What experiences do you fear in the future? What value, if any, do you expect from these experiences? After you have finished your journal writing, read “Heartache” by Anton Chekhov. Exploring Literary Technique: Conflict This short story, written by Anton Chekhov, presents several ‘CONFLICTS.’ Review the note regards the types of conflicts that writers develop in fiction. Then, discuss the central conflicts developed in “Heartache,” as well as other aspects of this selection which interest you. Then respond the questions below: 1. Short story writers must be very precise in their use of language, as their narratives

must not exceed a certain length. Examine Chekhov’s use of language or figurative devices in this story. Select and discuss passages that illustrate his precise use of word choice that create clarity and suggestiveness. Also, what effects does the dialogue have upon your understanding of the conflict? In what way has the death of Iona’s son “changed everything”?

Exploring Literary Technique: Theme

Examine the ideas that Chekhov presents through the conflict of the story. Frame your responses as a theme statement. Use the “heartaches” Iona experiences throughout the story and similar trials the all humans experience to support your response 2. Speculate about the implicit theme Chekhov develops in the story. Examine aspects

of Iona’s conflict which suggests that at the bottom of his despair comes the moment of salvation or redemption. In what way does Chekhov suggest that the bleakest moment is also the moment when the real message of transformation is possible.

Writing Expressively 3. Write a guest column for your school newspaper in which you express your views on the value of a particular struggle or conflict. Consider the audience for this column in deciding how to describe your views. Keep the length of the column reasonable for newspaper columns. When you are satisfied with your writing, revise it for style and content suggestions. After a final revision, submit your column.

“Heartache” by Anton Chekhov

Translated from the Russian by Avrahm Yarmolinsky

Evening twilight. Large flakes of wet snow are circling lazily about the street lamps which have just

been lighted, settling in a thin soft layer on roofs, horses’ backs, peoples’ shoulders, caps. Iona Potapov,

the cabbie is all white like a ghost. As hunched as a living body can be, he sits on the box without stirring.

If a whole snowdrift were to fall on him, even then, perhaps, he would not find it necessary to shake it off.

His nag, too, is white and motionless. Her immobility, the angularity of her shape, and the stick-like

straightness of her legs make her look like a penny gingerbread horse. She is probably lost in thought.

Anyone who has been torn away from the plow, from the familiar gray scenes, and cast into this whirlpool

full of monstrous lights, of ceaseless uproar and hurrying people, cannot help thinking.

Iona and his nag have not budged for a long while. They had driven out of the yard before dinnertime

and haven’t had a single fare yet. But now evening dusk is descending upon the city. The pale light of the

street lamps changes to a vivid color and the bustle of the street grows louder.

“Sleigh to the Vyborg District!” Iona hears. “Sleigh!”

Iona starts, and through his snow-plastered eyelashes sees an officer in a military overcoat with a hood.

“To the Vyborg District” repeats the officer. “Are you asleep, eh? To the Vyborg District!”

As a sign of assent Iona gives a tug at the reins, which sends layers of snow flying from the horse’s

back and from his own shoulders. The officer gets into the sleigh. The driver clucks to the horse, cranes his

neck like a swan, rises in his seat and, more from habit than necessity, flourishes his whip. The nag, too,

stretches her neck, crooks her stick-like legs and irresolutely sets off.

“Where are you barging in, damn you?” Iona is promptly assailed by shouts from the massive dark

wavering to and fro before him. “Where the devil are you going? Keep to the right!”

“Don’t you know how to drive? Keep to the right,” says the officer with vexation.

A coachman driving a private carriage swears at him; a pedestrian who was crossing the street and

brushed against the nag’s nose with his shoulder, looks at him angrily and shakes the snow off his sleeve.

Iona fidgets on the box as if sitting on needles and pins, thrusts out his elbows and rolls his eyes like a

madman, as though he did not know where he was or why he was there.

