ANTON CHEKHOV

 

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (/ˈtʃɛkɒf/; Russian: Антон Павлович Чехов, 29 January 1860– 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov was a physician by profession. "Medicine is my lawful wife," he once said, "and literature is my mistress."

            Chekhov renounced the theatre after the reception of The Seagull in 1896, but the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Konstantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which subsequently also produced Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and premiered his last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. These four works present a challenge to the acting ensemble as well as to audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a "theatre of mood" and a "submerged life in the text." The plays that Chekhov wrote were not complex, but easy to follow, and created a somewhat haunting atmosphere for the audience.

            Chekhov began writing stories to earn money, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations that influenced the evolution of the modern short story. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

Childhood:

            Anton Chekhov was born into a Russian family on the feast day of St. Anthony the Great (17 January Old Style) 29 January 1860 in Taganrog, a port on the Sea of Azov – on Politseyskaya (Police) street, later renamed Chekhova street – in southern Russia. He was the third of six surviving children; he had two older brothers, Alexander and Nikolai, and three younger siblings, Ivan, Maria, and Mikhail. His father, Pavel Yegorovich Chekhov, the son of a former serf and his wife, was from the village Olkhovatka (Voronezh Governorate) and ran a grocery store. He was a director of the parish choir, a devout Orthodox Christian.

Works:

1.     The Cherry Orchard

2.     The Seagull

3.     Uncle Vanya

4.     Three Sisters

5.     Short Stories by Anton Chekhov

6.     The Lady with the Dog

7.     Ward No. 6

8.     The Shooting Party

9.     About Love

10.  The Black Monk

11.  The Steppe

12.  The Wood Demon

13.  Fifty-Two Stories

14.  The Bet

15.  The Duel

16.  Letters of Anton

17.  My Life

18.  The Bear

19.  The complete short novels

20.  The Darling and Other Stories

21.  The Essential Tales of Chekhov

22.  The Prank: The Best of Young Chekhov

23.  A Marriage Proposal

24.  Three Years

Structured around a personal tale of aristocratic decline, The Cherry Orchard delves into broader themes of social change, nostalgia, loss, and the relentless march of time. The Cherry Orchard is perhaps Chekhov's most famous play, it was also his last. 

Anton Chekhov uses a variety of literary devices in his short story The Bet:

Metaphors 

  • The lawyer metaphorically compares the "flame" of artistic spirit and literary talent that burns inside all geniuses

Imagery 

  • The lawyer uses imagery to describe how free he felt while imprisoned, even though he was locked in a room

Irony 

  • The story uses situational and dramatic irony

Foreshadowing 

  • Chekhov uses foreshadowing to drive the plot forward

Open-ended conclusion 

  • Chekhov leaves the story's conclusion open-ended, which is one of his best-known techniques

Third-person point of view 

  • The story is written in the third person point of view, with limited omniscience into the banker's mind

Tone 

  • The story has a matter-of-fact tone

Mood 

  • The story has a mood that lacks any overriding emotional register.      


  • The Bet:

·       Throughout “The Bet,” Chekhov employs a variety of literary devices to create a sense of realism. He uses a concise two-part story structure, ample metaphors and similes, and frequent foreshadowing to delineate between the two main characters and drive the plot forward.


·       The Bet, by Anton Chekov, is slightly deceptive in its title. The story begins with a bet over capital punishment and the morality behind it, but develops into one that explores themes related to the value of knowledge, the meaning of life, and man's purpose.

 

·       The overall tone of Anton Chekhov's "The Bet" is dry and matter-of-fact. In this story, the narrator describes all of the emotions that the lawyer experiences while in confinement.

 

·       In Anton Chekov's ''The Bet'' the climax takes place when the banker enters the lawyer's room and finds his letter. As the plot progresses, the tension builds when the banker decides to kill the lawyer to prevent him from winning the bet and, thus, to save himself from financial ruin.

 

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