01. The Student

February 14^th, 2013

“The Student” by Anton Chekhov

Mr. Garrioch / World Lit

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It is almost too common to mention how having profound background knowledge of a literature is pivotal in comprehending it. And it was this regard that perplexed me in my first reading of “The Student” by Anton Chekhov- I literally knew nothing about Russian history or biblical tales. After all, how could I know anything about Ivan the Terrible or Peter the Great? Referring to the 16^th century historical figures and using rhetoric, the style of this piece of writing seemed prolix and grandiose.

The plot was not so earthly or realistic. A student of the clerical academy, the protagonist Ivan Velikopolsky suddenly reminds the parallelism of current circumstances to the history. Then, finding two widows (two who are Vasilisa, fat old woman in a man’s coat, and Lukerya, her daughter, a little pock-marked woman with a stupid-looking face as Chekhov puts it) burning a fire, Ivan approaches them and talks about one of Christ’s twelve disciples St. Peter. When his words are done, he leaves the weeping woman. Then, on his way home Ivan has a flash of brilliant insight of the whole world in his mind.

So what is Chekhov trying to convey via this short story? That present is determined by the past? That there exists an unknown cycle that circulates past events again and again? Or that the story of the night before Crucifixion is so penetratingly sad?

Looking into the more technical than contextual, The Student utilizes realistic devices. It very elaborately delineates everything Ivan sees. The story uses phrases like ‘a cold, penetrating wind’, ‘needles of ice’, ‘cheerless, remote, and lonely’ in the introduction to convey the gloominess of night. It describes the appearance of two widows acutely as well (as mentioned above). Detailed descriptions satisfy “verisimilitude”, almost as extremely to seem subjective.

Chekhov also takes third person point of view, which is another major characteristic of realism literature. Through a third person narrative, Chekhov states the thought process of Ivan Velikopolsky directly through narration and Ivan’s words. Stating how Ivan thinks about Vasilisa and the world from time to time, the narrative but leaves out all other perspectives. The story never mentions about the reason for Vasilisa’s tears or Lukerya’s stare.

The Student portrays the reality of the time. Back in late 19^th century, when The Student was written, Russia was reaching towards the end of the Tsar (or ‘Czar’). The superficially successful reform of the established bureaucracy couldn’t save the country from deep recession. Large proportion of the serfs with economic downturn left powerless commoners’ lives impecunious. Further, Roman Catholic was the second most prevalent religion in Russia (following its state religion the Russian Orthodox Christianity). Anton Chekhov depicts both aspects accurately, along with other backdrops of the time such as the status of women.

So far, I found that The Student does satisfy qualities of realism literature. Anton Chekhov does make use of verisimilitude and third person narrative. It is also a pictorial of Russian life in 1890s. But still there is something that makes me uncomfortable fully admitting this story as a realism literature.