“What rascals they all are,” the officer jokes. “They are doing their best to knock into you or be

trampled by the horse. It’s a conspiracy.”

Iona looks at his fare and moves his lips. He wants to say something, but the only sound that comes

out is a wheeze. “What is it?” asks the officer.

Iona twists his mouth into a smile, strains his throat and croaks hoarsely: “My son, sir... er, my son

died this week.”

“H̓m, what did he die of?”

Iona turns his whole body around to his fare and says, “Who can tell? It must have been a fever. He

lay in the hospital only three days and then he died.... It is God’s will.”

“Get over, you devil!” comes out of the dark. “Have you gone blind, you old dog? Keep your eyes

peeled!”

“Go on, go on,” says the officer. “We shan’t get there until tomorrow at this rate. Give her the whip!”

The driver cranes his neck again, rises in his seat, and with heavy grace swings his whip. Then he

looks around at the officer several times but the latter keeps his eyes closed and is apparently indisposed to

listen. Letting his fare off in the Vyborg District, Iona stops by a teahouse and again sits motionless and

hunched on the box. Again the wet snow paints him and his nag white. One hour passes, another...

Three young men, two tall and lanky, one short and hunch-backed, come along swearing at each other

and loudly pound the pavement with their galoshes.

“Cabby, to the Police Bridge!” the hunchback shouts in a cracked voice. “The three of us... twenty

kopecks!”

Iona tugs at the reins and clucks to his horse. Twenty kopecks is not fair, but his mind is not on that.

Whether it is a ruble or five kopecks, it is all one to him now, so long as he has a fare. The three young

men, jostling each other and using foul language, go up to the sleigh and all three try to sit down at once.

They start arguing about which two are to sit and who shall be the one to stand. After a long ill-tempered

and abusive altercation, they decide that the hunchback must stand up because he is the shortest.

“Well, get going,” says the hunchback in his cracked voice, taking up his station and breathing down

Iona’s neck. “On your way! What a cap you’ve got, brother! You won’t find a worse one in all Petersburg—

”

“Hee hee... hee, hee... “Iona giggles, “as you say—”

“Well, then, ‘as you say, ̓ drive on. Are you going to crawl like this all the way, eh? D̓’you want to get

it in the neck?”

“My head is splitting,” says one of the tall ones. “At the Dukmasovs’s yesterday, Vaska and I killed

four bottles of cognac between us.”

“I don’t get it, why him?” says the other tall one angrily.

“He is lying like a trouper.”

“Strike me dead, it’s the truth!”

“It is about as true as that a louse sneezes.”

“Hee, hee,” giggles Iona. “The gentlemen are feeling good!”

“Laugh, the devil take you!” cries the hunchback indignantly.

“Will you get a move on, you old pest, or won’t you? Is that the way you drive? Give her a crack of

the whip! Giddyap, devil! Giddyap! Let her feel it!”

Iona feels the hunchback’s wriggling body and quivering voice behind his back. He hears abuse

addressed to him, sees people, and the feeling of loneliness begins little by little to lift from his heart. The

hunchback swears till he chokes on an elaborate three-decker oath and is overcome by cough. The tall

youths begin discussing a certain Nadezhda Petrovna. Iona looks round at them. When at last there is a lull

in the conversation for which he has been waiting, he turns around and says: “This week... er... my son

died.”

“We shall all die,” says the hunchback, with a sigh wiping his lips after his coughing fit. “Come, drive

on, drive on. Gentlemen, I simply cannot stand this pace! When will he get us there?”

“Well, you give him a little encouragement. Biff him in the neck!”

“Do you hear, you old pest? I’ll give it to you in the neck. If one stands on ceremony with fellows like

you, one may as well walk. Do you hear, you old serpent? Or don’t you give a damn what we say?”

And Iona hears rather than feels the thud of a blow on his neck.

“Hee, hee,” he laughs. “The gentlemen are feeling good. God give you health!”

“Cabby, are you married?” asks one of the tall ones.

