Stories A.P. Chekhov, despite their brevity, show us characters so convexly and vividly that they seem quite animated, even to some extent familiar. The main problems of the story "Ionych" is the interaction of the individual and the environment, society.
And the question is acute. Who will change whom: the young Dmitry Startsev - the society in which he fell, or is it his? This is the problematic of the story “Ionych”.
From the history of literature
This question interested many of our writers. M. Yu. Lermontov, I. A. Goncharov, A. S. Griboedov, I. S. Turgenev one way or another closely studied this topic, which now confronts us as the problems of the story “Ionych”. Is a person able to change society, or his dying atmosphere will absorb all the best that is in a person, and he will put up with the inevitable degradation?
As a continuation, the voice of A.P. Chekhov sounds. The problems of the “Ionych” story are divided into several points, to which we will try to give an analysis.
First meeting with the Turkins
The novice doctor received the appointment of a Zemstvo doctor a few miles from the city of S. in Dalizh. He worked and did not think about entertainment, but everyone advised to reduce the acquaintance with the talented Turkins family. One winter, he was introduced to the head of the family, but Startsev postponed his visit. And in the spring, on ascension, on a holiday, having accepted the sick, Startsev walked, since he had no horses, went to the city, singing a romance. And then it occurred to him to visit this friendly hospitable family. In parallel with the analysis of the problems posed in the story, we will analyze the story of A.P. Chekhov “Ionych”. His owner met with jokes and introduced his wife and daughter. To the aromas of the upcoming dinner, the hostess began to read her novel about something that never happens in life, but everyone was calm and good at it.
Then the daughter played the tedious but complicated passage on the piano, and Dmitry Ionovich enjoyed listening to noisy, but cultural sounds. At dinner, the owner made a lot of jokes, and when Startsev came time to return, he went to his house in Dyalizh and sang another romance and did not feel tired. What is this episode talking about? Only that for the first time the "refined" Turkins family did not seem like a stagnant swamp to a young doctor. The first stage, which touches on the problems of the “Ionych” story, is safely passed by the hero: he still loves his job, but he is already able to feel comfortable in the house where vulgarity predominates.
In a year
Not too often did the son of the clerk visit the Turkins. He has already begun to change. He got a couple of horses, a stroller and a coachman, and unexpectedly fell in love with the Turkins' daughter, although he already wondered in his mind what dowry they would give her. So there is a degradation of the doctor, who has not yet been called easily - Ionich. The problematic of the story in this case is that the doctor has not yet lost human feelings, but he is already on the verge of losing them. Startsev can still go on a date at the cemetery. But he has already embarked on a path from which one cannot turn: loving and suffering from unrequited love, he wonders what all this will lead to. What will people say if they find out that a respectable person, what he has become, does stupid things like a schoolboy? In addition, externally Startsev began to turn into Ionych: he began to gain weight, but so far this still worries him. It balances between youth and maturity Ionych. The problems of the story are metamorphoses that occur with the doctor.
Marriage and rejection
Painfully, but briefly, only three days, Startsev worries, when the girl refused to become his wife. She left for Moscow, and all love was forgotten instantly. What are the problems of Chekhov's story? Ionych, like all residents of the city of S., is no longer capable of deep feelings. Forgotten and romances that he sang when he came here. Poetry leaves his life.
External changes
Four years later, Dr. Startsev acquired great practice both in Dalizh and in the city. He has changed outwardly. The doctor became fat, he had shortness of breath, he no longer walked.
Now Dimitry Ionovich - the owner of a triple with bells. His coachman also changed. He, like his master, became fat. The doctor loved to play cards. Such entertainments as a theater or concerts ceased to interest him.
Internal changes
Close Startsev did not communicate with anyone. Even the liberal townsfolk annoyed him with their stupidity and viciousness. With irritation, they listened to Startsev’s conversations that humanity was moving forward, and objected. And the doctor’s words that every person should work, were accepted as a personal reproach and began to get angry. Therefore, Dmitry Ionovich stopped talking, but only gloomily was silent, and if he sat down at the table, he ate silently, looking at the plate. So society gradually destroyed Startsev’s desire not only to speak, but also to think about progress.
New entertainment
In the evenings, the doctor liked to count the money received during the day about patients, examine them, smooth them, admire them. He opened a bank account in which he saved them.
Again at the Turkins
One morning a letter came to the hospital in which Dmitry Ionych Turkins invited him to the mistress's birthday. In the letter there was a note that the daughter also joined the invitation. Startsev thought and drove off. He found the landlady very old. The daughter, with whom he was in love, also changed. There was no previous freshness in it, but there was something to blame for the manners. He liked and did not like her, and when he remembered his love for her, he felt embarrassed. The Turkins had an evening as usual. The landlady read her new novel, and he annoyed Startsev with his mediocrity. The daughter played the piano noisily and for a long time, and then she invited Startsev to go out into the garden for a walk. They sat on the very bench where he had once tried to make a declaration of love, and he remembered all the details, and he felt sad, and a little light in his soul became dim. He sadly told how life is passing dimly. In the afternoon, in the evening, a club with gamblers and alcoholics in the evening.
And suddenly Startsev remembered the money, which he gladly counted in the evenings, and his soul changed everything, tenderness disappeared and the thought arose of how good it was that he remained a bachelor. They returned to the house, where everything began to annoy the doctor. The thought flashed about the mediocrity of this very best family in the city, and he did not come to the Turkins anymore.
Deeper changes of Dr. Startsev
After a few years, Startsev was no longer just getting fat. He became obese, began to breathe heavily and walk with his head back. Practice in the city is not just great - huge. He behaves rudely with the sick, and they all endure. He got an estate, in the city he bought two houses and looked after a third. When he went to inspect the house intended for sale, he behaved in it completely unceremoniously, or rather, in a boorish way.
He entered the house, knocked on the door with a stick and, without saying hello, easily entered the rooms where frightened women and children were huddling. Such was the once pure Dr. Startsev: gloomy and unhappy with everything. Its changes under the influence of the environment, internal weakness, the absence of an ennobling principle and the loss of intelligence are the problems of the story “Ionych”. Chekhov, using stingy but expressive means, shows how a person is sucked into a nearby society. Startsev is completely lonely.
He is always bored, he is not interested in anything. In the evenings, he plays cards and dines at the club. There is nothing more to say about him.
Chekhov's work “Ionych” is very bitter and honest. It, like an X-ray, enlightened the whole life of Dr. Startsev and made a diagnosis - terminally ill. And this disease is contagious. If you live in the shell and only money, if you do not open to the wide world, then it can hit everyone.