Remembering the classics: A.P. Chekhov, "The Death of an Official", summary

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

"Squeezing a slave drop by drop" - this, according to Chekhov, is the most difficult and most necessary task for a person. People should be internally free, spiritually liberated, open-minded. An ardent humanist, the writer passionately protested against the state of "case", fear of life and the possibility of being oneself. He bitterly ridiculed those who obediently bent their backs and heads before the ranks, groveled before the authorities, self-abased in every possible way, and trampled on their personality. A good example of this is the story of the writer "The Death of an Official", published in the humorous magazine "Colorful Stories".

Retelling and analysis

This work succinctly and concisely describes many things - those that Chekhov hated. “Death of an official”, the summary of which we are now considering, in a nutshell is as follows. At the theater during a performance, executor Chervyakov (one of the lowest official ranks in Russia19th century) accidentally sneezed. The most ordinary event, with whom, as they say, does not happen! As a well-mannered man, he apologized to the representative gentleman, whose bald head he had accidentally sprayed. Of course, embarrassment, but once the apologies are made, and the "injured" side is accepted - that's it, the incident is over. However, it was not in vain that Chekhov called his story “The Death of an Official”. His summary does not end on this scene. After all, the “splashed” Brizzhalov is none other than a general! The unfortunate Chervyakov is horrified, he is scared to the point of an animal. Not realizing that he was forgiven a long time ago, the executor endlessly annoys "his victim." He literally terrorizes the general with humiliated requests to forgive him and endless explanations. And if at first we, the readers, roll with laughter, saying to ourselves or aloud the hero’s ridiculous remarks and imagining his intermittent voice trembling with horror, then Chekhov crosses out all the fun with a single phrase. The “death of an official”, a summary of which we are considering, ends like this: an official, expelled for annoying by a general, came home, lay down and died.

Conflict in the story

Why did this happen? Why did the officer die? In his early humorous works, the writer often uses "talking" surnames. Therefore, in order to evoke appropriate associations among readers, he calls his hero Chervyakov. Chekhov explains the death of an official (a brief summary allows us to catch this thought) by his humiliation, lack of rights, feeling helpless,defenseless worm. He is a small person whom no one notices, with whom no one considers, who is of no interest to anyone. And the hero does not argue with this state of affairs, he resigned himself, does not grumble, and even considers it right! That is the reason for his endless terror! He, an insignificant worm of this world, dared to sneeze (in the literal sense of the word) on the authorities! At this point, the analysis of the story "The Death of an Official" should be sharpened. Chekhov masterfully conveys the panic that gripped the unfortunate executor. He is pathetic, but he terrifies us. How can you be such a slave to conventions, the social system and hierarchy, to apologize countless times and die because you were supposedly not forgiven!

But Chervyakov is dead! And precisely because he did not believe in his own forgiveness. He could not cope with the fear of life, of violating conventions. This is really scary, says A. P. Chekhov. “Death of an official”, in fact, is a story about the death of a Man in a man, a complete moral degradation of a personality, about its spiritual degeneration. About how the psychology of a slave enslaved and destroyed a free soul.

Afterword

It is not for nothing that the story bears a generalized name: “Death of an official”, and not “Death of Chervyakov”. Behind the anecdotal single case, Chekhov sees the painful state of society and diagnoses it. “You live boringly, gentlemen!” - a phrase already from another work echoes the one we are analyzing. It sounds like a sentence even today. So, it's time for us to recover!