“Me? Hee, hee! The gentlemen are feeling good. The only wife for me now is the damp earth.... hee,

haw, haw! The grave, that is!... here my son is dead and me alive.... It is a queer thing, death comes in at

the wrong door it don’t come for me, it comes for my son...”

And Iona turns round to tell them how his son died, but at that point the hunchback gives a sigh of

relief and announces that, thank God, they have arrived at last. Having received his twenty kopecks, for a

long while Iona stares after the revelers, who disappear into a dark entrance. Again he is alone and once

more silence envelops him. The grief which has been allayed for a brief space comes back again and

wrenches his heart more cruelly than ever. There is a look of anxiety and torment in Iona’s eyes as they

wander restlessly over the crowds moving to and fro on both sides of the street. [Isn’t there someone among

those thousands who will listen to him? But the crowds hurry past, heedless of him and his grief. His grief

is immense, boundless. If his heart were to burst and his grief to pour out, it seems that it would flood the

whole world, and yet no one sees it. It has found a place for itself in such an insignificant shell that no one

can see it in broad daylight.]

Iona notices a doorkeeper with a bag and makes up his mind to speak to him.

“What time will it be, friend?” he asks.

“Past nine. What have you stopped here for? On your way!” Iona drives a few steps away, hunches up

and surrenders himself to his grief. He feels it is useless to turn to people. But before five minutes are over,

he draws himself up, shakes his head as though stabbed by a sharp pain and tugs at the reins...He can bear

it no longer.

“Back to the yard!” he thinks. “To the yard!”

And his nag, as though she knew his thoughts, starts out at a trot. An hour and a half later, Iona is

sitting beside a large dirty stove. On the stove, on the floor, on benches are men snoring. The air is stuffy

and foul. Iona looks at the sleeping figures, scratches himself, and regrets that he has come home so early.

“I haven’t earned enough to pay for the oats,” he reflects. “That’s what’s wrong with me. A man that

knows his job... who has enough to eat and has enough for his horse don’t need to fret.”

In one of the corners a young driver gets up, walks sleepily and reaches for the water bucket.

“Thirsty?” Iona asks him.

“Guess so.”

“H̓m, may it do you good, but my son is dead, brother... did you hear? This week in the hospital...

What a business!”

Iona looks to see the effect of his words, but he notices none. The young man has drawn his cover over

his head and is already asleep. The old man sighs and scratches himself. Just as the young man was thirsty

for water so he thirsts for talk. It will soon be a week since his son died and he hasn’t talked to anybody

about him properly. He ought to be able to talk about it, taking his time, sensibly. He ought to tell how his

son was taken ill, how he suffered, what he said before he died, how he died... He ought to describe the

funeral, and how he went to the hospital to fetch his son’s clothes. His daughter Anisya is still in the country.

And he would like to talk about her, too. Yes, he has plenty to talk about now. And his listener should gasp

and moan and keen...It would be even better to talk to women. Though they are foolish, two words will

make them blubber.

“I must go and have a look at the horse,” Iona thinks. “There will be time enough for sleep. You will

have enough sleep, no fear...”

He gets dressed and goes into the stable where his horse is standing. He thinks about oats, hay, the

weather. When he is alone, he dares not think of his son. It is possible to talk about him with someone, but

to think of him when one is alone, to evoke his image, is unbearably painful.

“You chewing?” Iona asks his mare seeing her shining eyes. “There, chew away, chew away. If we

haven’t earned enough for oats, we’ll eat hay.... Yes.... I’ve grown too old to drive. My son had ought to be

driving, not me.... He was a real cabby... He had ought to have lived.”

Iona is silent for a space and then goes on: “That’s how it is, old girl.... Kuzma Ionych is gone....

Departed this life... He went and died to no purpose. Now let’s say you had a little colt, and you were that

little colt’s own mother. And suddenly let’s say, that same little colt departed this life. You’d be sorry

wouldn’t you?”

