Memory, Maturity and Loss in Chekhovs Stories The Bishop and The Bride - Book Report/Review Example

The Relationship between Memory, Maturity and Loss in Chekhov's Stories "The Bishop" and "The Bride" One of the greatest story tellers of all time, Anton Chekhov, began writing his stories in 1880, when he was a twenty year old medical student. In his writing career of nearly twenty five years, he wrote such masterpieces as "The Grasshopper" and "The Bishop". Chekhov is a master portrayer of the workings of the human heart. Writing with a simple style, he presents the behaviour and activity of the people of Russia during his time According to Donald Rayfield, "Chekhov was never financially secure" .According to Shelby Foote, "he kept his opinions and judgments to himself- especially, in his fiction , where, as he said, he aimed not at solutions to problems but rather at their correct presentation."(Foote. xv) Memory played an important part in Chekhov's stories, as well as in the writing of them. Once, when he was traveling in Europe, he was asked to write an international story set in the region. According to Foote, Chekhov replied that" he couldn't do it until he got back home. 'I can write only from memory' he explained."(Foote xv) "He seemed always to have to ponder things, turning them over and over in his mind, as if in search not of an answer but of a new phrasing of the question."(Foote xv) Written during the end of Chekhov's career, when he was seriously ill with tuberculosis, the two stories, "The Bishop" and "The Bride" both deal with loss. While "The Bishop" portrays the loss of simple joys of life, and of human intimacy, "The Bride" depicts the loss of convictions. In "The Bishop", the loss is made more poignant with memory, while, in "The Bride", the loss of Nadya's convictions lead her to take a bold decision which in turn, ensures her emancipation While Chekhov brings out the relationship between memory and loss in "The Bishop", in his last short story, "The Bride", he depicts the relationship between loss and maturity "The Bishop" is a story written during the time when Chekhov was very sick with tuberculosis. Portraying, as it does, the memories of the sick bishop, "The Bishop" is considered to be one of Chekhov's masterpieces. . According to V.S. Pritchett in "Chekhov, A Spirit Set Free", "'The Bishop' is one of his finest works and reads like a sustained anthem to his own death".(Pritchett).Set in a small town in Russia, in the nineteenth century, "The Bishop" is a story full of reminiscences of the central character, Pyotr, the Bishop of the monastery. The story opens with the vespers being sung at the convent on the eve of Palm Sunday. The Bishop who has been sick for three days, is distributing palm leaves to the congregation, and sees an old woman who resembles his mother take a palm leaf from him. He finds out later that it was indeed his own mother who had come to see him , after nine years He remembers his childhood in the village. And the next day he dines with his mother and his hyperactive niece. Although his sickness increases, he has no respite from his duties. He remembers the events and questions of his whole life, and on Easter, he dies. In "The Bishop" the author has depicted the relationship between loss and memory poignantly. When Pyotr first sees his mother in the convent, he remembers his family and his childhood in the village. ." His Reverence remembered her from the days of his earliest childhood, and, ah, how he had loved her! Oh, that dear, precious, unforgettable childhood of his!" !."(Chekhov ) He feels a great sense of loss that those years had vanished forever. "Why did those years that had vanished forever seem so much brighter and richer and gayer than they really had been" (Chekhov) He remembers how tender and loving his mother had been , and how she cared for him when he was sick. As he prayed, "His prayers mingled with the memories that burned ever brighter and brighter in his heart like a flame". (Chekhov) The Bishop is nostalgic about his life in his village. He remembers the procession of the icon he followed as a young boy. " Barefoot, hatless, and infinitely happy, he followed the icon with a naive smile on his lips and nave faith in his heart" (Chekhov) He feels a sense of loss that he no longer has that simple faith, and the sense of wonder when "the air itself seemed tremulous with rapture" The sense of loss is repeated in his visions of his dead father, his mother and his village. He remembers the ordinary sights and sounds of the village like " the creaking of wagon-wheels, the bleating of sheep, the sound of church-bells on a clear summer morning," and thinks " ah, how pleasant it was to think of these things!" (Chekhov) The kind old priest, Father Semyon comes to his mind as he remembers some of the incidents of his childhood. In contrast, he hears the snoring of Father Sisoi from the next room, which seems to him as though " there was a forlorn, friendless, even a vagrant note in the old man's cadences".