Reading Reflection of Chekhov's "Ivanov"

In Act One of IVANOV by Anton Chekhov, Nikolay Alexeyevich Ivanov says

"Well, five years have passed, and she [his wife] still loves me, but I...Here you are, telling me she's soon going to die, and I don't feel any love or pity but just a sort of indifference and lassitude..."

While this language may suggest that Ivanov is melodramatic he is nothing but deeply depressed and disturbed.

To a modern reader, the first two acts and Ivanov's honest declarations may appear false and insincere. But closer and further reading suggests the opposite. Ivanov does not love his sick wife because he does not love anything anymore. In Act Three, he says

"I knew what inspiration was then, I knew charms and poetry of those quiet nights when you sit at your desk working from sunset till dawn, or just sit and muse, and dream."

Even though he's only thirty five, he feels old and the soliloquy suggests a deep depression and a longing for his long lost youth. He struggles with the idea of watching his wife die but cannot bring himself to love or care for her. He feels nothing and it is this nothing that upsets him most. Unlike melodramatics, Ivanov is aware of his true feelings and is not playing them up. He refers to himself as Hamlet in at least three instances throughout the play but it is in Act Four that his words ring the most true.

Suicide is sometimes viewed by people with depression as the only way out of their particular situation. The language at the end of Act Four suggests that Ivanov sees no other alternatives:

"To realize that your life's energy has gone for ever, that you've got rusty and stuck up to your neck in disgusting bog of melancholy...I still have some pride and conscious left."

His suicide in the final line of the play further reiterates the idea that he is not merely pretending to be a victim but, in reality, is one.


**I gave myself a week to read and do the reflection but finished it in two days. With all my other work (novel and PhD), I definitely can't keep this pace up. So the literature assignments will still be due on Tuesdays.

Assignment 2 is due February 2nd, 2010: The Seagull

Educational Use of the Blog

After another insomnia filled night, I finally came up with a way to update this blog on a more regular basis. I love to read but like many people I often do not read critically. In fact, I have not read critically since I took two literature courses during my freshman year in college. I also feel that, though some might consider me well read, I do not. I have big gaps in my literature education and I am making a resolution to fill them.

I will begin my education with The Russians. My parents got my book of plays by Anton Chekhov for Christmas. There are 6 of them and I will read one per week. I will then write a reflection (500 words) and post it on this blog. The reflection will be an interpretation of the reading based on the guidelines presented by an MIT Open Courseware "Introduction to Fiction" class.

GUIDELINES (courtesy of E. Fox)

Close reading is the analysis of passages from in terms of diction, figurative language (metaphors, similes, names, etc.), tone, characterization, strategies of narration, plot, topics, “place” of the passage in the text as a whole, and theme. Like any kind of analysis, closer reading examines the ways that the parts of a text (in this case, parts of a passage) work separately and together to contribute to the text as a whole. Note that analysis differs from summary in answering the “why?” and “so what?” question, while summary answers questions about “who?” “what?” “when?” and “where?” In examining passages, aim to explain the significance of a passage, not just the meaning. For example, “Bingley says that he did not know that Elizabeth was a ‘studier of character’(38),” remains plot summary: it tells what happened, stating who said what. In contrast,the following sentence and paragraph analyze the statement by explaining its significance in the novel as a whole:

When Bingley calls Elizabeth a “studier of character” (58), he names one of the major activities and concerns in the novel: evaluating people. While the book opens with an evaluation of Mr. Bingley in terms of his marital status, sex, and money, Elizabeth focuses on deeper qualities. When Bingley says that it “must be an amusing study,” his language emphasizes that Elizabeth needs to entertain herself in a small community with somewhat limited diversions. The word, “study,” however, underscores the importance that both Elizabeth and the narrator give to this activity. In fact, the novel’s title includes two character traits that play important roles in the story, so Bingley’s quick response holds much more significance than first appears.

The topic of “intricate characters” provides an opening for not only Bingley and Elizabeth but also Darcy and Mrs. Bennet to reveal more about their characters. . . .

First Assignment is due by the end of next Tuesday (02/02).
Play: Ivanov

I've also been trying to organize a comprehensive Russian literature course for myself, based on other course outlines that I found on the web. Here's a list of books I will study.

Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
Fyodor Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment
Ivan Turgenev: Fathers and Sons
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita