Ionych characterization, analysis of Ionych's story. Analysis of “Ionych” Chekhov Ionych analysis of the work briefly
Provincial city S. Doctor Dmitry Ionovich Startsev was appointed to serve in this city. The Turkin family, reputed to be cultured and educated, also lives here. Each family member has his own talents: the owner of the family organizes home performances, takes part in them himself, and is considered a great joker and wit. His wife, Vera Iosifovna, is a novelist, and his daughter, Ekaterina Ivanovna, is a pianist. When Turkins invite guests to their house, they “sense” them with their talents. Doctor Startsev visits them. The mistress of the house is reading her incredible novel about an imaginary life. Startsev realizes that the novel is bad, but thinks that listening to it is pleasant. Then Kotik, the daughter of the Turkins, plays virtuoso works on the piano. For better or worse, she's trying really hard. Vera Iosifovna says: in order to avoid the bad influence of society, their daughter received a home education. During the evening meal, the owner of the house shines with his talents. He comes up with some kind of his own language, distorted Russian, and constantly speaks it. The reception ends with a crowning number. Pavlush's footman in a specially invented pose, in a voice that probably seems appropriate for the phrase: “Die, unfortunate one!” says this.
A.P. Chekhov. "Ionych." Summary. Startsev's unsuccessful matchmaking
Turkina Sr. suffers from migraines. Doctors from the city are powerless. Vera Iosifovna turns to Startsev to help her recover. Now the doctor visits the Turkins often and pays a lot of attention to Ekaterina Ivanovna. But she is “all about music.” Startsev is trying to sort things out with Kotik, and she suggests meeting at the cemetery at night. The doctor is waiting at the cemetery, but his beloved does not show up for a date. Dmitry Ionovich decides to propose to Ekaterina Ivanovna and goes to the Turkins’ house the next day. The doctor thinks that the bride will have a good dowry. Perhaps his future father-in-law and mother-in-law will insist that he leave the service. But all these thoughts of Startsev were in vain, Kotik refuses him. She loves not him, but art, and her whole life is now devoted to art. For three days, Dmitry Ionovich finds no relief from mental torment. Then his life returns to normal.
A.P. Chekhov. "Ionych." Summary. Four years pass...
Four years later, Doctor Startsev appears to the reader as a fat man with shortness of breath. He doesn't communicate with anyone, he's not interested. Startsev works a lot because... believes that a person cannot live without work. It’s Vera Iosifovna’s birthday, and she invites Startsev to a reception. Katerina Ivanovna also arrives. But the doctor thinks that she has become very ugly, and everything about her irritates him. The evening goes on as always. Vera Iosifovna is reading her crazy novel, Kitty is playing the piano tediously and loudly. Startsev is very glad that the wedding did not take place. He and Kitty are talking alone in the garden. She already realizes that she is a mediocre pianist, and her mother is also a novelist. The doctor complains about a gray, monotonous life. In his thoughts there is no longer a desire for noble deeds, as before. Kitty thinks it's great to help people. At first, something happens in the doctor’s soul from thoughts about his former life, but remembering the amount of money he earns, he drives away ridiculous thoughts. Startsev doesn’t want to have dinner and is getting ready to go home. Finally, the footman shows the same number. Startsev goes home and thinks about how immoral the city is if its best inhabitants are so narrow-minded, untalented, and vulgar. The doctor no longer accepts invitations to the Turkins’ house, although Kotik bombards him with notes.
A.P. Chekhov. "Ionych." Summary. A few more years pass...
Several years pass: Startsev becomes very fat, works a lot, has a practice in the city and a large fortune. Ionych - that’s what they call him now. He's still alone. The main thing in his life is money. In the Turkins' house, everything is as always: Ivan Petrovich jokes, Vera Iosifovna torments the guests with novels, and Kotik selflessly plays music.
Chekhov "Ionych". Story Analysis
What main idea does Chekhov want to convey to us with this story? At the beginning of the work, we are presented with the main character, the young doctor Startsev, in whose head noble thoughts about work, sympathy for people, and finally, love are ripening. But, reading the story further, we see that our hero and his wallet are becoming fatter, his thoughts are becoming more and more mercantile. Chekhov shows how the environment can “suck in” a person. He turns into a soulless amoeba, which is no longer interested in anything but money. Ionych cannot, and most likely does not want, to fight the gray reality. The money has done its job: at the end of the story, the doctor is only interested in it.
