Plot Dynamics in A. P. Chekhov’s Short Story “The Neighbours”

Abstract

The article deals with investigation of plot dynamics in one of Chekov’s short stories of 1890-s. The center of the plot is outlook changes that the lead character goes through. In the process of narration it coordinates with another incident that happened to the hero’s opponent and was partially retold by him. The main character, Ivashin, has to “defend” his family honor, because his sister has run away from mother’s house. His neighbor, Vlasich, who seems to be obviously guilty, consists on his own position. His confession reveals another side of happenings - it is an unhappy man’s truth. Vlasich retells a story of a tramp, which looks like extrapolation on the actual events. His biography background is lightened by such metatypical nominations, as Gogol’s Khoma Brut, Don Quixote and even Dostoyevsky - becoming metatype in the context of his life story (“Dostoyevsky-like marriage”). Therefore, Ivashin loses his moral priority. He is confused and upset. He sees that his opponents, his sister and neighbor, are right. He has no reason to move further. Understanding the fact that only his life was false, Ivashin leaves the “sinful” house. Thus, Ivashin’s great inner work lays beside of a story, as a probable variant of his nearest future. The crisis he passes through reveals an existential problem of isolation and disconnection between people, and, at least, a problem of his own empty and loveless life. Plot development connects different senses of events. Revelation that shakes the main character is, inside the poetic structure of a story, a result of plot dynamics.