Chekhov Short Story Thread

[Quark]

Janine hasn't gotten back to me yet. If she doesn't respond tomorrow morning, I think I'll just go ahead. I don't think she will mind since she's been taking a break recently anyway.

Oh, and can anyone else see Antiquarian's posts? Is it just me, or did all her posts vanish?

[Dark Muse]

You are right, they did. I cannot see her posts either, at least on this thread. I haven't noticed on any of the others yet

[Virgil]

Just sticking my head in to tell you guys. Janine's comuter broke down and will not be able to participate for a while. Anti was banned from the forum and will obviously not be on any more.

[Quark]

Weird. I didn't even know you could get banned. I guess I'm going to have to try enlist more people for the discussion. I thought I had built up a good sized group, but we're suddenly down to two.

[Nightshade]

Well actually I thought I might pop my head in for a bit and try to join in ( another author off my litnet challenge list) but presumably Im going to have back track and read the whole thread from the beginning again to follow so it'll probably be the middle of the week before I can join in.

[Quark]

Well actually I thought I might pop my head in for a bit and try to join in

Oh, good. I'm sure you'll get hopelessly hooked on the discussion.

presumably Im going to have back track and read the whole thread from the beginning again to follow so it'll probably be the middle of the week before I can join in.

Well you picked a good time to enter the conversation. We're just about to start a new story, so you shouldn't have to review the other posts. You can if you want, of course. There have been some good posts. It's just that there's now over 800 separate posts, and it would take forever to read over them all.

The new story we're about to start is called "Sleepy." You can find it online here at LitNet if you go to the author's page. I'll post a link to it when I introduce the story.

[Nightshade]

Okies

[Dark Muse]

Just sticking my head in to tell you guys. Janine's comuter broke down and will not be able to participate for a while. Anti was banned from the forum and will obviously not be on any more.

Oh wow that is crazy about her being banned. Do you know why?

[Quark]

I read over the story again today, so I'm ready to start the discussion. I'll post an introduction tomorrow morning. It's gotten a little too late for me tonight. Besides, I still have to send off a couple of PMs to people who expressed interest in the thread. Also, I have yet to find a good image to use in the introduction. I'm looking for something that has a girl like the main character, a baby, and the dark mood of the story. I might have to google search for this one since I'm having a serious lapse of imagination right now. Anyway, I'll post an introduction tomorrow, and we can start the conversation whenever everyone has time.

[Dark Muse]

I have now read the story, so I am ready, and cannot wait. Hehe hopefully some new people will join, or else it will just be the two of us LOL. Sense Janine will not do this story and now that Anti is gone.

[Quark]

Now that we're set on a story and alerted everyone that the discussion is about to begin, I guess we can start. If anyone doesn't own a copy of the story, you can find it online at this url: http://www.online-literature.com/anton_chekhov/1248/. Here's the introduction for "Sleepy:"

"Sleepy"

This includes a bit of a spoiler, so those who haven't read the story yet may want to overlook this part. "Sleepy" is the story of Varka, a thirteen year old girl whose family are servants. At the start of the story she's already been up for many hours--if not days--taking care of her master's new born child. Her work combined with her family crisis prevent her from falling asleep, however, and she has to continue to work in her sleep-deprived state. She's able to drift off occasionally, but her mistress wakes her with more orders. Eventually, she becomes delerious. The objects in the room take on special significance. Her delierium becomes madness. Then, she completely loses touch with reality and believes that the baby is the one making her stay up. Finally, she attacks the child, and when the baby is dead she lays down to sleep.

"Sleepy" is perhaps Chekhov's best story from his middle period. The story is interesting for it's dramatic, thematic, and perspective qualities. The plot is extremely tragic. The themes are engaging, and the way Chekhov conveys the girl's half-awake state is perfect. For being only five pages long, "Sleepy" crams a lot in. It should be a good discussion.

As usual, I'll post segments of the story for discussion. This way there isn't confusion about where we're at or what we're talking about. Also, it should make it easier for us to find quotes. We won't have to keep going back and forth between the discussion and the story. I will post the first section of the story tonight.

Hehe hopefully some new people will join, or else it will just be the two of us LOL. Sense Janine will not do this story and now that Anti is gone.

I had a couple other people PM me about the thread. Hopefully at least one of them will join. Nightshade also posted on here two days ago.

[Quark]

The beginning of the story:

NIGHT. Varka, the little nurse, a girl of thirteen, is rocking the cradle in which the baby is lying, and humming hardly audibly:

"Hush-a-bye, my baby wee,
While I sing a song for thee."

