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Analysis of chekhov
Anton Chekhov and his characters
Anton Chekhov and his characters
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Some people want to lose all of their human characteristics. Whether it is replacing a body part with a robotic one to become a cyborg, or enhancing their senses with external supplements, the possibilities are endless as mankind strives to phase out of its natural form. But maybe there’s another way to lose humanity. In “The Bet”, Anton Chekhov decides to go a different route to change somebody human into a cold, calculating being. By making a bet and putting a lawyer into fifteen years of solitary confinement, the banker, without a clue, strips the lawyer of his humanity. As the lawyer is in prison, different changes happen to him and several themes arise. In “The Bet”, Anton Chekhov discusses the theme of material existence and ignorance through the passage of …show more content…
Ignorance is the term used to describe someone who doesn’t know about something. Ignorance may sound familiar as it is used in the proverb, “Ignorance is Bliss”. According to the dictionary, “Not knowing something is often more comfortable than knowing it” (Dictionary 1). The banker lacks the knowledge of the prisoner, and he lacks the prisoner’s time and ability to think over materialism, but the banker has what the prisoner doesn’t, which is emotion. The two characters are both ignorant in their own ways. The prisoner lacks emotional depth while the banker lacks intelligence. Whoever is right is up to the reader and their own views on life. Through the prisoner’s passage of fifteen years in solitary confinement, the author had begun to reveal the themes that would become so important in the rest of the story. When the prisoner first comes into imprisonment, the books that he read are described as “principally of a light character; novels with a complicated love plot, sensational and fantastic stories”(Chekhov 2). As time goes on, the books that he read become different, changing shape as his personality changes. The banker compares his final book choices to “a man swimming in the sea among the
In describing the setting, the general locale is the prison in the coldest part of Russia- Siberia, geographically but socially depicting the social circumstances in the prison, but draws analogies to the general social, political and economic circumstances of Russia during the Stalinist era (form 1917 revolution up to 1955). The symbolic significance of the novel and the film (genres) reflects experiences, values and attitudes of the Russian society. The genres reflect the origins of the Russian social disorders and massive counts of political misgivings which watered down real communism in Russia. We are constantly reminded of the social and cultural heritage and originality of Russian ethnic groups through those different levels of meanings
Chekhov himself, a renowned actor, used the technique in blockbusters such as Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Spellbound’. The ‘psyco-physical’ approach innovated by Chekhov has been used by many actors such as the Marilyn Monroe, Clint Eastwood, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, and Jack Nicholson (Backstage.com). Actors such as Jack Nicholson, while accepting his Golden Globe Award in 1999 and Anthony Hopkins, during an interview have both admired Chekhov’s psychological Gesture. Currently, the Chekhov technique has started gaining popularity as many actors seem to be interested in approaching Chekhov’s psycho-physical
Slavery consisted of numerous inhumane horrors completed to make its victims feel desolated and helpless. Many inescapable of these horrors of slavery are conveyed in the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”. The entire prospect of the duration of the story is to plan an escape from the excruciating conditions awaiting Douglass as a slave. When his escape is finally executed, unpredictable emotions and thoughts overwhelm him. Within the conclusion of his narrative (shown in the given passage), Frederick Douglass uses figurative language, diction, and syntax to portray such states of mind he felt after escaping slavery: relief, loneliness, and paranoia.
The novel: A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (written by Alexander Solzhenitzyn), tells the story of a Russian soldier’s life in a Siberian labor camp around the time of World War II. The protagonist in the story, Ivan, better known as “Shukhov”, is wrongly accused of committing treason and is sentenced to full 10 years of imprisonment in the camp. Throughout the story, the author makes vivid references to help the reader identify with the setting, climate, and overall feeling of what Ivan must deal with on a day-to-day basis. This helps the reader to better understand the points and the reality of what it was like living in one of these camps.
