The Sociology of Chekhov's Writing - Research Paper Example

? THE SOCIOLOGY OF CHEKHOV'S WRITING Thesis: a short study of the emotional and day to day activities of the different social es in Chekhov's short stories in 19th century Russia, using the Lady and the Dog and how Chekhov used his innovative writing style to express social problems without ever mentioning their existence. There were massive societal changes in the 19th century which allowed Chekhov to divide his time between medicine and literature. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss his use of literary device to explain his expression of socio discontent of the classes. One short story will be used as an example to illustrate the dual existence between the inter and out worlds of different aspects of the Russian society and its ramifications. To conclude, it will be shown that Chekhov had a double role himself. He wrote about the ludicrousy of the upper classes in Tsarist Russian while establishing his own genre of short story writing. In 19th century Russia, Chekhov wrote about Russian society without ever talking about societal issues. It has never been part of Russian culture to complain about the trials and tribulations of society or the government. To judge the Tsar would have meant imprisonment. Folk literature, fairy tales, allegorical tale became part of the culture out of necessity. The need to express dissatisfaction cannot be suppressed. Historically this trend has gone through to the 21rst century. The Industrial Revolution was late in coming to Russia. It had started in Europe in the 18th century. (Nurijand, 2007) With the growth of the industrial revolution in the 19th century, there was a displacement of populations from the rural areas into the cities. (Nurijand, 2007) Populations started social conflicted as social differences became more pronounced. The government was a dictatorial monarchy. Self expression was only allowed under Tsarist terms. Chekhov developed a technique of writing which would be the equivalent of writing a symphony without writing a symphonic poem. He had music without meaning. He wrote where the reader would have to interpret the social and cultural changes which were needed. He developed a new genre of short story. Feelings, thoughts, timbre, and movement are expressed. He was advanced before his time but his existentialism has been used afterwards by such writers as James Joyce, Albert Camus, etc.. In the 19th century, after reading a short story, a reader had questions about himself and society. Many of the societal questions which should have been put on the front page of a newspaper are discretely brought up in his stories for the reader to interpret in the way he sees. In Lady and a Dog, there are many social issues which are addressed. How did the upper class live; what did they do with their time; why were the ladies so suppressed; what was the difference in life in St Petersburg and Moscow? The questions are never ending. Literature has been used in the last two hundred years as a means to express the problems of societies. When society is suppressed, literature is expressed allegorically or through the use of symbolism. It was impossible to explicitly talk about the social problems, but it was possible to write about the socio-psychological condition of man. 19th century literature in France indicated the social unrest of the classes in Paris. Victor Hugo wrote Les Miserables and spoke about such issues as the death penalty. In England, the 19th century showed the social issues of the poor in Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities; and the decadency of the rich with Pride and Prejudice of Jane Austen. In 19th century Russia, Chekhov was confronted about the strict social structure. People could not change easily. They were controlled and judged.. The class structure comprised of 5 distinct and separate groups which was strict and demanding. It wasn't abolished until the Bolshevik Revolution in 1905. "The upper class were the nobility, the landowners (serfdoms) and the capitalists. The middle class were the merchants, tradesmen, civil servants and peasants who were financial stable or landless. The working class were a product of the Industrial Revolution which only came to Russia in the 19th Century". (Nurijand, 2007) This is being mentioned as it served as a base of characters for his writings. He wrote about all walks of life: from the desperate prostitute to the upper class. In addition to the social classes, Chekhov based much of his writings on the difference geographical settings of 19th century Russia as they are as colorful and different to supply any writer with enough diversity and scenic backdrop to show the cultural diversity of the social classes. (Gottlieb, 2000) The visual differences of the two cities of St Petersburg and Moscow or the icy snow of Siberia or the peasants of the rocky Caucasus or the Crimea sea. Russia was a vast empire. Chekhov used his visual art as though it was sound in his use of sea