A little green lamp is burning before the ikon; there is a string stretched from one end of the room to the other, on which baby-clothes and a pair of big black trousers are hanging. There is a big patch of green on the ceiling from the ikon lamp, and the baby-clothes and the trousers throw long shadows on the stove, on the cradle, and on Varka. . . . When the lamp begins to flicker, the green patch and the shadows come to life, and are set in motion, as though by the wind. It is stuffy. There is a smell of cabbage soup, and of the inside of a boot-shop.

The baby's crying. For a long while he has been hoarse and exhausted with crying; but he still goes on screaming, and there is no knowing when he will stop. And Varka is sleepy. Her eyes are glued together, her head droops, her neck aches. She cannot move her eyelids or her lips, and she feels as though her face is dried and wooden, as though her head has become as small as the head of a pin.

"Hush-a-bye, my baby wee," she hums, "while I cook the groats for thee. . . ."

A cricket is churring in the stove. Through the door in the next room the master and the apprentice Afanasy are snoring. . . . The cradle creaks plaintively, Varka murmurs -- and it all blends into that soothing music of the night to which it is so sweet to listen, when one is lying in bed. Now that music is merely irritating and oppressive, because it goads her to sleep, and she must not sleep; if Varka -- God forbid! -- should fall asleep, her master and mistress would beat her.

The lamp flickers. The patch of green and the shadows are set in motion, forcing themselves on Varka's fixed, half-open eyes, and in her half slumbering brain are fashioned into misty visions. She sees dark clouds chasing one another over the sky, and screaming like the baby. But then the wind blows, the clouds are gone, and Varka sees a broad high road covered with liquid mud; along the high road stretch files of wagons, while people with wallets on their backs are trudging along and shadows flit backwards and forwards; on both sides she can see forests through the cold harsh mist. All at once the people with their wallets and their shadows fall on the ground in the liquid mud. "What is that for?" Varka asks. "To sleep, to sleep!" they answer her. And they fall sound asleep, and sleep sweetly, while crows and magpies sit on the telegraph wires, scream like the baby, and try to wake them.

There's quite a lot to talk about in this first section, so I'll start at the top and work my way down. First, this line:

"Hush-a-bye, my baby wee,
While I sing a song for thee."

Varka murmurs this to the baby repeatedly during the story, but to no avail. It seems extra cruel that she should have to sing a lullaby when she herself is struggling to stay awake. Much of the story is meant to build pity for Varka, and I think this is another instance of that.

A little green lamp is burning before the ikon; there is a string stretched from one end of the room to the other, on which baby-clothes and a pair of big black trousers are hanging. There is a big patch of green on the ceiling from the ikon lamp, and the baby-clothes and the trousers throw long shadows on the stove, on the cradle, and on Varka. . . . When the lamp begins to flicker, the green patch and the shadows come to life, and are set in motion, as though by the wind.

This paragraph sets up some of the themes. These objects represent other forces in Varka's life which she isn't able to deal with. The pants are her father's and correspond to his death, while the baby-clothes symbolize the burden her masters are putting on her. Varka, of course, misinterprets these symbols. She dreams that they are clouds and people lulling her to sleep. These misinterpretations are what lead to the shocking end, and we can see them beginning here. The paragraph ends with:

It is stuffy. There is a smell of cabbage soup, and of the inside of a boot-shop.

This is a little bit of setting, and it tells us something about Varka. The cabbage soup smell indicates that she is poor. The stuffiness and boot-shop tells us that she's living in a small cramped place that belongs to her master. Remember that the family she works for makes shoes. This is then a squalid scene, and it builds more compassion for the girl.

[Dark Muse]

Varka murmurs this to the baby repeatedly during the story, but to no avail. It seems extra cruel that she should have to sing a lullaby when she herself is struggling to stay awake. Much of the story is meant to build pity for Varka, and I think this is another instance of that.

Thanks for the translation hehe.

In my book they do not translate the song she sings but leave it in Russian, though in someways it had added an interesting affect to the story, sense I could not understand the words, it just like this constant sound that is being repeated throughout the story.

Yes I agree the story was meant to inspire pitty to Varka, I for one felt sorry for her.

A cricket is churring in the stove. Through the door in the next room the master and the apprentice Afanasy are snoring. . . . The cradle creaks plaintively, Varka murmurs -- and it all blends into that soothing music of the night to which it is so sweet to listen, when one is lying in bed. Now that music is merely irritating and oppressive, because it goads her to sleep, and she must not sleep; if Varka -- God forbid! -- should fall asleep, her master and mistress would beat her.

