According to the memoirs of contemporaries, A.P. Chekhov called the story "Student" written in 1894 the most beloved of all his works. The writer created it at the age of 34. This article presents Chekhov's story "Student", an analysis of his ideological and artistic features. The work, even by the standards of Chekhov's prose, can be called short. His author once said that "brevity is the sister of talent." The volume of just over 3 pages is occupied by Chekhov's story "Student". An analysis of it, however, shows that the work leaves an impression of completeness and artistic perfection.
Events in the works of Chekhov
It is impossible to fully explain and understand the essence of beauty. We can only come closer to understanding. Such an impression from Chekhov's plays and stories is often. Nothing seems to be happening in them. But this is a visible impression. It should be, in fact, about the special nature of the event in the artistic world of this author. This event is most often invisible. It occurs in the soul, in the consciousness of the hero. Something suddenly appeared to a person in life, or something that was not noticed before became noticeable, or his point of view on something changed, or what seemed before something turned out to be completely different. Further events depend on this, the invisible. The attitude of the hero, his visible actions, relationships with surrounding people flow from him.
It is about such an event - Chekhov's story "Student". Analysis shows that in this work, too, the hero of the work changes from one state of mind to another, the opposite.
Story composition
Extremely clear and simple is the composition of the story divided into 3 parts. In the beginning - Ivan's initial worldview and mood. Then - a meeting in the "widow gardens" as an impetus for a change. And at the end of the work - a new attitude to the world and a new mood. In the concluding and initial parts of the story, one can notice the use of similar syntactic constructions: “I thought about that ...”, “it seemed to him that ...”. Such a roll call gives the construction of the story even more clarity.
Chekhov - "Pushkin in Prose"
Behind the apparent brevity and simplicity, the deepest perspectives and horizons unfold, which can be found by reading Chekhov's story Student. Analyzing the work of this author, Leo Tolstoy accidentally called Anton Pavlovich "Pushkin in Prose." As Alexander Sergeyevich was the first in Russian literature to develop the language of poetry, which became accessible to everything, including the subtlest spiritual movements and the laws of the universe, so Anton Pavlovich completed such searches in the language of Russian prose.
A review of Chekhov's Student may include the observation that in the stories of Anton Pavlovich the narrative is called fused. He merges with the landscape of household sketches. Both that, and another is imbued with mood of the perceiving hero. And he does not just perceive nature, reacts to everyday life surrounding him, but at the same time he can think about the connection of times, reflect on the laws of life, on the ways of mankind. An extremely capacious, rich picture of the world is the result. Moreover, it is presented in a small space - in the same way as in the lyric poems created by the best Russian poets.
The initial mood of the protagonist
The mood of Ivan the Great, the hero of the story, at first is a feeling of hostility, the disorder of the universe and the surrounding life. If you look closely, you will notice that already in the first paragraphs there are three elements, three principles. This is history, life and nature. They determine the worldview of the protagonist. In nature, this is a cold conquering spring, in everyday life - longing, ignorance, hunger, severe poverty; in Russian history - evil infinity, because "these horrors were, are and will be."
Organization of time in the story
The close attention paid by the author of the organization in the story of the time is not immediately apparent. This is a combination of its various dimensions in which an event occurs. In time, each of the three elements listed above lives. Evening in nature is replaced by night, winter should be replaced by spring, but winter takes precedence over it, and this is a sign of disharmony prevailing in nature. In everyday life, in everyday life also has its own time standards: before the approaching holiday - fasting, and in such a life the usual state of hunger only intensifies and prolongs. Time in history moves in a vicious circle. It seems to Ivan that nothing will change from the fact that another 1000 years will pass.
All these directions of time intersect in the minds of the protagonist, which was created by A.P. Chekhov ("Student"). A general gloomy mood, a feeling of despair, hopelessness, oppression arise at their intersection.
