Reflection Of Anton Chekhov's Short Story 'The Bishop'

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Anton Chekhov’s short story “The Bishop” was written in 1902 and published in 1979 in “Anton Chekhov’s Short Stories” along with many of his other works, such as “The Betrothed” and “The Lady with the Dog”. While “The Bishop” is not a direct reflection of Chekhov’s life, the story does reflect elements of his life. His religious upbringing is most prevalent in this story, but being ill with Tuberculosis of the lungs during the time this story was written is shown as well through Bishop Pyotr’s sickness. Chekhov was born in Taganrog, Russia in 1860 to a woman named Yevgeniya and a man named Pavel. His father, who shares the name of the bishop, is described as being “severe” and sometimes went as far as to chastise Chekhov and his siblings (Letters …show more content…

Feeling ill and realizing that it is after eleven, he decides to go to his room and get ready for bed. He thinks of his mother and his childhood as he says his prayers before laying down with thoughts of his mother, deceased father, and his native village of Lyesopolye (237). He revisits memories of priests at his village; Father Demyan, who succeeded Father Semyon and was a hard drinker with the nickname of “Demian the Snake-Seer”, and also of memories including Matvey Nikolaich, a schoolmaster who also drank, but was “kind and intelligent” …show more content…

Although the bishop accepts and takes on the role of Bishop Pyotr, he desperately wants to regain the identity of Pavel. In “Studies in Short Fiction”, Peter Stowell reflects on the emotional damage the bishop has sustained by only being viewed as a bishop rather than a son by his mother: “his moments of most intense isolation occur when he senses his mother’s inability to respond naturally around him” (122). While it is not only his mother that makes him feel somewhat secluded, she is definitely the most powerful force of his isolated feelings. Stowell also makes a comparison between Mary, the mother of Christ, and the bishop’s mother, describing how Mary “was able to fuse the image of her son with that of a spiritual son of God and man” while the bishop’s mother cannot

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