"Ionych." Chekhov. Analysis
The gray immoral environment in the story is represented by the Turkin family. The author describes all its members very ironically. All their actions, repeated throughout the story, are funny and vulgar. And these are the best people in the city. Chekhov's heroes, as always, are very colorful. They make us wonder: am I one of them?
The story told by Chekhov in “Ionych” (1898) is built around two declarations of love, just as, in fact, the plot was built in Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin”. At first he confesses his love to her and is not reciprocated. And a few years later, she, realizing that there was no better person than him in her life, tells him about her love and with the same negative result. All other events and descriptions are needed as a background, as material to explain why mutual love did not take place, the mutual happiness of two people did not work out.
Who is to blame (or what is to blame) for the fact that the young, full of strength and vitality Dmitry Startsev, as we see him at the beginning of the story, turned into Ionych of the last chapter? How exceptional or, conversely, ordinary is the story of his life? And how does Chekhov manage to fit entire human destinies and ways of life into just a few pages of text?
As if on the surface lies the first explanation of why the hero degrades by the end of the story. The reason can be seen in the unfavorable, hostile environment of Startsev, in the philistine environment of the city of S. And in the absence on the part of the hero of a fight against this environment, of protest against it. “The environment is stuck” is a common explanation for such situations in life and in literature.
Is the environment to blame for the transformation of Startsev into Ionych? No, that would be at least a one-sided explanation.
A hero opposed to the environment, sharply different from the environment - this was a typical conflict in classical literature, starting with “Woe from Wit”. In “Ionych” there is a word directly taken from the characteristics of Famus’ society (“wheezers”), but it, perhaps, only more sharply highlights the difference between the two relationships: Chatsky - Famusov’s Moscow and Startsev - the inhabitants of the city of S.
Actually, Chatsky was kept in an environment alien and hostile to him only by his love interest. He was initially confident of his superiority over this environment, denounced it in his monologues - but the environment pushed him out like a foreign body. Slandered, insulted, but not broken and only strengthened in his convictions, Chatsky left Famusov’s Moscow.
Dmitry Startsev, like Chatsky, falls in love with a girl from an environment alien to him (for Chatsky this separating barrier is spiritual, for Startsev it is material). As an outsider, he enters the “most talented” house in the city of S. He does not have any initial aversion to this environment; on the contrary, for the first time in the Turkins’ house everything seems pleasant to him, or at least entertaining. And then, having learned that he is not loved, unlike Chatsky, he does not rush to “search the world,” but remains to live in the same place where he lived, so to speak, by inertia.
Even if not immediately, but at some point he also felt irritation against those people among whom he had to live and with whom he had to communicate. There is nothing to talk about with them, their interests are limited to food and empty entertainment. Anything truly new is alien to them, the ideas by which the rest of humanity lives are beyond their understanding (for example, how can passports and the death penalty be abolished?).
Well, at first Startsev also tried to protest, convince, preach (“in society, at dinner or tea, he talked about the need to work, that one cannot live without work”). These monologues of Startsev did not receive a response from society. But, unlike the Famusov society, which is aggressive towards the freethinker, the inhabitants of the city of S. simply continue to live as they lived, while on the whole they remained completely indifferent to the dissident Startsev, turning a deaf ear to the protest and propaganda. True, they awarded him a rather ridiculous nickname (“inflated Pole”), but this is still not a declaration of a person as crazy. Moreover, when he began to live according to the laws of this environment and finally turned into Ionych, they themselves suffered a lot from him.
So, one hero remained unbroken by the environment, the other was absorbed by the environment and subjected to its laws. It would seem clear which of them deserves sympathy and which deserves condemnation. But the point is not at all that one of the heroes is nobler, higher, more positive than the other.
The two works organize artistic time differently. Just one day in the life of Chatsky - and Startsev’s whole life. Chekhov includes the passage of time in the “hero and environment” situation, and this allows us to evaluate what happened differently.
“One day in the winter... in the spring, on a holiday - it was the Ascension... more than a year passed... he began to visit the Turkins often, very often... for about three days things fell out of his hands... he calmed down and healed as before... experience taught him little by little... imperceptibly, little by little... four years passed... three days passed, a week passed... and he never visited the Turkins again... ... several more years have passed...”
Chekhov introduces into the story the test of the hero by the most ordinary thing - the unhurried but unstoppable passage of time. Time tests the strength of any beliefs, tests the strength of any feelings; time calms and consoles, but time also drags on - “imperceptibly, little by little” remaking a person. Chekhov writes not about the exceptional or extraordinary, but about what concerns every ordinary (“average”) person.
