Portrayal of Society in Checkhov's Collection Of Short Stories and So Long a Letter

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World Literature Assignment 1

HYDER. Soud.Alhad  Eng SL (Grp 3)

Portrayal of Society.

Society can be portrayed in various ways, depending on customs, traditions and to some extent geographical location. Although the society portrayed does not necessarily have to reflect onto the authors own society, there is usually a link between the author and the society being portrayed. This is witnessed in the two books which I am going to deal with in this essay. In So Long A Letter; SLAL by Mariama Ba the typical West African society where Ba hails from is portrayed. On the other hand in A Collection Of Short Stories; ACOSS by Anton Chekov the emergence of the typical Russo-Siberian civilization with links to Anton Chekov is noticed.

Women being part of society are extensively and effectively portrayed in both the West African and Russo-Siberian societies. In SLAL; women can be seen as a commodity in society especially to their husbands. This effectively brigs out the themes of male dominance, female exploitation and male chauvinism. Women are seen as the property of their husbands as is evidenced on the dowry being paid to the parents of the bride as a down payment for the exchange cum “sale” of the bride to be married. Thus value is imposed onto the woman in contrast to a man whose life can be said to be viewed as more than any value declared even in monetary terms.

The treatment of Ramatoulaye and her co-wife Binetou after their husbands’ death clearly reflects the portrayal of women in this society. In fact Binetou and Ramatoulaye are seen to be helpless and are actually being exploited by their own in laws. This is clear where Ramatoulaye narrates “This is the moment dreaded by every Senegalese woman, the moment when she sacrifices her possessions as gifts to her family-in-law and worse still, beyond her possessions she give up her personality, her dignity, becoming a thin in the service of a man who has married her, his grandfather, his grandmother…….. Her behaviour is conditioned, no sister-in-law will touch the head of any wife who has been stingy, unfaithful or inhospitable.”*1 This passage clearly portrays the mistreatment of women in this particular society where a woman is seen as a “thing” connoting property which one has tremendous control over. It is also noticeable that the women in this society basically have limited rights to property especially when their husbands die and this is the time when they need the property most as they need to cater for the needs of their families and considering that in the African culture the husband is usually the sole bread winner.

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The treatment of women in the West African society can be seen to be contrasting in the sense that women should be treated at par with their male counterparts meaning that they should be treated equally and not as second class creations or beings.

In Anton Chekhov’s, ACOSS; mistreatment of women in society is evidenced. In the story Grief Chekov portrays a drunk rogue called Grigory Petrov as the main character who mistreats his wife ever since he tied the knot with her and he mistreats her continuously over a long period of time. It is ironic ...

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