sides, country lanes, the sounds of the birds in forests or the trains at a station. (Gottlieb 2000) Many of his descriptions can be compared to the Romanticism art of the French or English. Seeing a Turner sea side painting or a Constable landscape painting describes Chekhov. (Moss, 2010) In 1899, the year that Chekhov published his last four short stories, he said he had become a Marxist. (Moss, 2010) It has not been confirmed if he was joking with his publisher or had he indeed. Marx believed that the capitalists explained themselves by having " resisted so desanctifying social relationships. Naked self-interest has been clothed in notions of merit, responsibility, morality, and common interest. " (Garnett, 2008)Those holding power often themselves have felt a need, as Max Weber argued in explaining a function of religion, for the "psychological reassurance of legitimacy," to feel that their own authority is held by right" (Moss, 2010) There was a need to create a social self but it was only an illusion. Proving merit, responsibility, morality and common as a reassurance of legitimacy are central themes to Chekhov's works. The use of illusion was a technique he used to keep his audiences interested and questioning their own doubts in their current place in society. Chekhov was born in 1860 and died in 1904. Chekhov's earlier years contributed heavily to his writing. His father was a son of a serf who owned an unsuccessful business. He was abusive and called his wife an idiot. He eventually moved his family to Moscow to avoid debtors prison. Chekhov stayed in Taganrog to finish his studies. He survived by tutoring, and sending small articles to a newspaper among other jobs.(Moss 2010) He was promiscuous at this young age. In 1879, Chekhov completed his schooling and joined his family in Moscow, to begin his medical studies at Moscow University. (Garnett, 2008) He lived during the life of Tchaikovsky, Malher and Degas. He was cultured and showed this in the diversity of his writing. Much change was happening in the cultural world in Europe. He had trained and practiced medicine his whole writing career. "Medicine is my lawful wife and literature is my mistress".(Garnett 2008) Lady and the Dog represent his group of 4 last short stories published in 1898. He had already mastered the innovative technique of stream of consciousness. For the sake of the paper , morality will be discussed in terms of Chekhov talking about the problems of social structures in 19th century Russia. Never once, in Lady and the Dog does Chekhov address the social issues affecting Russia in 1899. In his literature, his social and professional world and geographical settings are diverse, but they take a second place to the inner most thoughts and how these thoughts determine the destiny of his characters. In looking at other writers of the century, there were no Russian literature writers who could openly write about the real social issues. "Chekhov's judgments are never categorical or blunt, just as the symbolic 'images' of Russia are never unequivocal, and reflect the complexities and controversies, the combination of the light and darkness, good and evil, that typify the Russian way of life and the Russian sensibilities at that time". (Gottlieb, 2000) The social issues are illustrated through the subtleties of his writing of Lady and the Dog. Chekhov used all walks of life as characters in his writing. People were blocked in jobs and social positions they didn't want and relied on other activities for entertainment. Many of his principle characters lived double lives. (Borny, 2006) This was a social problem as jobs were handed down from generation to generation; marriages were fixed; studies were not chosen. It was not easy to change classes. Chekhov found the means to write about each class. Literature has often been found as a means to write about the most difficult aspects of daily life without the social consequences of journalism. It was not used as blatant and to the point but it expressed the dissatisfaction of the social structure. Chekhov was an artist in portraying the socio-psychological ramifications of each social level. The principle characters in Lady and the Dog are Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna. He used the symbolism of the double lives with his principle characters. It continues in the double cities, the differences in age; the man and wife; working and not working; the intelligent young woman and his stupid boring wife. Chekhov portrays the middle class. He give his reader the idea that he might also be talking about the upper class by the way Anna walks, dresses and has a small dog. She is elegant and not like the other women of Yalta but he puts the reader as the one who decides. Anna Sergeyevna doesn't even know what her husband does, which makes the reader think he could be of the upper class. Gurov works at the bank, he is of the middle class. The author is showing the conflict of the classes mixing but he is doing it indirectly as we do not know what the husband does. The reader can only assume. It would have caused social arrest had he blatantly said the husband was from the upper class. There are two conflicts possible. Social classes did not mix. Chekhov never said if they actually had an affair. Chekhov was highly interested in the plight of women. He felt it duly unfair that they were so oppressed. Anna Sergeyevna and his wife represent women of the 19th century who "were oppressed and lacked freedom to fully use their talents."