A Quest of Comedy and Triumph in “the Brute”
“The Brute” by Anton Chekhov is a short play loaded with action and clamor. All of the
drama and dialogue between both main characters can make it difficult to pinpoint what the
genre or structural style of the piece may be. The basic plot points of the play and the characters’
behavior, reveal “The Brute” to be part of the Quest and more specifically a Satire.
For a majority of the play, what the characters Popov and Smirnov experience would best
be categorized as failure and disappointment. Popov is mourning the death of her husband.
Worse still, she laments over the way her husband treated their marriage in life. She expresses
her commitment to mourning eternally when she declares “I’m in my grave. Never more shall I
see the light of day; never shall I strip from my body this raiment of death!” (732). She reiterates
the ways that her husband failed her when she says, “You were unfaithful and you made those
awful scenes about it, you stormed out and left me alone for weeks” (732). The other pivotal
character, Smirnov, has strife of his own. He sums up his main frustrations when he says,
“Tomorrow Ma’am I must pay the interest on a bank loan” and “I need money, I need it
desperately (…) I leave at the crack of dawn, I call on all my debtors. Not a one of them pays
up” (734). Another disappointment, it seems that not even Mrs. Popov will solve his problems.
These woes or difficulties are characteristic of what critics would say is the real world.
Satire and irony both look at real world experiences though Ironic literature is often more tragic
in nature while “the Brute” is not so much tragic as it is comedic. The work reveals itself to be
more comedic in the way that things play out so ridiculously. Popov and Smirnov are volatile
and dramatic but not in a way that leads into any sort of tragic occurrence.
As a part of the Quest, the satirical work is associated with disorder and confusion. This
chaos is present all throughout the play. It is the erratic coming and goings of the servant Luka,
the inconsistent banter between Popov and Smirnov, and the confusion over the duel proposed
by Popov. Not being aware exactly of what is going through the main characters’ heads at the
beginning; the conversation takes unexpected turns and seems very disjointed. Luka interrupting
every few lines does not improve the flow of dialogue.
At a first look, Chekhov’s play may seem to fit under a handful of genres or styles. There
are so many plot details that fall under several categories and make a specific structural reading
difficult. But there really is just something overwhelmingly comical and real about the way
Popov “falls” for a man not unlike her late husband, and the way that all Smirnov and Popov’s
pointed accusations of the other’s gender were affirmed by their eventual romance. Underneath
all the plot fillers and hasty dialogue, it is easy to see how “the Brute” is structured after the
genre satire; after all, Chekhov lets the reader know from the start that his short play is “A Joke
in One Act”.
Works Cited
Chekhov, Anton. “The Brute.” Portable Literature. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R.
Mandell. 8th Ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2010. 731-40. Print.