That bundle of new ideas, protest, and sermons that Chatsky carries within himself cannot be imagined stretched out like this - over weeks, months, years. The arrival and departure of Chatsky is like the passage of a meteor, a bright comet, a flash of fireworks. And Startsev is tested by something that Chatsky was not tested by - the flow of life, immersion in the passage of time. What does this approach reveal?
For example, it is not enough to have some beliefs, it is not enough to feel indignation against alien people and customs. Dmitry Startsev is by no means deprived of all this, like any normal young man. He knows how to feel contempt, he knows what is worth being indignant about (human stupidity, mediocrity, vulgarity, etc.). And Kotik, who reads a lot, knows what words to use to denounce “this empty, useless life,” which has become “unbearable” for her.
No, Chekhov shows, against the passage of time, the Protestant fervor of youth cannot hold out for long - and can even turn “imperceptibly, little by little” into its opposite. In the last chapter, Ionych no longer tolerates any judgments or objections from the outside (“Please answer only questions! Don’t talk!”).
Moreover, a person can have not only denying enthusiasm - he can also have a positive life program (“You need to work, you can’t live without work,” Startsev claims, and Kotik is convinced: “A person must strive for a higher, brilliant goal... I want to be an artist, I want fame, success, freedom...”). It may seem to him that he lives and acts in accordance with the correctly chosen goal. After all, Startsev doesn’t just pronounce monologues in front of ordinary people - he really works, and he sees more and more patients, both in the village hospital and in the city. But... again “imperceptibly, little by little” time made a destructive substitution. By the end of the story, Ionych works more and more, no longer for the sake of the sick or some kind of lofty goals. What was previously secondary - “pieces of paper obtained through practice”, money - becomes the main content of life, its only goal.
In the face of time, the invisible but main arbiter of destinies in Chekhov's world, any verbally formulated beliefs or beautiful-hearted programs seem fragile and insignificant. In youth, you can despise and be beautiful as much as you want - lo and behold, “imperceptibly, little by little” yesterday’s living person, open to all the impressions of existence, turned into Ionych.
The motive of transformation in the story is associated with the theme of time. The transformation occurs as a gradual transition from the living, not yet settled and unformed to the established, once and for all formed.
In the first three chapters, Dmitry Startsev is young, he has not quite defined, but good intentions and aspirations, he is carefree, full of strength, it costs him nothing to walk nine miles after work (and then nine miles back), music constantly sounds in his soul; like any young man, he is waiting for love and happiness.
But a living person finds himself in an environment of mechanical wind-up dolls. At first he doesn't realize it. The witticisms of Ivan Petrovich, the novels of Vera Iosifovna, Kotik’s play on the piano, the tragic pose of Pava for the first time seem to him quite original and spontaneous, although observation tells him that these witticisms were developed by “long exercises in wit,” that the novels say “that , which never happens in life,” that there is a noticeable stubborn monotony in the young pianist’s playing, and that Pava’s idiotic remark looks like an obligatory dessert to the regular program.
The author of the story resorts to repetition. In the 1st chapter, the Turkins show the guests “their talents cheerfully, with heartfelt simplicity” - and in the 5th chapter, Vera Iosifovna reads her novels to the guests “still willingly, with heartfelt simplicity.” Ivan Petrovich does not change his program of behavior (with all the changes in his repertoire of jokes). The grown-up Pava is even more ridiculous in repeating his line. Both talents and simplicity of heart are not at all the worst qualities that people can display. (Let’s not forget that the Turkins in the city of S. are really the most interesting.) But their programming, routine, and endless repetition ultimately cause melancholy and irritation in the observer.
The rest of the residents of the city of S., who do not have the talents of the Turkins, also live in a routine way, according to a program about which there is nothing to say except: “Day and night - a day away, life passes dimly, without impressions, without thoughts... During the day profit, and in the evening a club, a society of gamblers, alcoholics, wheezing...”
And so, by the last chapter, Startsev himself turned into something ossified, petrified (“not a man, but a pagan god”), moving and acting according to some forever established program. The chapter describes what Ionych (now everyone calls him that only) does day after day, month after month, year after year. Somewhere, all the living things that had worried him in his youth had disappeared, evaporated. There is no happiness, but there are surrogates, substitutes for happiness - buying real estate, pleasing and fearful respect for others. The Turkins remained in their vulgarity - Startsev degraded. Unable to even stay at the level of the Turkins, in his transformation he slipped even lower, to the level of the “stupid and evil” man in the street, for whom he spoke of contempt before. And this is the result of his existence. “That’s all that can be said about him.”
