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Updated: May 1, 2025
Big as the evil is, in spite of it, the night is beautiful and calm; justice is and will be calm and beautiful on God's earth also; the universe awaits the moment when it can melt into this justice, as the light of the moon melts into the night." These, then, are Tchekoff's favorite themes, on which he has traced numerous variations, always breathing forth a profound melancholy.
They do not drag the panting reader down a rapid action, to fling him breathless upon the "I told you so" of a conclusion prepared in advance. I have in mind especially a story of Tchekoff's called "The Night Before Easter."
Finally, when the estate is sold, they look upon this event as a fatal and unexpected blow. They say good-bye to the cradle of their family, weeping silently, and depart. For some reason, unknown to the translator, the author has made no mention of Tchekoff's famous play, "The Sea-Gull."
The reason is, without a doubt, because the political and social organization of Russia has always been a prison for literature. Oppression had reached its height during Tchekoff's life. This period was the moment of suffocation before the storm.
If he did not doubt progress, he would be most pessimistic, if I may so express myself. He would suffer from that earthly pessimism, in face of which reason is weak; the pessimism which manifests itself by a hopeless sadness in face of the stupidity of life and the idea of death. "I, my friend, am afraid of life, and do not understand it," says one of Tchekoff's heroes.
This certainly is the dominant note of Tchekoff's philosophy: the impotency of living mitigated by a vague hope of progress. The last, and perhaps the most important play of Tchekoff, is "The Cherry Garden." Human beings, locked up in themselves, morally bounded, impotent and isolated, wander about in the old seignioral estate of the Cherry Garden. The house is several centuries old.
At this time, Russian society itself began to shake off its apathy, and this awakening, sweeping like a vivifying wave into the soul of the sad artist, opened for him, at the same time, perspectives of new ideas. This second aspect of Tchekoff's talent is perceptible in the story called "The Student."
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