An ton Pavl ovi ch C h ek h ov Anton Chekhov was one of the most influential literary artists at the close of the

nineteenth , era of modernism in narrative fiction, particularly in short fiction. He was born in Ukraine in 1860. Today he is remembered as a playwright and one of the masters of the modern short story. He was the son of a grocer and the grandson of a serf who had bought his freedom, that and that his sons. Chekhov spent his early years under the shadow of his father's religious fanaticism while working long hours in his store. He studied in the Moscow University Medical School, where he would eventually become a doctor. Chekhov's medical and science experience is evident in much of his work as evidenced by the apathy many of his characters show towards tragic events. As Chekhov wrote to a friend, "Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress. When I get fed up with one, I spend the night with the other. Though it is irregular, it is less boring this way, and besides, neither of them loses anything through my infidelity." While attending medical school Chekhov began to publish comic short stories and used the money to support himself and his family and by 1886 he had gained wide fame as a writer. Chekhov's works were published in various St. Petersburg papers. He also published 2 fulllength novels during this time, one of which, "The Shooting Party," was translated into English in 1926. While practicing medicine, he developed his style of the dispassionate, non-judgmental author. The lack of critical social commentary in Chekhov's works netted him some detractors, but it gained him the praise of such authors as Leo Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov. In 1892 Chekhov became a full time writer. It was during this time that he published some of his most memorable stories including 'Neighbors' (1892), 'Ward Number Six' (1892), 'The Black Monk' (1894), 'The Murder' (1895), and 'Ariadne' (1895). In 1897 he fell ill with tuberculosis

moved to Yalta, while there he wrote his famous stories 'The Man in a Shell,' 'Gooseberries,' 'About Love,' 'Lady with the Dog,' and 'In the Ravine.'

Chekhov with tuberculosis on July 15, 1904 in Germany and was buried in Moscow

M an y o f C hekovs s hort st ori es are cons i dered t he best ex am pl es of t he Fo rm . When they were first made widely available in English in between 1916 and 1923, his short stories were seen as sketches or slices of life, lacking in all the elements that constituted the short-story form. Critics soon began to realize, however, that Chekhovs freedom from the conventions of social realism and formalized plot indicated the beginnings of a modern kind of narrative, which combined the specific details of realism with the poetic lyricism of Romanticism. The m ovem ent t owa rd nat ural i sm i n t heat re t hat was p reval ent i n Europe reach ed i t s hi gh est art i st i c peak i n R ussi a i n 1898 wi t h t he form at i on of t he M os cow Art The at re . It s nam e bec am e s yn on ym ous wi t h t ha t of C hekhov, whos e pl a ys about t he da y -t o -d a y l i fe o f t he l anded gent r y achi eved a re al i s m t hat was yea rs ahe a d of i t s t i m e.

In hi s dr am at i c wor ks, C hekhov sought t o conve y t he t ex t ure of eve r yda y l i fe and m ove aw a y fro m t radi t i onal i deas of pl ot and convent i ons of dram at i c s peech. Di al o gu e i n hi s pl a ys i s not sm oot h or cont i nuous: charact ers i nt errupt ea ch ot her, several di f fer ent co nversat i ons t ake pl a ce at t he sam e t i m e, and l ong paus es occur when no on e speaks at al l . A common theme throughout Chekhov's four major plays is dissatisfaction with present conditions accompanied

by a perceived inability to change oneself or one's situation. The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major Chekhovs plays. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. It dramatizes the romantic and artistic conflicts between four characters: the ingnue Nina, the fading actress Irina Arkadina, her son the symbolist playwright Konstantin Treplyov, and the famous story writer Trigorin. As with the rest of Chekhov's full-length plays, The Seagull relies upon diverse, fully-developed characters. In contrast to the melodrama of the theatre of the 19th century, shocking actions (such as Konstantin's suicide attempts) are not shown onstage. Characters tend to speak in ways that do not address the issues directly; in other words, their lines are full of what is known in dramatic practice as subtext,[1] or text that is not spoken aloud.