What was the beginning of the transformation, the slide down the inclined plane? At what point in the story can we talk about the guilt of the hero who did not make efforts to prevent this slide?
Maybe this was the effect of failure in love, becoming a turning point in Startsev’s life? Indeed, throughout his life, “love for Kotik was his only joy and probably his last.” A frivolous girl’s joke - to make a date at the cemetery - gave him the opportunity for the first and only time in his life to see “a world unlike anything else - a world where the moonlight is so good and soft,” to touch a secret that “promises a quiet life, beautiful, eternal.” The magical night in the old cemetery is the only thing in the story that does not bear the stamp of familiarity, repetition, or routine. She alone remained stunning and unique in the hero’s life.
The next day there was a declaration of love and Kitty’s refusal. The essence of Startsev’s love confession was that there are no words that can convey the feeling that he experiences, and that his love is limitless. Well, we can say that the young man was not particularly eloquent or resourceful in his explanation. But is it possible on this basis to assume that the whole point is in Startsev’s inability to truly feel, that he didn’t really love, didn’t fight for his love, and therefore couldn’t captivate Kotik?
That’s the point, Chekhov shows, that Startsev’s confession was doomed to failure, no matter how eloquent he was, no matter what efforts he made to convince her of his love.
Kotik, like everyone else in the city of S., like everyone else in the Turkins’ house, lives and acts according to some, seemingly predetermined program (the puppet element is noticeable in her) - a program compiled from books she has read, fed by praise for her piano talents and age, as well as hereditary (from Vera Iosifovna) ignorance of life. She rejects Startsev because life in this city seems empty and useless to her, and that she herself wants to strive for a higher, brilliant goal, and not at all become the wife of an ordinary, unremarkable man, and even with such a funny name. Until life and the passage of time show her the fallacy of this program, any words here will be powerless.
This is one of the most characteristic situations for Chekhov’s world: people are separated, they each live with their own feelings, interests, programs, their own stereotypes of life behavior, their own truths; and at the moment when someone most needs to meet a response, understanding from another person, the other person at that moment is absorbed in his own interest, program, etc.
Here, in “Ionych,” the feeling of love that one person experiences is not reciprocated due to the fact that the girl, the object of his love, is absorbed in her own life program, the only one interesting to her at that moment. Then ordinary people will not understand him, here a loved one does not understand.
After living for some time, taking a few sips “from the cup of existence,” Kotik seemed to understand that she had not lived like that (“Now all the young ladies play the piano, and I also played like everyone else, and there was nothing special about me; I she’s as much a pianist as her mother is a writer.” She now considers her main mistake in the past to be that she did not understand Startsev then. But does she truly understand him now? Suffering, the awareness of missed happiness make Ekaterina Ivanovna out of Kotik, a living, suffering person (now she has “sad, grateful, searching eyes”). At the first explanation, she is categorical, he is unsure, at their last meeting he is categorical, but she is timid, timid, and insecure. But, alas, only a change of programs occurs, but the programming and repetition remain. “What a blessing it is to be a zemstvo doctor, to help the suffering, to serve the people. What happiness!<...>When I thought about you in Moscow, you seemed so ideal, sublime to me...” she says, and we see: these are phrases straight from Vera Iosifovna’s novels, far-fetched works that have nothing to do with real life. It’s as if she again sees not a living person, but a mannequin hero from a novel written by her mother.
And again they are each absorbed in their own things, speaking different languages. She is in love, idealizes Startsev, and longs for a reciprocal feeling. With him, the transformation is almost complete; he is already hopelessly sucked into philistine life, thinking about the pleasure of “pieces of paper”. Having flared up for a short time, “the fire in my soul went out.” From misunderstanding and loneliness, a person, alienated from others, withdraws into his shell. So who is to blame for Startsev’s failure in life, for his degradation? Of course, it is not difficult to blame him or the society around him, but this will not be a complete and accurate answer. The environment determines only the forms in which Ionych’s life will take place, what values he will accept, what surrogates of happiness he will console himself with. But other forces and circumstances gave impetus to the hero’s fall and led him to rebirth.
How to resist time, which does the work of transformation “imperceptibly, little by little”? People are led to misfortune by their eternal disunity, self-absorption, and the impossibility of mutual understanding at the most crucial, decisive moments of existence. And how can a person guess the moment that decides his entire future fate? And only when it is too late to change anything, it turns out that a person has only one bright, unforgettable night in his entire life.