(Moss, 2010) They were isolated. Marriage was often the only answer in leaving home. They were under educated (Isolation, women love, sex and marriage) He used the theme of un-happy women in many of his writings. He showed that they had feelings and wanted to find better social standings and to find happiness. His father's treatment of his mother resembles his own treatment of his wife. "He considered her boring and uneducated..". (Garnet, 2008) Chekhov had a sexual appetite and he considered in normal that people of middle classes treat their boredom by having affairs. Gurov never anticipated falling in love with Anna. As he said he had had many affairs before? just for the sake of passing time. He was surprise at having fallen in love with a girl who was half his age. He had only known the love of his mother but at an early age, he was thrown into the outer world of society and his inner world of emotions. In his stories, males and females from all classes are often unfaithful to their spouses.. Better to be unfaithful and love someone else than to be unhappy. but he was against cheating on his own spouse in life.(Moss, 2006) He was expounding on human character. He was talking about the futility of the social system. It was already necessary in the 19th century to live a double existences. In one scene in the story, there is one particular example where Gurov shows that his life in Moscow is completely without meaning. As in any culture, talking about the weather is banal conversation. He has this conversation with his daughter when his heart is with Anna. When his daughter ask why it doesn't thunder in the winter, the answer is symbolic. The thunder represents the sound of his heart which is in another time period or place. As an image of society, the thunder represents the tumultuous atmosphere of the times. The times are harsh, the Marxist revolution can start at anytime. Gurov was living two lives. "One of them was open to view by — and known to — the people concerned. The other life proceeded in secret. Through some strange and possibly arbitrary chain of coincidences everything vital, interesting and crucial to him, everything which called his sincerity and integrity into play, everything which made up the core of his life … all that took place in complete secrecy, whereas everything false about him, the facade behind which he hid to conceal the truth — his work at the bank, say, his arguments at the club, that ‘inferior species’ stuff, attending anniversary celebrations with his wife — all that was in the open. He judged others by himself, believing the evidence of his eyes, and attributing to everyone a real, fascinating life lived under the cloak of secrecy as in the darkness of the night." (Borny, 2006) The ridiculous life of the upper class has been shown. The desperate life of a man who cannot love a woman he desires. An oppressed woman who wanted something more in her life than she has. These characteristics show the formality of Russian culture. A Lady with a dog shows the double life of society as it is unbalanced and also the life a person must life a perceived by others and how he perceives others. Chekhov's technique is like a diamond which is multi faceted. The concept of duality has only been introduced and explained with superficial examples. It is the subject of a dissertation. Word Count: 2339 References Used Borny, G.(2006). Interpreting Form. Interpreting Chekhov. Australia: ANU E Press. Retrieved April 30 2011, http://epress.anu.edu.au/chekhov/pdf/chekhov-whole.pdf Garnett, C., trans. (2008). Letters of Anton Chekhov to his family and Friends with Biographical Sketch USA: Pen State University. Retrieved May 1 2011, http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/checkov/Chekhov_Letters.pdf Gottlieb, V. & Alain, P. (2000). The Cambridge Companion To Chekhov, UK: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved April 29 2011, http://www.ebooksdownloadfree.com/Languages-and-Culture/The-Cambridge- Companion-to-Chekhov-BI14568.html Moss, W. (2010). The Wisdom of Anton Chekhov. Retrieved April 28 2011 http://www.wisdompage.com/ChekhovEssay.pdf Nurijand, J. (2007). Social Classes Russia 19th Century. Retrieved May 02 2011, http://socyberty.com/history/19th-century-russia/#ixzz1LZ8NFQXw Steinberg M.D., (1992). Moral Communities: The Culture of Class Relations in the Russian Printing Industry 1867-1907,  Berkeley:  University of California Press, Retrieved May 02 2011, http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft4r29p0nh/ Read More