MS.

Mital Macwan

Dept. Of English

Anand Arts College, Anand

Grief
Anton Pavlovich Chekov
 Characters:

Iona Potapov ( cabby )

Barin ( Iona’s son )

Que-1. Justify the title of the story, “Grief

Anton Chekov was an eminent Russian playwright and master of
the short story. He came from a poor family who spent a wretched boyhood. The
harsh experiences he underwent during his formative years made him to state
sorrowfully, ‘ there was no childhood in my childhood.’ The stories were written
by him reflect the moral influence of Tolstoy. ‘Grief” is an example of Chekov’s
craftsmanship with its basic simplicity and minuteness.

In this story, Chekov has drawn the character sketch of Iona

potapov whose lamentation over the death of his son is very tragic. The story opens
with the description of Iona Potapov who is a cab - driver. It is time of twilight
and Iona is quite white and looks like a phantom because a thick wet snow is
slowly twirling around the newly lighted street lamps and Iona’s shoulders and hat.
This little horse is also quite motionless and white. Iona and his little horse have
not moved from their place for a long time. When he hears a loud noise addressing
him, he jumps and throws his snow covered eye - lashes and sees an officer in a
great coat, who wants to go at viborg way and the officer takes his place and then
the cab-driver begins to drive. Cabby does not have any interest in life or anything
else. As he has lost his young son, he does not like to talk with others in a happy
mood. He finds himself in the depth of grief as he has lost his only son before a
week. It is too difficult to lose a young son in one’s old age. He thinks that it is his
time to be died and not the time of his son. He says; “ My son has died, and I am
alive…A wonderful thing, death mistook the door…instead of coming to me, it
went to my son…”

It is said that whenever we share our grief with other people, we

become somewhat free from depressions. Here also Iona wants to share his feeling
of sorrow so that he can be able to get some comforts. He thinks that he has lost the
most important thing of his life by the death of his only child. Nothing is as
important as his son in his life. He becomes sad and upset by this incident in his
life but he finds no one with whom he shares his feelings of sorrow. When he tries
to tell a story of his son’s death to that officer, he finds that the officer has no
interest in listening the story of a poor cab-driver.

Through the character of Iona, the author wants to throw a light on

human nature. People have become modern and they are living their life with all
the comforts but they have lost the major important thing – their moral values.
Because of the loss of moral values, rich people don’t have time to talk with poor
people and so the condition of people who are poor and down trodden, is very
much miserable in present time. In the opinion of the author, because of this aspect
of human nature the whole world is divided into two major classes - rich and poor.
An ordinary man can also easily find that poor people are always treated in a
wretched way and also exploited by the group of rich people.

It is a fact that rich people have the power of money and status
and they always misuse their power. Basically they forget everything about the
moral values which are found in poor people and it can be easily seen in the
character of Iona and the officer as the officer has soul interest only in his
destination viborg where he wants to go and we find the less interest in the story of
poor cabby. Besides, he behaves rudely with the cabby and the only reason behind
his rude behavior with cab driver is that cabby belongs to poor family. As soon as
the officer has left, the three young men came there. They want to go at the police
bridge by cab. They tell the cab –driver that they will give two grivenicks, which is
not fair price. All three young men are joking and jostling with each other and
during their conversation, they are using bad language. Apart from this, all the
three at once try to get on to the seat. The reason behind their attempts to sit is that
there is only the capacity of two persons to sit in the cab and they are three. They
begin a discussion which two shall sit and who shall be one to stand in the cab.
After abusing each other, finally it is decided who will stand and who will sit. As
they are young and enthusiastic, they behave roughly and Iona feels at his back the
little man wriggling. He feels loneliness; he feels insulting words which are spoken
by the three young men. After hearing this, Iona looks round at them several times,
he waits for a temporary silence, then turning round again, he murmurs: ‘ my son
died this week.’ When one of them says that ‘we must all die.’ Iona thinks that
they have interest in Iona’s grief but soon after his thinking is broken when one of
them addresses him as ‘old pest’.

Finally at the end of story when Iona finds that there is no one who
will give him consolation, he thinks that it is better for him to talk with his little
horse. He finds sympathy for him in the eyes of his horse. He puts on his coat and
goes to the stable to his horse. Iona looks at bright eyes of his horse. He also says
that his son had high fever and he was in the hospital for three days and then died.
If he is alive, he could be first - rate cab driver. Iona’s feelings are too much for
him and he tells the little horse the whole story.

The author’s sense of sorrow at man’s inhumanity to man, and his

compassion for the lonely and the downtrodden is reflected in this story. Thus, the
author wants to give his views about the nature of rich people and the condition of
a poor people in the whole world.

Q-2 Write a detailed note on the theme of the story ‘GRIEF’.

“GRIEF” with its basic simplicity and minuteness of detail, is a
typical example of Anton Chekov’s craftsmanship. The author’s sense of sorrow at
man’s inhumanity to man and his compassion for the lonely and downtrodden is
reflected in this disturbing tale. Themes are the fundamental often universal ideas
explored in a literary work. Anton Chekov’s grief is a pathetic tale that deals with
the agony of a cab driver. It is also depicted that no one pays attention to the
situation of a poor cab driver and his agony.

Anton Chekov’s craftsmanship leads us to be lost in the heart of a

poor cab driver. The author tells the tale of a poor cab-driver who drives his cab in
the city and earns his bread. The city life tells us the story of chaos and hustle-
bustle. Crowds of people are found everywhere but no friendly atmosphere is seen.
In the comparison of a village life, it is thoroughly different to live in city. When
any unaccepted incident takes place in a village, people get together and shoulders
the responsibility themselves. The urban people don’t have time to help anyone but
to laugh at the old person where as the rural people respect and try to understand
the feeling of a pathetic person. who wants to share sorrow and joy and in this way
the author has described the difference between city life and village life.

The another theme which is described here is that a poor man’s grief
is always ignored. The worldly people are generally found ignoring the wretched
and the poor. They don’t have time to share a poor man’s grief. Iona, the cab driver
is such a poor character. as is never paid attention to Iona who has lost his only son
and for the shake of earning bread, drives a cab among crowds He finds himself
isolated in the whole world.

The another theme which we find in this story is – Isolation

increases grief while work lessens it. In isolation grief becomes dense. It widens its
arms to confiscate a poor creature. Iona is a poor cab driver who is unable to earn
his livelihood. His only son was Barin who died last week. A new ray of light to
him closes the door of his life. He waits for a deep sleep but the beating heart
makes him lead his life. Iona meets people and tries to tell his grief to them. On the
way, while driving, his laughter accompanies him and that is a good sign for him to
overcome from his grief.

The author wants to satire on human being. According to him,

animals are far better than human beings. In this story, it can be found that animals
are better than human beings. Iona drives his horse from morning to evening. He
finds many people who are traveling by the cab but no one is ready to listen
anything about Iona’s sadness. He wants to tell his tale of his only son – Barin. He
does not know how to tell a story of grief to those people who quarrel and abuse
each other. His story remains on his lips or at one corner of his heart. He fails to
relate grief hence he comes home with a heavy heart but his only present
companion – a white horse listens to him. He knows his sorrow which is buried in
his heart. The white horse with insufficient food listens to Iona’s story of grief
patiently. Through this story, it proves that animals are far better than human
beings.

On the whole, In this story the author has drawn out all these above
themes in an artistic way. As the theme is considered as a major feature of any
story,all the above themes are also of immense value which are described here by
the author.