Such sobriety, even cruelty in depicting the tragedy of human existence seemed excessive to many in Chekhov's works. Critics believed that Chekhov was thus “killing human hopes.” Indeed, “Ionych” may seem like a mockery of many bright hopes. We need to work! You cannot live without work! A person must strive for a higher, brilliant goal! Helping the suffering, serving the people - what happiness! Writers before and after Chekhov very often made such and similar ideas central to their works, proclaiming them through the mouths of their heroes. Chekhov shows how life and the passage of time devalue and make meaningless any beautiful ideas. All these are common (albeit indisputable) passages, which cost absolutely nothing to say and write. The graphomaniac Vera Iosifovna, who writes “about what never happens in life,” can fill her novels with them. Startsev would never have become the hero of Vera Iosifovna’s novel: what happened to him is what happens in life.
“Ionych” is a story about how incredibly difficult it is to remain human, even knowing what you should be. A story about the relationship between illusions and real (terrible in its everyday life) life. About real, not illusory difficulties of life.
So, does Chekhov really look so hopelessly at the fate of man in the world and leaves no hope?
Yes, Dmitry Startsev inevitably moves toward becoming Ionych, and in his fate Chekhov shows what can happen to anyone. But if Chekhov shows the inevitability of degradation of an initially good, normal person with the imperceptible passage of time, the inevitability of abandonment of dreams and ideas proclaimed in youth, does it mean that he really kills hopes and calls for leaving them at the threshold of life? And he states together with the hero: “How, in essence, Mother Nature plays bad jokes on man, how offensive it is to realize this!”? So you can understand the meaning of the story only by inattentive reading, without reading the text to the end, without thinking about it.
Isn’t it clear in the last chapter how everything that happened to Ionych is called by its proper name, sharply, directly? Greed has overcome. My throat was swollen with fat. He is lonely, his life is boring. There are no joys in life and there won’t be any more. That's all that can be said about him.
How much contempt is contained in these words! It is obvious that the writer, who throughout the entire story carefully traced the spiritual evolution of the hero, making it possible to understand him, here refuses to justify, does not forgive the degradation leading to such an end.
The meaning of the story told to us can thus be understood at the junction of two principles. Mother Nature really plays a bad joke on man; man is often deceived by life and time, and it is difficult to understand the degree of his personal guilt. But it is so disgusting what a person who has been given everything for a normal, useful life can turn into that there can be only one conclusion: everyone must fight against becoming Ionych, even if there is almost no hope of success in this fight.
Gogol, in a lyrical digression included in the chapter about Plyushkin (and the evolution of Ionych is somewhat reminiscent of the changes that occurred with this Gogol hero), appeals to his young readers with an appeal to preserve with all their might the best that is given to everyone in their youth. Chekhov does not make such special lyrical digressions in his story. He calls for resistance to degradation in an almost hopeless situation throughout his entire text.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is a talented Russian writer who very accurately depicted the vices of the society of his era in his works. A special place in his work is occupied by the cycle of stories “Little Trilogy” and “Ionych”. Chekhov (we will give an analysis of one of his works below) wrote then in conditions of widespread social upsurge. He exposed that part of the intelligentsia that not only does not take part in this upsurge, but, on the contrary, tries to isolate itself from life.
Driven by indifference and fear, she does not want to know the problems of the people. With enormous satirical force, Chekhov reveals the theme of “case life” in his seemingly simple creations.
"Ionych" tells us about the history of the spiritual and moral degradation of man. The story has 5 parts, 5 portraits of the main character.
The first is a portrait of Doctor Startsev - a young, intelligent, knowledgeable in art, with good musical and literary taste, an energetic and cheerful person. This is exactly what a real intellectual should be, as Chekhov believes ("Ionych", chapter 1).
Second portrait. Before us is a young man prone to obesity, who prefers riding in a stroller to walking. Deprived of his former vigor, but in love, and therefore capable of some crazy actions.
Third portrait. Startsev’s feelings turned out to be shallow, the love passes. He quickly calms down after experiencing rejection.
Fourth portrait. Startsev has gained weight, suffers from shortness of breath and already has three horses.
He became withdrawn, prefers playing cards to spiritual life, and is unpleasant for him in society. Hard work gave way to coldness, the ability for pure, unselfish feelings died out.