I loved this passage, and the way all the sounds in the house begin to blend together, with everything being still and sleeping, except for Varka, who alone remains.

I also loved the cricket in the stove for some reason.

And the way in which the melody which is so soothing becomes oppressive to Varka, sense she alone cannot be lolled by it, and the way the idea of sleep is sort of mocking her.

This paragraph sets up some of the themes. These objects represent other forces in Varka's life which she isn't able to deal with. The pants are her father's and correspond to his death, while the baby-clothes symbolize the burden her masters are putting on her. Varka, of course, misinterprets these symbols. She dreams that they are clouds and people lulling her to sleep. These misinterpretations are what lead to the shocking end, and we can see them beginning here.

I loved the descritpions of the objects here. I really liked the flickering of the lamp and how it created that green spot which Varka keeps returning through the story, I also love the way these things merge and change into her dreams/hallucinations. And later the way they do begin to reoccur I thought was really quite interesting.

[Quark]

Thanks for the translation hehe.

I wonder why they didn't translate it in your version. Lazy translator? I don't know. I suppose one could probably assume that it's a lullaby--considering that it is night and she's with a baby. Having it actually spelled out, though, kind of helps.

I loved this passage, and the way all the sounds in the house begin to blend together, with everything being still and sleeping, except for Varka, who alone remains.

I got that sense, too. Everything around her seems to be trying to get her to fall asleep. There's a drowsiness to room she's in. The swaying shadows, the lurid green glow from the lamp, and the cradle. It even makes the reader sleepy.

I also loved the cricket in the stove for some reason.

That's another part of the drowsy ambiance. A cricket chirps are night when we're supposed to be sleeping. The sound reminds Varka and the reader that she's up when she isn't supposed to be. The stove would make the sound reverberate, too.

I loved the descritpions of the objects here. I really liked the flickering of the lamp and how it created that green spot which Varka keeps returning through the story.

The lamp casts a weird color over the room which adds to the effect, but I haven't been able to tell if it relates to anything else in the story. I think the clothes symbolize parts of Varka's life, but the ikon lamp doesn't seem to relate to anything. Perhaps it is just a piece of ambiance.

I also love the way these things merge and change into her dreams/hallucinations. And later the way they do begin to reoccur I thought was really quite interesting.

I liked the interweaving of reality and dream, too. Really, though, it might be more of a progression from reality to dream rather than a balance of the two. Varka's dreams become harder to distinguish from reality the longer the story goes on. Her first dream is obviously a dream, but the second one is much more real. The last one she does mistake for reality.

[Dark Muse]

I wonder why they didn't translate it in your version. Lazy translator? I don't know. I suppose one could probably assume that it's a lullaby--considering that it is night and she's with a baby. Having it actually spelled out, though, kind of helps.

In my book it acutally appears as:

Bayu, bayushki, bayu!
Nurse will sing a song to you

That's another part of the drowsy ambiance. A cricket chirps are night when we're supposed to be sleeping. The sound reminds Varka and the reader that she's up when she isn't supposed to be. The stove would make the sound reverberate, too.

Yes that is a good point. Also crikets are musical creatures of thier night. I dot know about others, but I always find listening to them to be quite soothing.

The lamp casts a weird color over the room which adds to the effect, but I haven't been able to tell if it relates to anything else in the story. I think the clothes symbolize parts of Varka's life, but the ikon lamp doesn't seem to relate to anything. Perhaps it is just a piece of ambiance.

Yes I think the strange green glow of the lamp does help set the mood of the story, as well I think it sort of helps with that sort of surreal affect of her dreams bleeding into reality. It casts this sort of murky haze over everything, and I think also created a bit more of an eerie affect to the story as well.

I liked the interweaving of reality and dream, too. Really, though, it might be more of a progression from reality to dream rather than a balance of the two. Varka's dreams become harder to distinguish from reality the longer the story goes on. Her first dream is obviously a dream, but the second one is much more real. The last one she does mistake for reality.

I felt that the blurred lines between dream and reality were the dellusisional effects that sleep deprivation can have on a person, particuarly after a long period of time, and this idea where she no longer really knows if she is sleeping or waking anymore, and what is going on around her, and what really is just a deram. She becomes disorinted becasue of her lack of sleep and cannot tell dream from reality.