The nag chews, listens, and breathes on her master’s hands. Iona is carried away and tells her

everything.

“Heartache.” (1994). Antov Chekhov. The Chekhov Omnibus: Selected Stories. London:

J.M.Dent.

THEME IS ‘MEANING OF WORK AS A WHOLE’

Theme is the central element=the ‘key’ to literary interpretation

“Formula of Literature”

In fiction, a writer creates people [CHARACTERS], places them in a time and place

[SETTING], has events happen to and between them [PLOT], lets them talk to and about each

other [DIALOGUE], creates someone to tell their story [NARRATOR] from a position [POINT

OF VIEW], in language [DICTION] using literary devices [FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE such as

SYMBOLISM & IMAGERY, ETC.] in such a way that the reader learns something about the

human experience, which is the meaning of work as a whole [THEME].

THEME IS NOT A ONE WORD OR PHRASE IDEA

✓ Good & evil, honour, revenge are NOT THEMES ✓ They are the basis of which we make themes…

WHAT THEME (MEANING OF WORK AS A WHOLE) IS…..

➢ …a result from how the plot and literary devices are constructed ➢ …NOT STATED INSIDE THE TEXT ITSELF; it is like an ‘electron,’ circling around

the text, and holding it together

➢ …a universal truth or insight into human experience ➢ ….precise enough to emerge from the text, but widespread enough to relate to ALL

HUMANITY

➢ ..the universal truth relates to the characters in the text, to us, and to EVERYONE in the world.. …past, present and future….

THEME IS NOT PLOT!

TEXT PLOT Summary THEMATIC Analysis!

Robin

Hood

Robin Hood stole goods and

money from the rich residents of

his town to give to the town’s

poorer residents.

The tyrannical monarchy and unjust kingdom’s

setting in Robin Hood portray the negative

social effects when the wealthiest members of

a community abuse their power for self-gain.

Snow White

Snow White falls into a deep,

death-like slumber when she

takes a bite of a poisoned apple.

The symbol of the poisoned apple and

resulting slumber in Snow White suggests that

being too trusting can lead to dire

consequences.

Cinderella

Cinderella tells the story of a

young girl whose evil stepmother

tries to keep her from her true

love.

Cinderella contrasts lazy female characters

with a hard–working female protagonist to

show that hard work leads to love and

happiness.

HOW TO IDENTIFY THEME:

During/after your reading of the text, consider [ANNOTATE] if the text:

➢ …is optimistic or pessimistic ➢ …presents people as good or evil ➢ …connects any virtues or sins (loyalty, good judgment, morality, integrity, humility,

sloth, wrath, etc.)

➢ …presents archetypical experiences, (maturation, growing old, falling in love, etc.)

TO FIND THEME, answer these two questions, in order:

1) What is the story about (topic)?

• The answers to # 1 will be centered on abstract noun

• THE BIG (UNIVERSAL) ideas of Life o i.e., love, loss, regret, time, honour, justice, revenge, betrayal, family, etc.

2) what does the TEXT say to YOU about #!1= [Your theme]?

• The answers to #2 must be a complete thought/sentence, and each person may have a different sentence.

• THE THEME STATEMENT SHOULD BE STRUCTURED IN COMPLEX IN CONSTRUCTION (use subordination in construction!!!!)

“HEARTACHE”: THEME STATEMENT EXEMPLARS

➢ Humans reclaim a sense of redemption in light of the overwhelming terror and senselessness of death; THEREFORE, in the face of isolation/annihilation, we must

refuse to submit to the harshness of human behavior.

➢ People are social animals; we find comfort in community/society, and through the sharing of suffering, the individual no longer has to bear the full burden alone; thus, it is

every person’s duty to listen and show empathy to each other to lessen the burden of

heartache and loss.

Directional Statement items?? (YOUR CHOICE of literary and figurative devices)

It achieves this through….

1.