Ok, I am back with some comments. I copied the story into an offline file, so I could quote different parts. In this very first paragraph much is said about Yakov's way of living:
Quote:
THE town was a little one, worse than a village, and it was inhabited by scarcely any but old people who died with an infrequency that was really annoying. In the hospital and in the prison fortress very few coffins were needed. In fact business was bad. If Yakov Ivanov had been an undertaker in the chief town of the province he would certainly have had a house of his own, and people would have addressed him as Yakov Matveyitch; here in this wretched little town people called him simply Yakov; his nickname in the street was for some reason Bronze, and he lived in a poor way like a humble peasant, in a little old hut in which there was only one room, and in this room he and Marfa, the stove, a double bed, the coffins, his bench, and all their belongings were crowded together.
Already I get the impression that Yakov never had the incentive to move to a better town and help himself to make a more profitable living. He might have moved onto the chief town to try making coffins or even worked for someone who did and make more money than he did here in this hopeless little town. So why didn't he. Yakov seems to me to be someone with little incentive to try to better himself or his way of life. He seems to be stuck in a rut - quite inert throughout his life. I can't blame his wife for hating her existence - can you really imagine living in a crowded one room house with coffins sitting around. How dismal must that have been a life? Also, would it not cause her considerable pain knowing she buried a child and to live in this room where there would be to be constant reminders of death, with the coffins and business right there in your everyday existence.
Curious to me what he says about the children's coffins. I suppose this is born out of his repression of his memory of his dead child.
Quote:
He was very unwilling to take orders for children's coffins, and made them straight off without measurements, contemptuously, and when he was paid for the work he always said:
"I must confess I don't like trumpery jobs."
Dictionary meaning of trumpery: 1. something showy, but worthless. 2. nonscense
Rather odd thing to say about them I think.
Now this next part the story shifts to something that could be positive in Yakov's life, but instead by the end of the paragraph we still have the feeling it makes him sad which is a definite contrast to the mood there would be at a wedding where there would be happiness and gaiety and uplifting music. Again Yahov sees only the monetary value of playing his fiddle at the wedding. If he had found pure joy in his heart at doing so and of enjoying the surrounding festivities and atmosphere he would probably not have this grudge against everyone and especially this Jew named Rothschild, who happens to have the same name as a millionare. Obviously he has connected this subconsiously in his mind and has seen it as something to be bitter about because a few statements later it says that "For no apparent reason"....he has become "possessed by hatred and contempt" and especially Rothschild.
Quote:
Apart from his trade, playing the fiddle brought him in a small income.
The Jews' orchestra conducted by Moisey Ilyitch Shahkes, the tinsmith, who took more than half their receipts for himself, played as a rule at weddings in the town. As Yakov played very well on the fiddle, especially Russian songs, Shahkes sometimes invited him to join the orchestra at a fee of half a rouble a day, in addition to tips from the visitors. When Bronze sat in the orchestra first of all his face became crimson and perspiring; it was hot, there was a suffocating smell of garlic, the fiddle squeaked, the double bass wheezed close to his right ear, while the flute wailed at his left, played by a gaunt, red-haired Jew who had a perfect network of red and blue veins all over his face, and who bore the name of the famous millionaire Rothschild. And this accursed Jew contrived to play even the liveliest things plaintively. For no apparent reason Yakov little by little became possessed by hatred and contempt for the Jews, and especially for Rothschild; he began to pick quarrels with him, rail at him in unseemly language and once even tried to strike him, and Rothschild was offended and said, looking at him ferociously:"If it were not that I respect you for your talent, I would have sent you flying out of the window."
Then he began to weep. And because of this Yakov was not often asked to play in the orchestra; he was only sent for in case of extreme necessity in the absence of one of the Jews.
The paragraph goes on to state that he is nasty and treats Rothschild harshly. Yahov is possessed of "much hatred and contempt" Then Rothschild makes some remarks (justifiably), back to Yakov. So Yakov is quite antagonist to all the Jews in the orchestra and hardly ever gets asked to play unless there is an emergency, since when Rothschild makes his statement back to Yahov he cries. He seems to continually sabotage his own success of making this exta money playing in the orchestra. He does this by his poor attitude of resentment. Consciously, does he know why he acts this way, do you think? Is this part of his repression of the tragic events of his life and not having a furfilling and rewarding existence?
Quote:
Yakov was never in a good temper, as he was continually having to put up with terrible losses. For instance, it was a sin to work on Sundays or Saints' days, and Monday was an unlucky day, so that in the course of the year there were some two hundred days on which, whether he liked it or not, he had to sit with his hands folded. And only think, what a loss that meant. If anyone in the town had a wedding without music, or if Shahkes did not send for Yakov, that was a loss, too. The superintendent of the prison was ill for two years and was wasting away, and Yakov was impatiently waiting for him to die, but the superintendent went away to the chief town of the province to be doctored, and there took and died. There's a loss, for you, ten roubles at least as there would have been an expensive coffin to make, lined with brocade. The thought of his losses haunted Yakov, especially at night; he laid his fiddle on the bed beside him, and when all sorts of nonsensical ideas came into his mind he touched a string; the fiddle gave out a sound in the darkness, and he felt better.
How many times the word 'loss' or 'losses' is stated here. Yahov is someone continually and obessively looking, not once at the blessings of his life, but rather adding up every loss he has endured. He is harboring much resentment but who is the resentment really directed to? his wife? his dead child? who is responsible for all this lose? In my opinion he is more resentful of himself and his lack of incentive to move beyond his circumstances and see life can be worthwhile with some effort and some connection to other people, especially his poor wife.
Now his wife becomes seriously ill, but toward evening after playing his fiddle all day long the following occurs:
Quote:
When it was quite dark he took the book in which he used every day to put down his losses, and, feeling dull, he began adding up the total for the year. It came to more than a thousand roubles. This so agitated him that he flung the reckoning beads down, and trampled them under his feet. Then he picked up the reckoning beads, and again spent a long time clicking with them and heaving deep, strained sighs. His face was crimson and wet with perspiration. He thought that if he had put that lost thousand roubles in the bank, the interest for a year would have been at least forty roubles, so that forty roubles was a loss too. In fact, wherever one turned there were losses and nothing else.
He is really suffering over these losses of his with much anxiety. He is so angry he even tramples the reckoning beads. Again the word losses is emphasised and the last statement really adds up just how Yakov thinks the majority of the time. He is feeling totally hopeless, and the tone of the story so far feels very hopeless and sad and tragic with much underlying resentment and anger and lashing out at people for no appropriate reason. Also, he seems to be oblivious to his wife being so ill and he seems to be in some kind of denial by emersing his attention in his adding up of is losses.
I will continue with this tomorrow. Hope some of this give you a good idea of how I am perceiving the story as a whole.