(Chekhov) His memories have instilled a profound sense of loss in him. As he is lying sleepless in his bed, with a fever which was making him very uncomfortable, memories of his childhood and the loss of the simple way of life make the bishop more and more nostalgic. The thought of the schoolmaster Matvey Nicholaitch makes the Bishop laugh. He remembers that the schoolmaster drank heavily, but was kind to his students. He remembers that he never beat the children, but always kept a bunch of birch twigs hanging on his wall, with an "utterly meaningless inscription in Latin" underneath it. The episode of Ilarion which the Bishop remembers is full of irony. He remembers Father Alexei who , to save time, used to make his deaf nephew Ilarion read the names of the people for whose health or souls the prayers were read. The Bishop remembers that Ilarion used to read the names and get paid a small sum for a long time. He also remembers with a sense of irony that when Ilarion was quite old, he came across a paper which said, "What a fool you are, Ilarion."(Chekhov 595) There is a sense of loss, a loss of the intimacy between mother and son when the Bishop meets his mother at dinner. It is nine years since they have met and he senses that his mother is not comfortable in addressing him. Although she speaks to him affectionately and gives him the news of his brothers and sisters, he "could see she was constrained as though she were uncertain whether to address him formally or familiarly, to laugh or not.".(Chekhov p 597) His greatest loss is that his mother is so awed by his position that "she felt herself more a deacon's widow than his mother." (Chekhov p. 597) The loss of his mother's love and its replacement with admiration is felt by the Bishop. He feels sad that his mother has brought his niece Katya to see him not out of love, but because she considers him to be a person of importance. He remembers how his mother used to take him and his brothers and sisters to visit their rich relations. "In those days she was taken up with the care of her children, now with her grandchildren, and she had brought Katya." (Chekhov p. 597) He feels the loss of intimacy between himself and his mother when she thanks him for telling her that he had been homesick when he was abroad, and that he missed her "He looked at his mother and could not understand how she had come by that respectfulness, that timid expression of face: what was it for"(Chekhov p. 598) He feels that he did not recognize his mother, and his feeling of loneliness and sorrow increases. The forlorn feeling is increased by the present, when he has to meet rich and powerful persons like the two rich ladies who sit rigidly in silence. Chekhov wrote "The Bishop" in 1902, when he was himself seriously ill from tuberculosis .The bishop, who is also seriously ill, finds his memory going back to his childhood and youth. He remembers the earlier bishop of the diocese, who was ill with rheumatism . Bishop Pyotr used to go to him everyday and see the people who came to him for help. Thinking about it now, he realizes the "emptiness and triviality of everything which they asked" (p. 600). He is appalled that the same old man had written a treatise on "The Doctrines of the Freedom of the Will" in his younger days, and now "seemed to be all lost in trivialities, to have forgotten everything, to have no thoughts of religion."(Chekhov p.600) The bishop wants to reform the practice of the higher clergy in the diocese giving marks to the young and old priests and their families. The marks were for their behaviour, a practice the bishop finds absurd. According to Rayfield, although Chekhov was a lifelong agnostic, some of his stories had mystic dimensions. "The Bishop" is one of them. Bishop Pyotr feels peaceful when he listens to the music of the evening song sung by the monks. He remembers his youth when they used to sing of the Bridegroom and the Heavenly Mansion. The past seems to him to have been joyful and fair. Listening to the monks sing in the evening, he "felt no repentance for his sins, no tribulation, but peace at heart and tranquility."