Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

 

Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog, Russia, on January 29, 1860. Pavel, his father, was a grocer with regular financial difficulties. His mother Yevgeniya, shared her passion for story-telling with Chekhov and his five siblings.

Chekhov mainly focused on tone and characters in his plays during this period, demonstrating that they may be more essential than the plot. Nothing seems to happen to his lonely, often destitute, and desperate characters, yet their inner conflict becomes extremely important. His stories are both distinctive and timeless, providing a picture of post-Russian society.

Chekhov is acknowledged as one of the most important literary writers of his era. His plays are still performed across the world, and his entire body of work inspired notable writers from other genres, including James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, and Henry Miller.

He was a creative writer who wrote a large number of high-quality works. He has explored the depths of nature in his writings. He has addressed daily situations that turn into comedy or tragedy, as well as the hidden meanings of these events. He has experience dealing with adversity in his life which is reflected in his works.

In his writings, he portrayed a realistic representation of life. His first plays were farces, but he quickly changed his mind. He composed plays that had a blend of humor and tragedy, which reflects reality. He realized that everyday life is significant, and the events that take place in it have particular importance. His emphasis, like that of several other current popular fiction authors, remained on character development and atmosphere rather than narrative.

In his short stories and plays, Chekhov has provided portraits of people hailing from different classes of society. He has shown the inner conflict of the characters to the world, and through this, the pre-revolution Russian society is portrayed. His precision was Iconic, and he describes a complex issue neatly in a few words.

Sometimes characters remain silent for a longer length of time; other times, characters interrupt each other’s discourse. He made sensitive and important changes to play and short stories.

Chekhov’s writings influenced current authors because they showed them how to employ mood, seeming trivialities, and character inactivity. His profession, as a physician, has a significant effect on his writing, with the most obvious representation being his objective tone.

In his early days, he was inspired by famous writers such as Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, but he eventually changed his mind. Instead of a huge stage and universal truths like them, he depicts common people’s daily life in his works. Chekhov was greatly praised by readers and movie fans for his exceptional work. He won various awards, including the Pushkin Prize from the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Chekhov was intrigued by writing about common people’s lives and interests in rural Russia. In his writings, he has used a variety of approaches. Words and their pace that create images in a reader’s imagination, the formation of round characters and their emotions, and so on are examples of this. He created a new literary genre that many of his contemporaries referred to as impressionism.

His writings are devoid of long language, and he recommended other writers to do the same. He was very neutral when it came to his characters and presented a detailed depiction of the events and the characters in his works. Chekhov’s work is known for its brevity. He avoided stereotypical characters in terms of creating them unique.

The Cherry Orchard (1904)

Chekhov’s work in The Cherry Orchard is distinguished by his deliberate use of a symbolic setting in the second act. The location for the second act is a deteriorating tomb on Liubov’s land; the setting is symbolic. The Old Russian class system, like the shrine, is in decline.

Chekhov uses a somewhat symbolic manner of having characters assume the meaning of a repeating sound heard from a distance at a serene phase when characters assemble to discuss. A loud sound happens in the distance as Lopakhin, the Old valet. Trofimoy, Lyubov, Andreyevna, and Gayev are sitting together in a peaceful and calm atmosphere. All of the characters try to analyze the distant sound.

The Seagull (1896)

Chekhov believes that theatre should be a reflection of real life. “What occurs onstage should be as intricate or as simple as it is in real life. People are seated at a table enjoying supper, yet their pleasure is being created or their lives are being torn apart at the same moment” He penned. Chekhov carefully documented pieces of dialogues and personality peculiarities in his efforts to build plays in this manner, much as Trigorin does here. It’s fair to presume that Chekhov modeled Nina’s flattery on his own encounter with teenage fangirls, as seen by this gem.