This essay examines the social, philosophical, and psychological elements that had affected the Russian Society as well as the world of Dostoevsky’s novel “ Crime and Punishment ˮ. This essay demonstrates the wild impact and clashes left by these theories on the life, choices, and mentality of the novel and the characters embodied, the most important of which is the character of Raskolnikov. Highlighting an “in-depth exploration of the psychology of a criminal, the inner world of Raskolnikov, with its doubt, fear, anxiety and despair in escaping punishment and mental tortureˮ.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn carefully and tediously depicted what life is like in a prison. Ivans monotonous life prompts the reader initially to think that Ivans day is a living death of tedious details. Yet, in truth, Ivan i...
Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment explores the themes of guilt and the consequences of committing immoral actions. Of all the deep, thought-provoking concepts put forth in Crime and punishment, the idea that guilt can be an adequate punishment more valid than any punishment executed by society as a whole is the most far reaching and supported by the novel. Crime and Punishment follows Rodian Raskolnikov’s life from just a few days before he commits two brutal murders to when he confesses his crimes and is convicted and sentenced to several years in prison. Initially, Rodian had successfully gotten away with the murder of two people. Raskolnikov’s guilt-driven madness has given him an immunity and even investigators he confesses to think he couldn’t be guilty. As a result, his guilt continues to feed on his conscience to the point where he is constantly miserable. Raskolnikov’s true punishment is the futility of his attempt to escape the guilt of his actions without confessing and feeling adequately punished.
Through suffering and guilt comes a personal need to redeem one's self and once again achieve an inner peace of mind. This process of redemption is not easy, but is worth the prize of being reborn into a new being. When one fully commits him or her self to being saved, there is no stopping that final result. In Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky draws from personal experience to create a story based off of suffering, which ultimately exemplifies a message of redemption and rebirth through said suffering.
A Life Defined by a Single Moment in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Stephen Crane's Red Badge of Courage, and Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment
The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King is both a wonderful film and a brilliantly written short story. There are many themes represented in each form of The Shawshank Redemption. The one major theme that interests me in both the film and the story is freedom. Freedom serves a large purpose for both the story's writer and the filmmaker. Both use similar examples to signify freedom, not only in the jail, but also in a larger context about life. There are many events and examples in both the film and the short story that signifies the theme of freedom. The one main difference is when the film uses the director’s technique to portray a feel of freedom for the inmates. The overall three issues used in this essay are all linked to the feeling of the inmates feeling the sense of freedom with the prison walls.
In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Raskalnikov undergoes a period of extreme psychological upheaval. By comparing this death and rebirth of Raskalnikov's psyche to the story of the resurrection of Lazarus, Dostoevsky emphasizes not only the gravity of his crimes, but also the importance of acceptance of guilt.
In Notes from Underground, Dostoyevsky relates the viewpoints and doings of a very peculiar man. The man is peculiar because of his lack of self-respect, his sadistic and masochistic tendencies, and his horrible delight in inflicting emotional pain on himself and others. Almost instantly the reader is forced to hate this man. He has no redeeming values, all of his insights into human nature are ghastly, and once he begins the narrative of his life, the reader begins to actively hate and pity him.
There is no better observation of human behavior combining both comedy and tragedy than a person of winning (or almost winning) a lottery. Money gained by chance does not seem to mesh well with human nature. In Chekov’s The Lottery Ticket the situation with Ivan and his wife is no exception.
Murder. Money. Deception. The banker and Sasha are dubious, fueled by money. They would do anything for money, including murder and lying. Sasha and the banker are both dubious; however, Sasha has the greater impact on the narrative because Sasha altered the ending as well as shaping the central conflict.
In Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground, the underground man struggles between two opposing beliefs. The first acknowledges that his fictional existence has been predetermined, subject to his author’s conduct. The is the underground man’s insistence that the only possible world humans can live in undetermined world which extols and situates free will within a human. In order to try and solve this problem, the underground man turns to writing, to try and be honest with himself, probe into why he is this way, and to not reject any truth that comes forth, horrifying or not. Through this exercise, he comes to realize that his self awareness sheds light on how little control he has over his actions even though he continues to believe in free will. This understanding within the underground man, and acceptance from the reader, engenders with humility brings forth what I believe to be a humbling message to the now indurate reader, who, after reading Notes from Underground, returns to their own, undetermined world with a new sense of duty.