(Chekhov p.602) In real life and art, according to Rayfield, Chekhov showed "difference to strength", but at the same time, was capable of showing compassion. This is seen in the way Bishop Pyotr "never in his sermons brings himself to speak ill of people, never reproached anyone because he was so sorry for them" (Chekhov p. 601) The Bishop feels sorry for the people, although the people are in awe of him. "Everyone was timid in his presence, even the old chief priests." (Chekhov p. 601) We see the loss of his ability to be one among ordinary folks. The loss of friends haunts the Bishop, more so now that he is sick. He realizes that there is no one to whom he could talk, not even his mother, because she seems to be in awe of him. "The whole time he had been here, not one person had spoken to him genuinely, simply, as to a human being."( Chekhov 601)He feels the loss of his mother's warmth because she seems constrained and grave when she was with him .In "The Bride" also, Nadya feels that there was no one she could confide in., but here, it is a case of loss of trust. It is only when the end is nearing that the bishop's mother becomes her old natural self with him. After his haemorrhage, seeeing the bishop's pale and wasted body, she becomes frightened. She forgets that he was the bishop, and kisses him" as though he were a child very near and very dear to her". Chekhov has portrayed the thoughts of the dying man, who remembers the sunlit fields of his youth and imagines that "He was free now as a bird and could go where he likes."(Chekhov p.607) The main subject of Chekhov's writings was Russia of his time. "The Bride", the last short story that Chekhov wrote, portrays the attitude of the upper class Russians of the time to the poor, and to the progress of the country. According to Rayfield, Chekhov wrote "comedies out of tragic material" (Rayfield 72) " The Bride" is one such comedy fashioned out of tragic material, in which, in the pursuit of peace, the bride Nadya experiences the loss of her entire way of life, while becoming a more mature person. The story centres about twenty three year old Nadya, who is engaged to be married to Andrey Andreitch , but finds no joy in the prospect. Nadya lives with her grandmother and mother, as her father is dead. Sasha, a distant relative, who has come down from Moscow to recuperate from his illness, deplores the useless lives led by her mother and grandmother, who do not work. Even Andrey does not work. Sasha points out the meaninglessness of their lives, where nothing changes, and he exhorts Nadya to join the university instead of wasting her life. Finally, Nadya runs away to St.Petersburg to join the university. Chekhov has portrayed Nadya as a simple country girl belonging to the upper class. Her journey towards maturity begins when she accepts Andry's marriage proposal. At first she considers him an intelligent and kind man. Gradually, his stupidity and dullness register in her mind. She begins to notice his mindless admiration for his father, who utters inanities with an air of scholarship.. "'I like my dad', said Andrey Andreitch.'He is a splendid old fellow, a dear old fellow'" (Chekhov 612) Later, when Andrey shows her the house he had bought for them, she sees that his father's photograph occupies the place of honour in the drawing room. Andrey repeats his expression of admiration of his father, "He is a splendid old fellow, a dear old fellow."(Chekhov 619) Andrey's senseless talk and idiotic admiration for his equally dull father, his pleasure in the house, in fact, everything about Andrey was getting on Nadya's nerves. "It was clear to her now that she had ceased to love Andrei Andreitch or perhaps had never loved him at all."(Chekhov 618) Chekhov writes poignantly about Nadya's loss of trust in her mother. Although she is greatly troubled, she has no one to share her thoughts with, no one to advise her. When she tries to tell her mother her misgivings about the marriage, her mother brushes it off, although she herself cries about the troubles of a character in a book. "Nadya felt that her mother did not understand her and was incapable of understanding."(Chekhov 615) Nadya feels a sense of loss - loss of a security, and at the same time she is becoming more mature. Later, she realizes that her mother was not someone special or exceptional, but that "she was a simple, ordinary, unhappy woman".(Chekhov 616) The person who was instrumental in bringing about a change in Nadya was Alexandrei Timofeitch, or Sasha, who resembles Chekhov in many of his qualities. Like Chekhov, Sasha comes from a poor family, and works for a living. According to Clyman, Chekhov was born just a year before the serfs were emancipated, in a family "that was decidedly lower class".(Clyman 17) Although all the other people in the family did nothing, Sasha worked with a lithographer in Moscow . Chekhov tutored students in Taganrog to earn enough money to live on, and send to his struggling family.