MISERY by Anton Chekhov


This is a story of a father's grief over the death of his son. The grief is within
him and he desperately wants to speak about it to lighten his burdensome
misery. But no one is ready to listen to him. The story describes the old man's
urge to share his grief with others, his despair at not being able to find a
compassionate audience and his final effort to disgorge his misery by talking
to his mare, his one and only companion. (disgorge: pour out)
The old man in grief is a sledge driver. He is the protagonist of the story. The
other characters who appear briefly during the course of the story are riders on
his sledge xho have neither the time nor the inclination to listen to him. They
live in a world of their own and cannot sympathetically relate to the old man
in grief.
The story 'Misery' has a sub title ' To Whom Shall I Tell My Grief?' While
the grief is over the loss of his son, his misery is not finding an outlet to
unburden his grief.
After reading the story, note how many times the word 'misery' appears in it.
You will discover that it appears towards the latter half of the story five times
and on a sixth occasion it is used as an adjective 'miserable'.
Can you see the significance of this word in the context of the title of the
story?
In this one word 'misery' the title accurately summarizes the mood the story
carries. It tells us about the self-centred, unresponsive and feelingless nature
of human beings in this world. The title 'Misery' portrays the overwhelming
grief of Iona Potapov, the old sledge-driver over the loss of his son and his
futile attempts to share it with fellow travellers in his sledge.
The first part of the story describes the old man's grief and his repeated
efforts to catch the attention of the sledge riders and his failure to make them
listen to his tale of woe. The resulting emotion goes beyond grief and becomes
misery. Hence the title word 'misery' appears in the latter part of the story.
Misery means a great suffering of the mind or body. Here the suffering is not
physical but felt within the heart. There can be no cure for emotional distress
unless it is let out and shared with otgers. The old man has to keep his
emotions within, as there are no listeners to lend an ear. He has been rendered
alone by the death of his son, but his loneliness increases when he finds no
one with whom he can share his agony. He is severely alone and therefore is
miserable.

Let us see how the story begins.
It is evening. Chekhov describes realistically the shades of darkness all
around, heightened by the white snow. We hear a lot of movement of people,
but in the darkness no one is visible. Iona Potapov is an old man bent double
with age and grief. He sits white like a ghost and his mare stays still and
motionless. All around them is the constant motion of people who are not seen
but whose voices are heard. The writer is able to focus on the loneliness of
Iona, the sledge driver. He is surrounded by people and yet remains all alone
in his grief. The darkness around him is a measure of the darkness within him.
He is like a ghost in white (as he is covered by the snowflakes) for he
experiences a death-in-life existence.
The first passenger is an army officer. He is in a hurry to reach his destination.
He is a contrast to Iona in every respect. Iona is old and weary, the officer is
young and full of life. Iona is lost in grief, the officer jokes in a light-hearted
mood. Iona desperately seeks the officer's attention, the officer sits with his
eyes shut and his ears closed "disinclined to listen". Chekhov using the
stream-of-consciousness technique presents the continuous flow of grief in
Iona without resorting to graphic description.
The second group of passengers on the sledge is a bunch of three revellers,
young, rumbustious (making merry in a noisy way) with not a care of the
world. They behave as though they are drunk. One of them is a hunchback.
Despite his physical deformity, he feels superior to the old man who is
weighed down with grief. All of them have no sympathy for the old man who
tries to tell them of his son's death. The old man is gentIe and kind to his
mare; he does not whip his mare to speed up. In contrast the revellers ride
roughshod over his feelings. Iona is happy to see them merry, but they have no
eyes to discern the old man's sorrow. An officer or a party goer, their attitude
to the old father in grief is the same. Neither can empathise with Iona's
sadness.
The old man is left alone. Let us see how the writer describes his situation:
Again he is alone and again there is silence for him. . . . The misery
which has been for a brief space eased comes back again and tears his
heart more cruelly than ever. With a look of anxiety and sufhering
Zona's eyes stray restlessly among the crowds moving to and fro on
both sides of. the street: can he not find among those thousands
someone who will listen to him? But the crowds flit by heedless of him
and his misery. . . . His misery is immense, beyond all bounds. If
Iona's heart were to burst and his misery to flow out, it would flood
the whole world, it seems, but yet it is not seen. It has found a hidingplace
in such an insignificant shell that one would not have found it
with a candle by daylight.
His misery is immense. It can swamp the whole world and yet its immensity is
not seen. It is within him and no one can even fathom the depths of its
intensity. Iona longs for people to whom he can unburden himself. When the
revellers are in his sledge, he is comforted with the thought that he has
company to share his grief with. To that extent his grief is eased. But when he
Short Story is back alone in his sledge watching crowds moving to and fro, he realizes that
a crowd is no company. "Iona drives a few paces away, bends himself double,
and gives himself up to his misery."
One more attempt to speak to a young cabman proves futile. He is alone but
he still has his mare. He unburdens his heart to the passive mare. For the first
time, he mentions his son's name Kuzma Ionitch. He is gone. He has preceded
him to the grave. He asks the mare how she would feel if she had a colt and
the colt died. "You'd be sorry. Won't you?" The mare does not answer. It
breathes on his hand. But in that unspoken moment the animal's tender and
unprotesting looks comfort the old man. He feels that he has touched a
sympathetic chord in his mare - the only possession he has still with him. He
pours his heart out to her. He has found an outlet for his grief.
Is the mare really listening? Is she compassionate and understanding? Or is the
last part of the story just the old man's fancy? The ending is deliberately left
inconclusive. But the story drives home the point that humans are basically
insensitive to other's pain and lack any involvement and sharing in the grief of
fellowmen.

