Gusev Analysis. Chekov brings up two ordinary characters that are suffering under the tyranny which was ruling the country that time. Gusev and Pavel Ivanitch clearly demonstrate human suffering and injustice.

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Summary

The story is set in a hospital of a steamer where two discharged soldiers are returning to Russia after serving for many years in Far East with another two soldiers and a sailor. Gusev, the main character of the story is a courteous man who used to work under a naval officer. He is satisfied about his job and now dreaming to join his family soon. His delirious dreams are filled with images of his family's farm. He is apprehensive that if he does not make it home, the farm will fail and his parents will be thrown into the streets.

The second main character is Pavel Ivanitch, who is educated but choleric and maverick. He considers himself a radical, a truth-teller, and a member of the revolutionary intelligentsia. He mocks Gusev's optimistic geniality. He further accuses Gusev is blind to realize the oppression he has suffered. Pavel Ivanitch denounces injustice wherever he sees it and has a reputation for being a troublemaker. Even as his illness advances, Pavel Ivanitch protests. And he refuses to believe that he can die like the others; indeed, he insists that he is recovering. While they keep spending time arguing with each other he dies before he makes it home.

After a few days Gusev grows worse too. Meanwhile he starts tormenting by a vague craving, and he could not figure out what he exactly wanted. Shortly afterward, he also dies and his body is sewn up in sailcloth with two iron weights and thrown into sea. The story closes with a description of his body sinking through a school of fish while a brilliant sunset shines above. (C, Jack)

     


Theme

Although Russia was never colonized the author, Chekov brings up two ordinary characters that are suffering under the tyranny which was ruling the country that time.

Gusev and Pavel Ivanitch clearly demonstrate human suffering and injustice that citizens were undergoing. Especially Gusev represents peasants who were on the edge of the society suffering from many distresses and Pavel Ivanitch represents the educated and suppressed middle class. He is a symbol of people who were seeking to stand against so called tyranny and hypocrisy. Using these two ideal characters the author makes people to think of a social reformation which he had been influenced by third world countries he had visited.

The writer denounces and criticizes suffering and injustice mercilessly through Pavel Ivanitch. "To tear a man out of his home, drag him twelve thousand miles away, then to drive him into consumption and. . . and what is it all for, one wonders? To turn him into a servant for some Captain Kopeikin or midshipman Dirka! How logical!" Ivanitch declares his anger to Gusev at the practice of the military of uprooting men from their families to serve some perhaps undeserving officer, trample them and make them ill, by dumping them on hot, crowded ships in the knowledge that they will probably not survive the journey home. But the uneducated and simple-minded peasant Gusev was submissive and barely notices injustice. He humbly accepts his destiny, and his attitude is very authoritarian. Once telling that he was beaten by his master, arouses Pavel Ivanitch's indignant anger, Gusev feels that he deserved the punishment, as he was behaving violently towards few china men improperly. Indeed, Chekhov seems to be raising the question of whether the peasant class should be completely free, or whether they need strong leadership.

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In addition Chekhov invites people to be generous rather than being concerned about themselves and their families. Gusev worries only about what will happen to his family when he is dead, about his brother's drinking and violence towards his wife, and about the possibility that his old parents will be alienated. While Pavel Ivanitch is obsessed social injustice Gusev worries about his family and business.  Gusev's daydreams about his homeland and family reveals his narrow intentions whereas Pavel Ivanitch peers into every social and political abuse he can find, Gusev's concerns are more material and immediate. This contrast between Pavel ...

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