(Clyman 18) Like Chekhov, Sasha was also racked with tuberculosis. He wanted a change in his country, a change into modern ways. He tells Nadya about the change he envisions: "What matters most is ..that evil will not exist then., because every man will believe and every man will know what he is living "(Chekhv 615) Nadya's steps towards maturity accelerate when Sasha's radical thinking has its influence on her, though she brushes it off at first. Being a master of understatement, Chekhov makes the reader imagine what must have gone on in Nadya's mind when she hears Sasha say that her loved ones like her mother, grandmother , and even Andrey are wasting their time doing nothing. "There is no making it out. Nobody does anything."(Chekhov 611) Sasha opens Nadya's eyes about the miserable conditions their servants lived in. He deplores the feudal ways of the rich. When Nadya is full of praise for her mother, it is Sasha who opens her eyes to the reality of the situation. "I went early this morning into your kitchen and there I found four servants sleeping on the floor, no bedsteads, and rags for bedding, stench, bugs.it is just as it was twenty years ago, no change at all." He tells her that though her grandmother being so old, could not be expected to change, her mother , being an enlightened woman who spoke French and acted in amateur theatricals had no excuse to treat the servants so He adds,. "One would think she might understand." (Chekhov 611) Later, he urges Nadya to get away from such a useless life and study in the university. "If only you would go to the university", he says. "Only enlightened and holy people are interesting. it is only they who are wanted."(Chekhov 615) While Nadya attains maturity, it comes at the cost of missing her old life. The powerful words of Sasha set her thinking about the uselessness of their lives, and of the hardships suffered by the poor people. He calls their comfortable life "filthy" when he says. "..if you and your mother and your grandmother do nothing, it means that someone else is working for you, you are eating up someone else's life, and is that clean, isn't it filthy" (Chekhov 616) The loss of trust in her mother is depicted poignantly. When Nadya tells her mother that she did not love Andrey, and asks her to allow her to call off the wedding and go away from the town, her mother becomes perturbed. Although Nadya's mother is a sophisticated and cultured woman, she becomes alarmed. Nadya implores her to understand the pettiness of their lives, but her mother only complains that she and her grandmother torment her. Her mother only thinks of looking young and beautiful, which seems futile and foolish to Nadya. Her mother's response to her entreaties make Nadya resolve to escape from the oppressive life of the small town. She echoes her feelings when she tells Sasha, "I despise all this idle senseless existence." (Chekhov 622) The sense of loss that Nadya feels as she bids goodbye to her grandmother, mother and the town, is offset by the sense of freedom she feels as the train starts moving.. The thought of Andrey and his father and the new house" no longer frightened her or weighed upon her" All her troubles and misgivings seem" nave and trivial". When the train began to move, "all the past which had been so big and serious shrank up into something tiny, and a vast, wide future which till then had scarcely been noticed began unfolding before her". (Chekhov 623) Although written in his post Sakhalin period, the stories, "The Bishop" and "The Bride" are treated differently by the author. While "The Bishop" is a story of the last days of a man in the prime of his life, struck down by disease, "The Bride" is the story of a young bride -to-be, and the forebodings in her mind. While "The Bishop" is nostalgic, "The Bride" is forward looking. "The Bishop" is about a man from the lower class who has risen to the rank of bishop, whereas the bride in "The Bride", is a member of the upper class who is disgusted with their way of life. While "The Bishop" portrays loss of the simple joys of life, "The Bride" conveys the relationship between loss of conviction and maturity. References Chekhov, Anton. "The Bishop" and "The Bride" Anton Chekhov Later Short Stories 1888-1903 Selby Foote (Editor)( 1991 ). Random House Inc. New York. Clyman, Toby. A Chekhov Companion (1985)Greenwood Press. Westport. Foote, Shelby. Anton Chekhov Later Short Stories 1888-1903 (1991 ). Random House Inc. New York Pritchett, V.S. "Chekhov, A Spirit Set Free",(1990) Penguin Books Ltd. Loncon Rayfield, Donald. Understanding Chekhov: A Critical Study of Chekhov's Prose ans Drama (1999) University of Wisconsin Press. Read More