STYLE
The story you have read is written in a straightforward narrative style. What
strikes the reader is its quality of simplicity. Chekhov has an eye for detail and
he is a photographic and cinematographic realist. It is as though he has a
camera that accurately portrays a piece of life. Chekhov once said that "Art
tells the truth" and Tolstoy said "Art tells the truth because it expresses the
highest feelings of man." Chekhov's seemingly simple story affirms the truth
about human behaviour.
'Misery' is a good example of Chekhov's typical theme add narrative
structure. It does not focus on everyday reality, but centres on the
psychological aftermath of an event that breaks up everyday routine and
leaves the central character helpless. The rhythm of the sledge driver Iona's
life is broken by the news of his son's death. He feels the need to
communicate his feelings of loss to his fares. The story is not about all event,
it is rather about the lack of one. It is the objectification of grief and its
incommunicable nature, through the presentation of deliberate details.
Chekhov's prose is lucid, with a simple vocabulary (the translator has
attempted to follow this style). He uses metaphorical language to recreate the
scene - consider the description of the sledge-driver, "all white like a ghost".
This simile is apt for the snow, it also indicates the listlessness of Iona,
overpowered by grief.
Reading his story in prose is like reading a poem as the style is compressed,
imaginative and almost lyrical displaying strong emotions and feelings. A
Russian critic, Andrei Voznesensky writing about Chekhov says that he is "a
master of understatement, of concealed meaning, of twilight scenes and of
prose as compressed as poetry . . .".

Exercise 1
i) Relate the sub title ' To Whom Shall I Tell My Grief?' to the main title of the story 'Misery' . ii) Who is more sympathetic - the officer or the revellers or the young cabman? And why? iii) Why does Iona pour out his history to the mare?

LET US SUM UP

The story 'Misery' by Anton Chekhov deals with human insensitivity to other
people's grief. It captures the agony of an old man who has been recently
bereaved following the death of his son and his need to speak about his grief
and unburden himself. The indifferent and unsympathetic world has no time to
respond to his misery.
The story gives an authentic portrayal of human nature that remains
unaffected by the sorrows of the world so long as they do not impinge on it at
a personal level.


ANSWERS TO EXERCISES

Exercise 1


11. The officer at least asks him the question as to how his son died. The
revellers have nothing to ask him. The only question they put to him is
to mock at him as to whether he was married.

111. Refer to the last section . Give your own interpretation as to
whether talking to the mare shows Iona to be fanciful or truthful. Does
he find the tenderness and affection seen in the mare's eyes comforting
in contrast to the unresponsive indifference of fellow men?