Ivan tells women a gospel story
But Ivan accidentally met two women working in the garden. Something - whether the desire to warm up from this communication, or the similarity of the environment, a bonfire on a dark spring night - makes the protagonist speak and tell the widows a story from the Gospel that came to his mind. She continues the story of Chekhov's "Student". A brief retelling of this story is as follows: it tells how the apostle Peter showed weakness on an equally cold spring night by the fire. He decided to renounce his teacher Jesus, whom he loved very much, and immediately regretted it. However, what Ivan tells the women is not a sermon, not a sermon. In his story, Peter appears as an ordinary person who has both the ability to repent and weakness. In this legend and in the way the young man retells it, the beauty and truth of beautiful words and human feelings, simple and eternal, are combined.
Women's reaction to the story
Then what happens can be called a small miracle. Illiterate, simple women react so naturally and vividly to Ivan’s story, as if (the main character makes the conclusion) everything that happened 19 centuries ago that terrible night has a direct relationship to their lives. In response to the story of Ivan, the old woman burst into tears, and her daughter, a hammered village woman, also expressed pity in her own way. This is its own beauty and its own truth: people understood each other, experienced similar feelings, responded equally to the beautiful. This means that not only poverty, darkness, hunger and cold “were, is and will be,” but also this sense of truth and beauty that unites people. Such an idea holds in the story of A.P. Chekhov. The student is clearly convinced of this.
Another time dimension
Then another dimension of time opens up and enters into the story to Ivan. It is different from historical, and from everyday, and from natural. These are eternal laws and eternal time that are relevant to all people. They directed human life back then, 19 (now already 20) centuries ago, and still constitute the main thing on earth and in human life. To feel this eternal time, to notice the continuous chain of communication that exists between the times means to find oneself over the disharmony of nature, history and everyday life, to feel that the laws of being are eternal.
The image of fire in the work
So, towards the end of the story, the horizon expands, as if a certain light penetrates the consciousness of the hero. The image of fire, light passes through the whole work, linking 3 of its parts. Fire is mentioned at the beginning of the story. It glows in the widowed gardens by the river. However, this distant fire (we still do not know about its source) cannot disperse the evening haze. He only emphasizes the gloom and desertness of the places where Ivan is walking. This fire does not calm, but only enhances the despair of the protagonist.
Already close we observe a fire in the second part, when the fire is described by Anton Chekhov ("Student"). He is on fire now, his protagonist is warming his hands. However, this bonfire vividly reminds Ivan of another, which is described in the eternal book. The gospel bonfire and the bonfire that he saw in the widow gardens appeared to the hero at the two ends of one chain connecting people at all times.
The fire at the beginning of the third part is mentioned for the last time by A.P. Chekhov. When the student looked around, the fire of the fire blinked calmly and lonely in the dark. Near him, people were no longer visible. Bonfire remained the same. But the vision of fire here was enriched with an additional, special meaning. He separated from his specific source. Now it’s like it’s not a material fire, but it illuminated the consciousness of Ivan, illuminating the protagonist of the work on the future path. This is a symbol, but by no means an artificial one, but, as in other works by Chekhov, naturally and naturally growing out of everyday life, from life itself.
Ivan's new mood
Joyfully, the story ends lightly. It seems that nothing has changed over the evening, either in history, in everyday life, or in nature. However, in the human soul the event happened. The young man, full of strength, was informed by the consciousness of a connecting age of beauty and truth that he could see the world differently, overcome despair and despondency. Now the student’s life seems full of high meaning, wonderful and delightful.
The thought of Chekhov
Does it just seem to him, or is she really like that? What did Chekhov (Student) want to show us? The theme of the work is a change in the sensations of one young man (the student is only 22 years old) or the enduring, eternal laws of being? A clear answer does not follow from the story. Chekhov said that giving advice is not the artist's job. His task is to pose questions. This should be taken into account when analyzing the work "Student" by Chekhov. It is important that the questions about what and how our attitude to life and worldview are made up are correctly posed. Not only disharmony and horror has a place in the world. You can find beauty and truth in it. And hopelessness and despair sometimes give way to hope and joy.