Fifth portrait. Startsev became completely fat, as a result of which his voice became thin and harsh. He was mad with greed. In relation to the sick, he lost all sensitivity, respect, compassion. He became rude, arrogant, angry. The townsfolk now consider him one of their own and simply call him Ionych. In just 10 years, Chekhov's hero is shown to be a complete insignificance.
“Ionych” does not give us unambiguous answers to the question of why there was such a rapid spiritual decay of the once energetic and talented representative of the young intelligentsia. Perhaps Ekaterina Ivanovna, for whom the doctor had tender feelings, was to blame for something. Of course, he himself is to blame for something. However, most of the blame lies precisely with the society surrounding Startsev, Chekhov believes. Ionych, leaving disappointed after an explanation with the matured Katenka, thinks to himself: “What must this city be like if even the most talented people in it are so untalented?”
The Turkin family personifies the entire supposedly advanced and educated part of society. Chekhov ridicules her mercilessly. which was made above, is replete with examples. At the beginning of the story, which describes Startsev’s first visit to the Turkins’ house, the young doctor, with his still clear gaze, notices the slightest details: the fact that Vera Iosifovna’s novel has nothing to do with real life, and the fact that Kotik has no musical talent, and then, how stupid and senseless the owner’s jokes are, but he doesn’t pay much attention to it because he’s in love. When the scales fell from his eyes, and Startsev saw all the vulgarity going on around him, he couldn’t think of anything better than to become the same.
Using the example of the main character A.P. Chekhov wanted to show a picture of the fall of Dmitry Ionych Startsev, later simply Ionych, when the thirst for profit can overshadow everything else. At such moments, a person is sucked to the very bottom, but instead of resisting the prevailing circumstances, trying to get to the surface, he sinks even further to where there is no return. Analysis of the story “Ionych” will help you understand how a person who shows great promise can degrade, succumbing to vices and weaknesses, gradually losing face and turning into an ordinary man in the street.
There are only five chapters in this work, but they clearly define the chronological sequence of events. In each of them, you can clearly see how the life and appearance of the main character Dmitry Ionych Startsev changes at short intervals. The events described in the story take place in city C, where life seems to have frozen along with its inhabitants. This is clearly visible in the example of the Turkin family. From the moment Startsev met them and several years later, nothing changed in their family.
In the first chapter Dmitry Ionych makes a positive impression. A pleasant young man with bright prospects. Educated, purposeful. Open to everything new. Honest and decent. He liked being a doctor. Helping people is his calling. Full of hopes and dreams, he had not yet thought about how his life would very soon change and not for the better.
Chapter two Startsev’s degradation has already begun. A year has passed since his arrival in this city for medical practice. Dmitry Ionych is mired in the routine of business. The doctor spends most of his time alone. Frequent trips to the Turkins’ house, where the owner’s daughter Ekaterina delighted the eye and soul, became entertainment. Startsev became interested in her, but his feelings were unrequited. The girl dreamed of leaving for the capital and enrolling in the acting department. Why should she tie the knot with a young doctor. She played with him. The invitation to a date received from her is further proof of this. Dmitry waited for her at the cemetery, but Katerina never came. He is upset, depressed. Apathy and melancholy fell upon him. Startsev realizes that he is very tired. For the first time, returning home, he walks with an old man's gait, and does not fly, as before, on the wings of happiness and love.
Chapter Three turning point in Startsev’s life. He stops thinking about the sublime and beautiful. Even considering Katerina as his bride, he thinks about what kind of dowry he can get for the girl. Commercialism and prudence can be seen in everything: in work, dreams, plans. After Katerina’s refusal to become his wife, the doctor did not grieve for long. It didn't work out, to hell with it. Startsev gained a lot of weight during this time. He was worried about shortness of breath. The doctor moved exclusively on horses, which he acquired not so long ago. He became irritated by local society. People seemed uninteresting and boring. The zemstvo doctor spent most of his time alone, trying to avoid communication with anyone.
Ionych stopped being interested in going to the theater, reading books, and concerts. His favorite pastime was playing cards and counting banknotes. He took them out of his pocket, ran his fingers through each piece of paper, and enjoyed its rustle. The passion for hoarding took precedence over impressions of life. Not a trace remained of the former Startsev. The changes affected him not only externally, but also internally. He allowed himself to yell at his patients. He was insolent and rude. This had never been noticed before.
Ionych became petrified in soul, hardened. There was nothing alive left in this man. Swollen with fat, moving with difficulty, hating everything that was so sweet to him before, he arouses pity and contempt for himself. Degradation lowered him to the last stage of development, turning him into an embittered philistine.