The fi rs t product i on of "Th e S ea gul l " di sast rous for C hekho v. The openi n g ni ght audi en ce w as ex pect i ng a com ed y. Ni na's m onol o gue a t t he end of Act I w as m et wi t h t he s pect at ors j e ers . C h ekov was so di sappo i nt ed wi t h hi s fai l ure t hat he wrot e " I shal l nev er fo r ge t l ast eveni ng... I sha l l not have t hat pl a y pro duced i n M oscow, eve r. NEVE R agai n sh al l I wri t e pl a y or have t hem s t aged. Howev er, t h e pl a y was st a ged a gai n and proved t o be a success.

Uncle Vanya is unique among Chekhov's major plays because it is essentially an

extensive reworking of his own play published a decade earlier, The Wood Demon. He introduced some changes in the original script including reducing the cast-list from almost 24 down to nine, tran sforming the climactic suicide of the The Wood Demon into the famous failed homicide of Uncle Vanya, and altering the original happy ending into a more problematic, less final resolution .Uncle Vanyas theme revolves around what might be called the wasted life, and a survey of the characters and their respective miseries will make this clear.

Three Sisters is a naturalistic play about the decay of the privileged class in Russia and
the search for meaning in the modern world. It describes the lives and aspirations of the Prozorov family, the three sisters (Olga, Masha, and Irina) and their brother Andrei. They are a family dissatisfied and frustrated with their present existence. The sisters are refined and cultured young women who grew up in urban Moscow; however for the past eleven years they have been living in a small provincial town. Chekhov's initial inspiration was the general life-story of the three Bront sisters, i.e., their refinement in the midst of provincial isolation and their disappointment in the expectations they had of their brother Branwell.

Characteristics and Influence

In the twenties century, few playwrights could leave such a vast impact on the worlds drama. Along with Ibsen and Strindberg, Chekhov pioneered what is called the "indirect action" play: he used understatement and broken conversation, off-stage events and absent characters as catalysts of tension, but retained a strict impression of realism. He went further than his contemporaries in his rejection of the classical Aristotelian plot- line, consequently his plays were described as plotless. Martin Esslin pointed out in an essay appearing in A Chekhov Companion, "the relentless forward pressure of the traditional dramatic form was replaced by a method of narration in which it was the discontinuity of the images that told the story, by implying what had happened in the gaps between episodes." Among Western playwrights, George Bernard Shaw was the first to grasp Chekhov's intentions and techniques, and he modeled his own "Heartbreak House" (1919) on The Cherry Orchard. Yet it was not until the mid- 1920s that Chekhov caught the attention of the English audiences,

becoming one of the trio of major dramatists regularly performed in British playhouses, along with Ibsen and Shakespeare. Chekhov's methods also anticipate Bertolt Brecht's technique of estrangement and Samuel Beckett's derealization. C hekhovs pl a ys we re i m m ensel y popul ar i n En gl and i n t he 1920s and have becom e cl assi cs of t he Bri t i sh st a ge. Fro m C hekhov, m an y c ont em porar y pl a yw ri ght s have l e arned how t o hi ghl i ght t he t ri vi al i t i es a nd i nact i on t o refl e ct t he i nt ernal ps ychol o g y of cha ra ct ers. In t he Uni t ed S t at es hi s fam e cam e s om ewh at l at e r. Am eri c an pl a ywri ght s such as T ennes see W i l l i am s, Art hur M i l l er, and C l i fford Odet s have used C hekhovi an t ec hni ques, and few i m port ant wri t ers of pl a ys i n t he 20t h c e nt ur y c an hav e esc a ped C hekhov 's i nfl uence ent i r el y, for ex am pl e, t he wo rk b y Bri t i sh pl a ywr i ght Mi chael Fra yn i s oft en com p ared t o t hat of C hek hov for i t s focus on hum orous fam i l y s i t uat i ons and i t s i nsi ght s i nt o soci et y.