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2 Anton Chekhov’s The Beggar Dr. Mosam Sinha www.cuidol.in Unit-1(MAP-607) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL
About the Author 3 •Anton Chekhov was born into a family of modest means and peasant ancestry, but he received a good education, studied medicine at Moscow University, and graduated as a physician in 1884. •He helped support his family by grinding out hack short stories for newspaper publication. •After he began writing more serious and more artistic stories, he gained the attention of the public and the critics. • Today, he is recognized as one of the world’s most important writers of plays and short stories. •The first edition of his complete works was published between 1900 and 1903. www.cuidol.in Unit-1(MAP-607) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL
Characters Lushkov: Beggar who lies about his plight to arouse the sympathy of a lawyer and thereby get a 4 handout from him. Skvortsov: Lawyer who refuses to give Lushkov a handout but lets him work for money. Olga: Skvortsov’s cook: When Lushkov comes to chop wood for Skvortsov, she becomes the beggar’s supervisor. Van Drivers: Workers hired to transport Skvortsov’s furniture and other possessions after Skvortsov decides to move. They laugh at Lushkov, who is to assist in the relocation, when he merely stands around trying to keep warm. Colleague of Skvortsov: Person who gives Lushkov work copying documents. Notary: Person who hires Lushkov and pays him a salary of 30 rubles. www.cuidol.in Unit-1(MAP-607) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL
Style and Narration 5 •As in other short stories he wrote, Chekhov assumes the role of a third-person narrator who reports the details of a simple plot as if he is a witness observing the scenes and listening to the characters. •He does not enter the minds of Lushkov, Skvortsov, or Olga to report their thoughts. •Rather, he allows the characters’ actions and conversations to reveal their personalities and feelings. •Chekhov also presents the setting and the events as quite ordinary and mundane even though what is taking place appears extraordinary in some way. • The writing is to the point, avoiding excesses in descriptions and striving always to present a realistic and truthful portrayal of life in Czarist Russia. www.cuidol.in Unit-1(MAP-607) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL
Themes 6 Skvortsov the lawyer helps Lushkov the beggar only after the latter agrees to chop wood for the lawyer, who believes honest labor will reform Lushkov. Olga, on the other hand, helps Lushkov without making demands on him. \\ True, she roundly scolds him with a sharp tongue, but she ends up chopping the wood for him. Whose approach to helping the needy is better, Skvortsov’s or Olga’s? That is an important question Chekhov poses in this story as an articulation of his theme. The author does not answer it; nor does he preach in favor of one approach or the the other. Some may fairly argue that Olga’s approach is the more humane and more effective. Some may fairly argue that Skvortsov’s approach is the more humane and effective because it forces Lushkov to begin taking charge of his destiny. www.cuidol.in Unit-1(MAP-607) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL
Introduction 7 •Anton Chekhov was born in Russia in 1879. He studied medicine at Moscow University but he is known as a writer of stories and plays. •He started writing stories even when he was a student. •He died of tuberculosis in 1904 just at the age of 44. •Today he is regarded as one of the greatest short story writers in the world. •The story is about a prosperous advocate Skvortsoff and a beggar Lushkoff. •The advocate is a kind man. He helps the depraved beggar to come out of his miserable life, and live like a respectable person. •But in the end he discovers that he was not the actual benefactor, but his ill-tempered cook, Olga. www.cuidol.in Unit-1(MAP-607) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL
Summary 8 •Skvortsoff was a well-to-do advocate. One day a beggar came to his door. His name was Lushkoff. •He was wearing a fawn-coloured tattered overcoat. He had dull, drunken eyes. He had red spot on either cheek. •The beggar said that he had been a village school teacher but he had lost his job. He had no money and so he was forced to beg. •Skvortsoff recalled that he had seen the beggar the other day in another street. There he had said that he had been a student who had been expelled. •He was angry with the beggar for telling a shameless lie. •He threatened to call the police and have him arrested for trying to cheat people. www.cuidol.in Unit-1(MAP-607) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL
Summary 9 •For a while the beggar stuck to what he had said. But soon he broke down. •He admitted that he had been telling lies to make people take pity on him. •In fact he had been a singer in a Russian choir. •He was a drunkard and had been dismissed. Now he had no work to do and no way to support himself. • He lived by begging. • Skvortsoff told him that he must work to earn a living. •Lushkoff pleaded that he was willing to work but no one offered him any work to do. Skvortsoff asked him if he would chop wood for him. • Lushkoff had to say that he would. www.cuidol.in Unit-1(MAP-607) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL
Summary •Skvortsoff called his cook Olga. 10 •He told her to lead Lushkoff to the woodshed and let him chop wood. • Lushkoff followed Olga unwillingly. •In fact he had never meant to chop wood but he had been trapped by his own words. • Skvortsoff hurried into the dining room. • From there he watched the cook leading the beggar to the woodshed. •She opened the door of the woodshed. •She flung an axe down at his feet. •He lifted the axe and hit a piece of wood indecisively. • It was a feeble effort. •Skvortsoff was sorry to have set that menial work to that drunkard beggar who was not fit for that work. • He came back to his study. www.cuidol.in Unit-1(MAP-607) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL
Summary 11 •After an hour Olga came in. She told Skvortsoff that Lushkoff had chopped the wood. Skvortsoff was pleased. • He gave her half a rouble for Lushkoff. •He said that if Lushkoff desired he could come to chop wood on the first of every month. • Lushkoff came to chop wood regularly on the first of every month. •He was always given work and he earned a little money every time. •When Skvortsoff moved into another house, he asked Lushkoff to help in packing and hauling the furniture. •He hardly did anything. He walked behind the wagons hanging his head. •But Skvortsoff believed that he had done his job well. • He gave Lushkoff a rouble. Lushkoff knew how to read and write. •Skvortsoff gave him a letter and asked Lushkoff to go to a friend who would give him some copying work to do. •Lushkoff went away. He never came back again. www.cuidol.in Unit-1(MAP-607) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL
Summary 12 •Two years passed. One evening Skvortsoff saw Lushkoff at the tickel window of a theatre. • He was well dressed. He was buying a ticket. •He told Skvortsoff that he was a notary and got thirty-five roubles a month. • Skvortsoff was delighted because he had been able to push a depraved beggar on the right path. • Lushkoff thanked him for his kindness because he had pulled him out of a sinking pit. But he said that the true credit for changing him went to Olga. •Naturally, this surprised Skvortsoff. •Lushkoff explained that he had never chopped a single piece of wood. •Olga chopped the wood for him and gave him the money. •She would chide him. She would tell him that he would go to hell. •There was no hope for him. She wept for him. She suffered for him. •Her words, her sacrifice and her suffering for him had an baffling influence on him. He began to change. He stopped drinking. He was grateful to her. He could never forget her. www.cuidol.in Unit-1(MAP-607) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL
13 THANK YOU www.cuidol.in Unit-1(MAP-607) All right are reserved with CU-IDOL
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