In January 1986, the story of A.P. Chekhov, "Tosca," was first published in Petersburg newspaper. By this time, the author was already known as a master of short humorous stories. However, the new work was fundamentally different from those ironic scenes with which the name of the writer was associated. Before starting a brief summary of Chekhov's "Tosca," I would like to draw attention to two plot plans that are inextricably linked with each other.
The first is a call for sympathy, empathy and compassion for the mental torment of a single person, and the second is a question that sooner or later arises in the soul of every person: longing for a soul mate, warmth, love, which, on the one hand, leads to numbness and emptiness, and on the other - pushes in search of truth.
Summary of Chekhov's story "Tosca"
The work begins with a description of a snowy street in the light of street lamps. Amid the white silence, the coachman Jonah Potapov sits on the gantry. Silence. Snow is spinning slowly, covering everything with a thick layer. But the main character does not notice anything. He is sitting, motionless and white. Stands without movement and a horse. He left before dinner, but since then no one has sat down with him. However, this does not bother him much. Twilight descends imperceptibly, and soundless colors take on different shades. Noise, loud exclamations. Jonah winces. Suddenly, a military man sits down in his sled and asks to go to Vyborgskaya. He removes Jonah from a mental stupor. However, either from surprise, or from a long wait without movement, the coachman cannot equalize the movement of the cart, and several times miraculously avoids a collision with passers-by. But he doesn’t care, doesn’t scare, and doesn’t bother ... The only desire is to talk with the rider. He starts a conversation and directly, decisively and somewhere, even unexpectedly frankly talks about the death of his son, who died a week ago from a fever. But the military man, expressing dry sympathy, did not support the conversation, and Jonah was forced to shut up. He took it and dropped it off. And again, bending over, he froze and plunged into his loneliness: “An hour passes, another ...”
This brief summary of Chekhov's “Tosca” does not end there, because after some time three pretty drunken young men come up to Jonah. They argue for a long time and loudly, assign a small fee to the coachman and, finally, sit down in the sled. Their behavior is defiant. But Jonah doesn’t care. He has only one desire - to talk with people about his grief, about how his son fell ill, how he suffered and what he said before his death, about what is happening in his village, about his daughter. A cheerful company is noisily discussing their affairs, not noticing him, and he is inadvertently trying to wedge themselves into their conversation and talk about his deceased son. But they do not care about him, and they rudely answer him that sooner or later we will be in the next world. And again the end of the road, and again the passengers hurriedly left him: "Jonah stares after them for a long time." What to do? He earned little money, and he decides to return home, to where they can listen to him. He lives with other cab drivers. But by his arrival everyone had already laid down. And again he remains alone. Can no one listen to him? The son died a week ago, and since then he has not been able to share his experiences with anyone, his sadness, his longing. He does not need sympathy or understanding. He longs to be heard. He needs to talk. He wants someone to witness his life in these unfortunate days, albeit the only one, albeit silent, but real. He goes to the stable to feed his horse, and tells her everything that has laid a "layer of snow" on his soul.
This short story is a short summary of Chekhov's Tosca.
However, I do not want to dwell only on the dry retelling of the work, who went where and what he said. It's not about the words or actions of the main characters. They are only a reflection of what is happening to the person inside, his emotional experiences, desires and hopes. The noiselessly falling snow, the frozen bent figure of Jonah, who is "white as a ghost", endless expectation and complete silence all around - all this speaks of the inexpressible longing that came after the death of his son, spread all over his body, slowly, confidently, without stones and barriers, and became a full-fledged mistress of the soul and body. If the breast of Jonah burst, as the author writes, then the melancholy seems to flood the whole world. She captured him completely, wrapped him up and froze like this white snow. It is difficult for him to resist her, he submits, not understanding this himself, and at the same time, hope, a desire for warmth, a search for truth, why it happened, why “death was seen by the door” and came not to him, but to his son, forcing him to seek communication. He starts a difficult conversation for him, suffers the indifference and indifference of people to his grief, continues to wait for a hectic evening with bright colors, even if he is now so far from this holiday of life. He needs to get rid of this endless melancholy, excruciating anxiety, inconsolable loneliness and find among the thousands of people scurrying along the streets at least one with whom he could talk “plainly, with an arrangement”. But no one wants to help him with this. Everyone remains indifferent and stingy with feelings. He is not offended. He continues his journey, otherwise "enormous longing, knowing no boundaries" will triumph, but this should not happen.
Chekhov, "Tosca", summary: conclusion
“Who will bring my sorrow? ...” - it is from this line that the story begins. Probably, a brief summary of Chekhov's “Tosca” should also have begun with this epigraph. However, the first words, the first thought - this is what we are invited to comprehend and feel throughout the action, and the final saying, the final image - this is confirmation, proof of what was said at the very beginning.
“Who shall bring my grief? ...” - the bitter cry of Joseph the Beautiful, calling
in any grief or despondency, seek help from the Lord who is the only one who knows about all our hardships. Every person, every animal, plant is a part of the Creator, however, the human soul, absorbed in continuous fuss, is not always ready to open up and share its warmth with others, is not always ready for unconditional love and deep compassion for the pain of another. Therefore, the search for Jonah is in vain. He does not find a listener among people, but finds him in a silent horse, in his "horse", which initially caught the slightest vibration in the soul of the owner. She stood motionless for hours under wet snow, “lost in thought” when Jonah surrendered to the power of sadness and loneliness, and trotted, sensing that the owner’s longing became unbearable and was torn out quickly. And now a quiet, dumb animal "chews, listens and breathes into the hands of its master ...", and between them there is real communication, a dumb exchange of
warmth and understanding. “Who will bring my sorrow? ...” Truly seek help, it will truly come to you, and it doesn’t matter how, when, and in what form.