Recalling the classics: A. P. Chekhov, “Death of an Official”, summary

“Squeezing drop by drop of a slave” - this, according to Chekhov, is the most difficult and most necessary task for a person. People should be internally free, spiritually liberated, unashored. An ardent humanist, writer passionately protested against the state of "plurality", fear of life and the possibility of being yourself. He bitterly ridiculed those who dutifully bent their backs and heads before their ranks, subservient to the authorities, self-abased themselves in every possible way, trampled on themselves. A vivid example of this is the story of the writer "The Death of an Official", published in the comic magazine "Colorful Stories".

Retelling and analysis

In this work, many things are succinctly and succinctly described - those that Chekhov hated. The "death of an official", the summary of which we are now considering, in a nutshell is as follows. During the performance, the executor Chervyakov (one of the lowest official ranks in Russia of the 19th century) accidentally sneezed in the theater. The event is the most ordinary, with whom, as they say, does not happen! As a man brought up, he apologized to the representative gentleman, whose bald head accidentally sprayed. Of course, embarrassment, but since the apology was uttered, and the “injured” party accepted - that's it, the incident is over. However, it was not in vain that Chekhov called his story “The Death of an Official”. Its summary on this scene does not end. After all, the “splattered” Brizzhalov is none other than the general! Unhappy Worms in horror, he is scared to an animal state. Not realizing that he was long ago forgiven, the executor endlessly bothers “his victim”. He literally terrorizes the general with humiliating requests to forgive him and endless explanations. And if at first we, readers, ride with laughter, uttering to ourselves or aloud ridiculous remarks of the hero and imagining his intermittent, trembling voice from horror, then all the fun is crossed out by Chekhov with a single phrase. The “death of an official”, the summary of which we are considering, ends like this: an official, expelled for being annoying by a general, came home, lay down and died.

Conflict in the story

Why did it happen? What did the official die of? In his early humorous works, the writer often uses “speaking” surnames. Therefore, in order to arouse the readers' associations, the hero is called Chervyakov. Chekhov the death of an official (a brief summary allows you to catch this idea) explains his humiliation, lack of rights, a sense of helpless, defenseless worm. He is a little man whom no one notices, with whom no one counts, who is not interesting to anyone. And the hero does not argue with a similar state of affairs, he reconciled, does not grumble and even considers him right! That is the reason for his endless horror! He, the insignificant worm of this world, dared to sneeze (in the literal sense of the word) to the authorities! At this point, and should focus on the analysis of the story "Death of an official." Chekhov masterfully conveys the panic that gripped the unfortunate executor. He is pathetic, but terrifies us. Is it possible to be so much a slave to conventions, a social system and hierarchy that you can apologize countless times and die because you were allegedly not forgiven!

But Chervyakov died! And precisely because he did not believe in his own forgiveness. I could not cope with the fear of life, a violation of conventions. This is really scary, says A.P. Chekhov. “The death of an official”, in essence, is a story about the death of a person in a person, the complete moral degradation of a person, and its spiritual degeneration. About how the psychology of a slave enslaved and ruined a free soul.

Afterword

The story is not in vain has the generalized name: “Death of an official”, and not “Death of Chervyakov”. Behind an anecdotal isolated case, Chekhov sees a sick state of society and makes him a diagnosis. “Boring you live, gentlemen!” - the phrase from another work echoes the one we are analyzing. It sounds a verdict today. So, it’s time for us to recover!