Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
(Антон Павлович Чехов)
(1860-1904)
Presentation by Anna Kadnikova
Anton Chekhov
“Medicine is my legal wife…Literature is my
mistress”
Anton Chekhov

Physician

Major Russian short story writer

Playwright
Early Years and Literature



Mother – excellent
storyteller
School life –gained a
reputation for: satyrical
comments, making up
humorous nicknames
Wrote his own anecdotes
and funny stories in
adolescence
Early Years and Theater




Took part in amateur theatrical
performances
First performance attended –
Jacques Offenbach’s La Belle
Helene
Spent virtually all his savings on
tickets to theater!
First serious long play–
“Fatherless” (“Безотцовщина”)
(destroyed)
Medicine, Prose and Drama
Medical School at Moscow State University
 1883 – resigns due to sickness. Devotes the rest of
his life to literature
 Mainly wrote short stories – they are considered the
apotheosis of form
 Playwrighting career – brief – but had a great impact
on dramatic literature and performance

Major Plays
The Seagull («Чайка»)
 Uncle Vanya («Дядя Ваня»)
 Three Sisters («Три сестры»)
 The Cherry Orchard
(«Вишнёвый сад»)

The Seagull
The first of four major
plays.
 Centers on the romantic
and artistic conflicts
between four theatrical
characters.
 First perfomance – a
famous failure
 Staged by Stanislavsky –
sound success

The Cherry Orchard
-
-
-
Family of impoverished
nobles whose beautiful
cherry orchard (which
they are attached to) is
heavily mortgaged
Characters seek to find a
way of saving the garden
but cease to do so.
Merchant Lopakhin (his
ancestors were serfs)
buys the garden and
“lays an axe to it”
The Cherry Orchard


Lopakhin: “Lay the axe to the orchard! Come and see
the trees fall down!”
Trophimov: “All Russia is our orchard!”
New Epoch is Coming. Romanticism gives a way to
Commercialism. The Past is never to return.
 Chekhov’s attitude: pessimistic or optimistic? – still
causes arguments.

Uncle Vanya




Structurally and
psychologically complex
drama
Estate in 19th century
Russia
Exploring complex
relationships between
people
Themes of weakness,
delusion and despair, but
courage and hope as well
The Three Sisters
Decay of the
privileged class in
Russia
 Search for meaning in
the modern world
 Family that is
dissatisfied and
frustrated with its
present existence

Chekhov’s Talent and Manner

Selecting important moments from the
trivial ones
 Brevity and conciseness
 Anti-ideological
 Anti-pedagogical
 Objectivity
 Free artist
Chekhov’s Talent and Manner
No blame for anybody
 Acute delineation of human weaknesses
and delights, of human psychology
 Naturalist of the theater
 Delineation of ordinary characters
 Exceptional importance of dialogue
(What is said is more important that what is
done!)

Chekhov and Stanislavsky
collaborators – both paid closer attention
to the important unsaid messages within
the writing
 Chekhov by many is acknowledged as
someone who made Stanislavsky’s Theater
famous
 Some arguments. E.g., Cherry Orchard –
comedy(Chekhov) or drama
(Stanislavsky)?

Chekhov About His Plays
“You say you have cried at my
plays…But this is not why I wrote them,
it was Stanislavsky who turned them
into cry-babies.I simply wanted to say to
people honestly: “Understand, how bad
and boring your lives are!” People
should understand this and…create
themselves another and better life.
What is here to cry about?”
Chekhov’s Impact and Influence





Contemporary Russians celebrated Chekhov
International fame – after World War I (Constance
Garnett’s English translations)
Immensely popular in the UK in the 1920s
In the US – fame came later (through the influence of
Stanislavsky’s method)
Many writers and playwrights used Chekhovian
techniques throughout the XX century, almost none
escaped his influence
Films and Theater Productions
Among many others:
- Lanford Wilson’s “The
Three Sisters”(1997)
- Emil Loteanu’s “My
Tender and Affectionate
Beast”(Мой ласковый и
нежный зверь)(1978)
- Nikita Mikhalkov’s “Dark
Eyes”(1987)

Sources






Anton Chekhov – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; available at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov
“Three Plays of Absurd” Anton Chekhov Available at
http://www.theatrehistory.com/russian/chekhov001.html
The Social Significance of the Modern Drama. Emma Goldman. Boston:
Richard G. Badger, 1914. pp. 290-3.
ANTON CHEKHOV. available at http://www.imagination.com/moonstruck/clsc6.htm
Chekhov’s Quotes. Available at http://www.notablequotes.com/c/chekhov_anton.html
«Антон Павлович Чехов» Энциклопедия «Аванта+»
«Русская литература». Москва, 1998