Harmful Shells

“And our spending our whole lives among trivial, fussy men and silly, idle women, our talking and our listening to all sorts of nonsense -- isn’t that a case for us, too?” As depicted in this quotation from Anton Chekhov’s short story “The Man in a Case,” Russian society in the late nineteenth century faced many obstacles to truly gaining personal freedom. With an absolutist government under Czar Alexander III, the idea of freedom seemed like an unobtainable illusion. This lack of liberty had a great effect on citizens, including the famous author Anton Chekhov. In two of his short stories, “The Beauties” and “The Man in a Case,” the themes of self-enclosure and opportunities lost reflect the impact of Russian society during the late 1880s, while still remaining important today.

   
          In “The Beauties,” when the narrator notices two beautiful women, rather than expressing his feelings of attraction, he recoils into a shell and remains silent. Indeed, after observing a young Armenian girl’s enchanting features, “little by little the desire comes over you to say to Masha something extraordinarily pleasant, sincere, beautiful, as beautiful as she herself was.” And yet, the narrator decides to keep his opinions internalized, therefore inherently losing out on an opportunity at love. Still, the narrator fails to learn this lesson, and when struck by a second woman at a train station who was “remarkably beautiful,” he again does nothing. However, the narrator is not the only person so affected by one woman. A guard at the train station “wore a look of tenderness and of the deepest sadness...as though he were repenting and feeling in his whole being that the girl was not his.” This guard remains in his own type of shell, and like the narrator, chooses to never break free. Although the shells are supposed to serve as protection for these two characters, they instead generate pain into their lives from the regret of lost opportunities.

“The Beauties” marks a great societal transition in Russian history - the rise of industrialization. During the 1890s, Russia experienced a great increase in the building of railroads (Bruford 176). This change is evident within this short story because the first part takes place in the steppe, while the second part occurs in a train station. At the core of “The Beauties” also lies a significant past time, travel, to Russians due to the country’s large size. In both parts of the story, the narrator is travelling, which ties to the industrialization because the first trip is by carriage, and the second by train. These two distinct travel methods also reflect the amount of time the narrator had to appreciate the women’s beauty. While in the country, the boy has hours to cherish the woman’s looks. Yet, in the train station he has only the time of the break, which is significantly less time, comparatively. Furthermore, the two types of beauty further signify the shift in setting. According to Radislav Lapushin, “while the first girl is associated or directly compared with natural images of swiftness and motion (the bird, the wind, and lightning), the other one is mostly observed ‘standing at the window’ of the train car” (133). In addition, the realism of this story is achieved because it was based off of Chekhov’s life experiences. In a letter that he wrote to his sister on February 4, 1887, Chekhov described an encounter with a lady at the train station: “‘At an upper window at the far end of the station sits a young girl (or a married lady, goodness knows which) in a white blouse, beautiful and languid” (Bruford 17). Therefore, “The Beauties” depicts a realistic view on a pivotal point in Russian history, the transition of industrialization, through Chekhov’s real life experiences and his literary style. And this industrialization denoted a shift from relative freedom in the country to less freedom due to the increase in the bureaucracy and a higher concentration of people.

Like the industrialization in “The Beauties,” “The Man in a Case” uses an increase in government to project the themes of a “case,” the absence of individual freedom, and their detrimental effects. Byelikov, a teacher of Greek, falls victim to a “constant and insurmountable impulse to wrap himself in a covering” in order to protect himself from the outside world. For example, he always wears goloshes and a coat, while carrying an umbrella in its own case, no matter what the weather. In addition, Byelikov attempts to conceal his thoughts in a case, only speaking of “government circulars and newspaper articles in which something was forbidden.” This characteristic makes the whole town afraid of Byelikov’s ever-present, sharp judgment, therefore taking some of their freedom as well. However, Byelikov gains another interest in the form of a new colleague’s sister, Varinka, who in opposition to Byelikov’s character, was “so sprightly, so noisy; she was always singing Little Russian songs and laughing.” Yet, despite Varinka’s reciprocal affection for Byelikov, he fails to propose due to an embarrassing incident of falling down the stairs before her. Instead, he retreats to his bed and dies within a month. In the end, Byelikov spends eternity in the ultimate case - a coffin.

   
          The character Byelikov in “The Man in a Case” represents a whole Russian population during the nineteenth century when he becomes a victim to society. According to W. H. Bruford, Byelikov’s constant surveillance of his fellow citizens personifies the secret police controlled by the Ministry of the Interior, which came about from the “uneasy absolutism in an increasingly democratic age” (106). Byelikov’s overbearing observance forces people to feel uneasy and self-conscious about their lives for fear of being ridiculed, or worse. Furthermore, Chekhov often reflected his views on the lack of Russian citizens’ freedom in his letters. He once wrote, “My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love and the most absolute freedom - freedom from violence and lying, whatever forms they may take.” In general, this story reflects the lives of the intelligentsia, “a group broadly defined as the educated classes generally, excluding clergy and civil servants” (Clyman 73). Despite their education, they cannot escape the provincial conundrums of a shell covered in self-told lies “for the sake of a crust of bread, for the sake of a warm corner, for the sake of a wretched little worthless rank in the service.”
   
          Because Chekhov remains so widely read and recognized as an accomplished author, scholars have varying opinions on his short stories’ themes. Toby W. Clyman writes in A Chekhov Companion that Chekhov comments on “the inevitable sadness which true beauty evokes in us because it is both rare and ephemeral” (60). This statement is true, but misses important aspects of the story. The sadness felt by the men does have a root in the women’s beauty, but also in their lack of courageous communication caused by a loss of personal freedom, manifested in the form of a case. Similarly, Valentine Tschebotarioff Bill, in Chekhov - The Silent Voice of Freedom, claims that “Byelikov, in ‘The Man in a Case’ (1898) is the ultimate embodiment, the culminating symbol of fear and of isolation caused by fear” (158). Once again, the illusion of individual freedom is overlooked as the cause. Also, Byelikov serves a source of fear for the townspeople, as well as for himself. Therefore, when reading Chekhov, the cultural background of Russia remains vital in developing theories of themes in his short stories that should never be ignored.   

          In spite of the fact that Anton Chekhov wrote his short stories,“The Beauties” and “The Man in a Case,” in the late nineteenth century, their themes of personal freedom remain as applicable to modern times as they were when written. Even though teenagers in the United States are protected under the Constitution, the inescapable presence of the government still places limits on freedoms of expression and speech, thereby putting everyone in their own type of case. In addition, teenagers already place themselves in a case because no one truly expresses every thought that may enter his or her mind. Just like the closing of “The Man in the Case” stated, society places its citizens in cases through “our talking and our listening to all sorts of nonsense,” because no one really has the freedom to say how he or she truly feels.

Works Cited

Bill, Valentine Tschebotarioff. Chekhov - The Silent Voice of Freedom. New York: Philosophical Library, 1987.

Bruford, W.H. Chekhov and His Russia. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1947.

Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich. “The Beauties.” American Literature. Web. Accessed 26 Sept. 2011.

Chekhov, Anton Pavlovich. “The Man in a Case.” American Literature. Web. Accessed 26 Sept. 2011.

Clyman, Toby W. A Chekhov Companion. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985.

Lapushin, Radislav. “Dew on the Grass:” The Poetics of Inbetweeness in Chekhov. New York: Peter Lang, 2010.