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Analysis Of Anton Chekhov 's ' Misery

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Misery Even in times where one may be surrounded by many, that one is still capable of feeling alone and unappreciated as a human being. This concept is an important element in Anton Chekhov’s short story “Misery.” In “Misery,” Chekhov reveals inhumanity to man as he tells us of Iona Potapov, a sledge driver that has experienced the important themes of loss and loneliness even within the presence of another by displaying this through his use of irony, imagery, and events in the short story. As the short story begins, Chekov immediately uses the literary element of imagery in the very first sentence, “the twilight of evening.” He shows the reader that the darkness of night is approaching, indicating that death is near. Following this, Chekov then describes the “big flakes of wet snow are whirling lazily about the street lamps,” giving the reader the image of winter. The cold and darkness of the opening to the short story points out the coldness or harshness of the character’s surroundings. Iona Potapov is then introduced as a low class sledge driver whose son has recently passed away. Searching for comfort and sympathy, he reaches out to his passengers about his son’s death and unfortunately does not receive compassion or concern from them. His first words to the first passenger introduced in the story, an officer, was “my son died this week, sir,” suggests his urgency to confide in someone about his loss. The officer does not listen to Iona and continues to aggressively

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