3rd Assignment (1/2 Week): The Novelist as Social Critic

This next excerpt is from Russian writer, Anton Chekhov (1860-1904). Continuing with our current theme--the novelist as social critic--this week introduces a Russian author coming onto the literary scene just after Dickens, yet having many of the same concerns for his own country: a condemnation of social inequities, a desire to see educational revision, an attack at longstanding gender roles, and scrutiny of living conditions created by the Industrial Revolution across Europe--all factors rapidly revising an old order of doing things.

By Chekhov's time, Czar Alexander II had freed the serfs--peasants bound to the land since medieval times (that way of life seen in Canterbury Tales). As Russia moved from an agricultural to an industrial economy, opportunities arose for the desperately poor, while those of the gentry class, who could not adapt to the changing economy, became victims of the vast social upheaval soon to upset all social classes and standing.

Anton Chekhov was the grandson of a serf who had purchased his freedom. After the failure of his father's grocery business, Chekhov's family moved to Moscow where Checkov enrolled in medical school. He began writing as a means to earn extra funds to support his family during his medical training. He continued to write after beginning his medical practice in the village of Melikhovo, south of Moscow. He was very active in community affairs of his small village all his life. His humanity continues as his legacy to us through his stories and plays.

All though Chekhov's life he wrote sketches and stories that documented the human condition, ascribing to his characters the strong revelations that sometimes come with sudden moments of social upheaval. Chekhov's stories and plays sometimes end with a high-born family on a platform of a train station, bewildered, surrounded by bags and trunks, outcasts from their social strata, turned out of their castles and villas. Two stories well-worth reading for further enjoyment are "Lady With a Dog" and The Cherry Orchard.

In this week's story, Mashenka Pavletski is working as governess for a wealthy family. She returns home one day to find the mistress of the house going through her belongings. Mashenka is horrified to learn that she--along with all other members of the staff--is suspected of having stolen a brooch. In his title, Chekhov hints his bias, along with his observations of the wide disparity of class systems, soon to have repercussions throughout his country.