What happened to Ionych can happen to anyone if you don’t take the situation into your own hands in time and try to change the course of events. You cannot allow yourself to sink to Ionych’s level. We must definitely fight, even if sometimes the situation seems completely hopeless, but those who don’t try initially lose.
Composition
A.P. Chekhov's story “Ionych” was seriously criticized in the periodicals of that time. Immediately after the publication of the work in 1898, numerous reproaches fell that the plot of the work was drawn out, the story was boring and inexpressive.
In the center of the work is the life of the Turkin family, the most educated and talented in the city of S. They live on the main street. Their education is expressed primarily in their desire for art. The father of the family, Ivan Petrovich, organizes amateur performances, his wife Vera Iosifovna writes stories and novels, and his daughter plays the piano. However, one detail is noteworthy: Vera Iosifovna never publishes her works under the pretext that the family has funds. It becomes clear that the manifestation of education and intelligence is important for these people only in their own circle. None of the Turkins are going to engage in public educational activities. This moment calls into question the truth of the phrase that the family is the most educated and talented in the city.
There are often guests in the Turkins' house; an atmosphere of simplicity and cordiality reigns. Guests here were always served a plentiful and tasty dinner. A recurring artistic detail that actualizes the atmosphere in the Turkins’ house is the smell of fried onions. The detail emphasizes the hospitality of this house and conveys an atmosphere of homely warmth and comfort. The house has soft, deep armchairs. Good, calm thoughts sound in the conversations of the heroes.
The plot begins with the appointment of Dmitry Ionych Startsev as a zemstvo doctor to the city. Being an intelligent person, he quickly enters the circle of the Turkin family. He is greeted with cordiality and subtle intellectual jokes. The hostess of the house flirts playfully with the guest. Then he is introduced to his daughter Ekaterina Ivanovna. A.P. Chekhov gives a detailed portrait of the heroine, who is very similar to her mother: “Her expression was still childish and her waist was thin, delicate; and the virgin, already developed breasts, beautiful, healthy, spoke of spring, real spring.” The description of Ekaterina Ivanovna’s piano playing also leaves an ambivalent impression: “They lifted the lid of the piano and opened the notes that were already lying at the ready. Ekaterina Ivanovna sat down and hit the keys with both hands; and then immediately struck again with all her might, and again, and again; her shoulders and chest were shaking, she stubbornly hit everything in one place, and it seemed that she would not stop until she hammered the key inside the piano. The living room was filled with thunder; everything thundered: the floor, the ceiling, and the furniture... Ekaterina Ivanovna played a difficult passage, interesting precisely because of its difficulty, long and monotonous, and Startsev, listening, pictured to himself how stones were falling from the heights of the mountain, falling and still falling, and he wanted them to stop falling out as soon as possible, and at the same time, he really liked Ekaterina Ivanovna, pink with tension, strong, energetic, with a curl of hair falling on her forehead.” This game is technically strong, but it seems that the heroine does not put her soul into it. It is obvious that both education and talent, which were mentioned at the beginning of the story, in fact turn out to be superficial and untrue. It is no coincidence that Ekaterina Ivanovna’s passage is interesting precisely because of its difficulty. For perception, it is long and monotonous. The portrait of Ekaterina Ivanovna combines romantic (for example, a curl of hair falling on her forehead) and realistic features (“tension, strength and energy”),
With subtle irony, A.P. Chekhov describes the nature of the game itself: these are “noisy, annoying, but still cultural sounds.” This expression “yet” immediately casts doubt on the truth of the culture that the Turkins so want to demonstrate. It’s as if they are playing at high society, trying to dress up in clothes that are not their own, trying on stable standards, examples of people from a cultural environment. The talents in this family stick out excessively; guests, for example, excessively flatter Kotik (as Ekaterina Ivanovna is called at home). A.P. Chekhov ironically emphasizes that the heroine’s desire to go to the conservatory is expressed in frequently recurring seizures. The extraordinary language spoken by the owner of the house, Ivan Petrovich. This language is filled with numerous quotes and jokes, which do not come from the sparkling power of the intellect, but are simply developed by long exercises in wit. One of the central scenes of the story is the scene of Startsov’s explanation with Ekaterina Ivanovna. The freshness and touching nature of the heroine, her ostentatious erudition, in fact turn into a penchant for intrigue and a desire to enhance the romantic touch of the meeting. For example, she makes a date with Startsev at the cemetery near the Demetti monument, although they could have met in a more suitable place. Trusting Startsev understands that Kitty is fooling around, but naively believes that she will come after all.
