This is the shortest short story I’ve ever
read. In the story, Ivan Velikopolski, a student and the son of the priest goes
through the harsh winter weather and visits the widow’s garden, where two
widows live in. While first woman, Vasilisa, is a bit talkative, the second
woman Lukerya sits still and frowns. And then Ivan tells them the story of Peter
and the denial of the Jesus, which makes Vasilisa cry and Lukerya frowns. And
then Ivan heads home filled with happy feelings.
The story is a bit awkward at the first glance,
since the story ends with no apparent conclusion. Also, the correlation between
the characters aren’t mentioned specifically in the text, so we have to guess
the stories.
For example, what was the reason Vasilisa
cried when she heard Ivan’s story? I think the Peter and ‘denial’ of the Jesus have
somehow touched Vasilisa’s emotions, and it can be inferred that maybe, the
memory related to her husband made her cry. Although the story how the two women
got widowed isn’t mentioned in the passage, maybe there was some kind of ‘denial’
or ‘dissatisfaction’ related to Vasilisa’s lost husband.
In the story, there is a story within a
story, which is the story of Jesus. Although the story doesn’t seem to have a
coherence with the overall story (dissociation between cold Russian winter and
Jesus’s suffering?), the story acts as a main factor which makes the emotional
change within the characters. This emotional change is depicted in the weather’s
change, which at first Ivan feels the weather “cold that had suddenly come on had destroyed
the order and harmony of things”, but in the end
he thinks the weather condition as “ cold crimson sunset (….)without interruption to this day”.
The word ‘east’ appears on the first
paragraph and in the last paragraph, the word ‘west’ appears. I think this
means something related to the opening and termination of the overall story,
since the word ‘west’ means ‘death’ in some circumstances.
Pretty good start to the course for you. You do a sufficient little summary and then jump in to one of the central questions we can deduce from the story - what are some of the circumstances that Chekhov only hints at? The fact that these women are widows is not random at all (Chekhov's Gun). The east to west and cold to tolerable changes in nature are definitely also there for a reason. Good work here.
답글삭제Do you have any personal connection to the story? Are you similar to Ivan when you walk in Ganse Woods? You can add more personal stuff next time and give your opinion on whether it is enjoyable etc. or not. And this is not the shortest story you have ever read if you also have red Fish Cheek's by Amy Tan (508 words). I think I shared that last year.