Forty Stories

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by world famous Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy may be a short piece, but it is also one of the greatest works of fiction in any language of the world, even to this day. In it, Tolstoy examines the shallowness of the bourgeoisie lifestyle and all that surrounds it. Ivan Ilyich is an extremely successful member of the state administration. Throughout his life he has carefully and meticulously adapted his personality to please his superiors, and peers, and to live a smooth life without any complications. He is the perfect example of the blind willingness of some people to conform to social and socio-economic norms. Only shortly before his death did he finally discover the true horror that lies behind the deceptive veil of his seemingly successful life.

The use of connotative words in this piece is the foundation of this poem and it provides an idea of what this poem is going to be about. In the first stanza he describes the woman as “lovely in her bones,” showing that her beauty is more than skin deep comparing her virtues to a goddess of “only gods should speak.” In the second stanza, the reader can see and feel the love between the two people. The woman taught him how to "Turn, and Counter-turn, and Stand," showing that she was the teacher in the relationship and taught him things he thought he never needed to know. The speaker shows how when they are together, she was “the sickle” and he was “the rake” showing that this woman taught him what love is.

“They walked and talked of the strange light on the sea… talked of how sultry it was after a hot day” and discussed employment and birthplaces (897). After departing from Yalta, Chekhov details Gurov’s dreary life of “children [having] breakfast and getting ready for school… entertaining distinguished lawyers... walking his daughter to school” (901, 905).

Chekhov's portrayal of women Name Course Instructor Institution Date The stories of Anton Chekhov mark a focal moment in European fiction. This is the point where 19th realist caucus of the short stories started their transformation into modern form. As such, his work straddles two traditions. The first is that of the anti-romantic realism which has a sharp observation of external social detail. It has human behavior conveyed within tight plot. The second is the modern psychological realism in which the action in typically internal and expressed in associative narrative that is built on epiphanic moments. In consideration of the two sides, Chekhov developed powerful personal styles that presage modernism without losing traditional frills of the form. This essay will discuss the Chekhov's portrayal of women.

"There is a spy! There are in fact two filthy, double-dealing, misleading, two-faced, liars among us!" I announce. Everyone gasps in horror as they are processing this dreadful news. I immediately start to panic. If these two spies got away with this information, the king would be informed, and that would be it for all the peasants. If I get put into prison, who will support my family? Michel is only 8, Adelina has no common knowledge on how to deal with money, and my poor, poor baby, Julienne, God bless you. I pity myself as I remember the hard times when no one could afford any bread, not that there was any at all. They were hard times. Julienne was down with the dreadful flu, no food or medicine to help, the next day, she was simply gone. This thought always brings me to anger. The nobles were just partying away while we peasants were dying. I had to end the absolute monarchy. Back to the situation, I thoroughly observed each, and every representative, watching their expressions and how the

Were it a testimony to the rigors and cruelness of human nature, it would be crushing. As it is, it shatters our perception of man and ourselves as no other book, besides perhaps Anne Franke`s diary and the testimony of Elie Wiesl, could ever have done. The prisoners of the labor camp, as in Shukhov?s predicament, were required to behave as Soviets or face severe punishment. In an almost satirical tone Buinovsky exclaims to the squadron that ?You?re not behaving like Soviet People,? and went on saying, ?You?re not behaving like communist.? (28) This type of internal monologue clearly persuades a tone of aggravation and sarcasm directly associated to the oppression?s of communism.

“How should life be lived?” This is a question that people repeatedly ask themselves during their life. Outside influences, such as the media, celebrities, and peer pressure force people to search for the answer to this question. As a result, many books have been written about how life should be lived, one of these being The Death of Ivan Ilych. In this novella, Leo Tolstoy tells the reader how to live a good life by describing the life and death of someone who lived “the simplest, the most ordinary, and the most awful” kind of life (95). Tolstoy achieves his purpose by using different figures of speech; specifically, he uses irony to demonstrate how Ivan, the main character, lived a bad life, personification to show why he lived a bad life, and rhetorical questions to explain how life should be lived.

Strength of the Human Spirit Revealed in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

According to Arkady V. Belinkov the classification of Yuri Olesha as a “great martyr who was never seduced by the party is a grave mistake: Yuri was certainly seduced by the party.”1 Yuri offered no resistance to the new regimes demands placed on his literary work, but what he did

Social and economic class divides are a common theme in Chekhov’s works. If fact, social and economic class divides are a common theme in everyday life; while modern-day America does not have the same codified and rigid class system as Chekhov’s nineteenth century Russia, the reality of class rears its

Gender Roles in Anton Chekhov’s Works In 19th century Russian literature there was often a gender inequality depicted between the male and female characters. Women were expected to get married, start a family, and obey their husbands. Women often made sacrifices and married men they weren’t fond of in order to

Comparing The Poor Relations Story by Charles Dickens, Twenty Six Men and a Girl by Maxim Gorky and The Unexpected by Kate Chopin

“The Cherry Orchard” is a drama which contains a hint of comedy that originates from the country of Russia, by way of the author Anton Chekhov. The drama is centered around Russia’s popular form of slavery, which is the acquisition of a serf. Contrary to theatrical or modern conceptions of slavery, the contract between a serf and their owner could be dismissed on the grounds of buying your freedom. In correspondence with the history of Russia, Chekhov expands on the meaning of freedom by interpreting the influence of money, the radical change in social class, and the ability of the serfs to take control of their lives following their liberation. In order to systematically redeem the memory of the massive cherry orchard, Chekhov combines the orchards memory with the minds of individuals and expands on their connection to life beyond their memoires and the actions they take in the future. The Cherry Orchard’s themes outline the influx of social power in connection to class variability, questions the opportunity of freedom, and elaborated on the irony of wealth.

The erosion of social hierarchy causing a dawn of class issue and inequality amongst different classes of society has played a huge role in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. The abolition of Russian serfdom has caused Russian society into a time of flux and confusion. Due to this, it gave the ambitious serfs who were previously pitted in the lower class, a chance to become wealthy and move up in social class. Thus, this allowed for the rise of ambitious and talented in trade and industry, allowing them to gain primary roles in this new capitalist society. Causing a flux of power in Russian society as result of the erosion of power and this is mirrored in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. This rise in power for one allows for the fall in another. However,

Turgenev’s story ‘’Mumu’’ was one about the days of serfdom, garasim who was a deaf servant, served his master, and later on discovered a puppy who he loved so much, he then took care of the puppy and nurtured it but his master was not ok with having the puppy around, with everything that was done in other to keep the puppy away from garasim, the puppy still made its way back to him. At the end, the master ordered that the puppy be killed because of its disturbance and garasim volunteered to kill the puppy himself, which he