A.P. Chekhov places a detailed description of the cemetery in the story. It will be recreated in romantic colors. The author emphasizes the combination of black and white colors in the cemetery landscape. Soft moonlight, the autumn scent of leaves, withered flowers, stars looking from the sky - all these artistic details recreate the atmosphere of mystery, promising a quiet, beautiful, eternal life: “In every grave one can feel the presence of a secret, promising a quiet, beautiful, eternal life” .
As the clock strikes, he imagines himself dead, buried here forever. It suddenly seems to him that someone is looking at him, and “for a minute he thought that this was not peace or silence, but a dull melancholy of nothingness, suppressed despair...”. The romantic atmosphere of the night cemetery fuels Startsev’s thirst for love, kisses, hugs, and this yearning gradually becomes more and more painful.
The next day, the doctor goes to the Turkins to propose. In this scene, the romantic moods in his head are combined with thoughts about a dowry. Gradually a real vision of the situation comes to his mind: “Stop before it’s too late! Is she a match for you? She is spoiled, capricious, sleeps up to two hours. And you are the deacon’s son, the zemstvo doctor...”
In addition, Startsev’s conversation with Kotik reveals the surface of the heroine’s nature. All her sophistication and erudition, so consistently emphasized by the author throughout the story in the guise of a girl, is suddenly exposed when she... Having learned that Startsev was still waiting for her at the cemetery, although from the very beginning he understood that she was most likely just fooling around, talking about what he suffered. Dmitry Ionych answers him: “And suffer if you don’t understand jokes.” This is where the whole frivolity of her nature is revealed. However, Startsev, carried away by his passion, continues his courtship. He goes home, but soon returns dressed in someone else’s tailcoat and a stiff white tie. He begins to tell Ekaterina Ivanovna about his love: “It seems to me that no one has yet described love correctly, and it is hardly possible to describe this tender, joyful, painful feeling, and whoever has experienced it at least once will not convey it in words.” He eventually proposes to her. Kitty refuses, explaining to Ionych that he dreams of an artistic career. The hero immediately felt like he was at an amateur performance: “And I felt sorry for my feeling, this love of mine, so sorry that it seems that I would have burst into tears or would have grabbed Panteleimon’s broad back with all my might with my umbrella.” The stupid prank with the cemetery increased his suffering and caused indelible mental trauma. He stopped trusting people. While caring for Kitty, he was terribly afraid of gaining weight, but now he had gained weight, gained weight, was reluctant to walk, and began to suffer from shortness of breath. Now Startsev was not close to anyone. The hero's attempt to start conversations about the fact that humanity is moving forward, that we need to work, was perceived among ordinary people as a reproach. Annoying arguments began. Feeling a misunderstanding, Startsev began to avoid conversations. He just had a snack at a party and played screw. The hero began to save money. Four years later, A.P. Chekhov again forces his hero to meet with the Turkins family. One day he is sent an invitation on behalf of Vera Iosifovna, in which there is a note: “I also join my mother’s request. TO.".
When they meet again, Kitty appears to the hero in a different light. There is no former freshness and expression of childish naivety. The hero no longer likes either the pallor or the smile of Ekaterina Ivanovna. The old feelings for her now only cause awkwardness. The hero comes to the conclusion that he did the right thing in not marrying her. Now the heroine has a different attitude towards Startsev. She looks at him with curiosity, and her eyes thank him for the love he once felt for her. The hero suddenly feels sorry for the past.
Now Ekaterina Ivanovna already understands that she is not a great pianist. And she speaks about his mission as a zemstvo doctor with emphasized respect: “What happiness! - Ekaterina Ivanovna repeated with enthusiasm. “When I thought about you in Moscow, you seemed to me so ideal, sublime...” Startsev comes up with the idea that if talented people in the whole city are so mediocre, then what should the city be like?
Three days later, the hero again receives an invitation from the Turkins. Ekaterina Ivanovna asks him to talk.
In the fifth part of the story, the hero appears before us even more degraded. He became even more fat, his character became heavy and irritable. The life of the Turkin family has hardly changed: “Ivan Petrovich has not aged, has not changed at all and still makes jokes and tells jokes; Vera Iosifovna still reads her novels to guests willingly, with heartfelt simplicity. And Kitty plays the piano every day, for four hours.” In the person of the Turkin family, A.P. Chekhov exposes urban inhabitants who only demonstrate their craving for the “reasonable, good, eternal”, but in fact have nothing to offer society.
