All Russian literature lovers know Беликов, the famous “man in a case” from Chekhov’s
well-known story “Человек в футляре.” What is your take on this story? Read it and post a comment. You can find the story in English at http://www.eldritchpress.org/ac/jr/189.htm
The Hartford Stage is putting on a stage performance of “Человек в футляре” in late February/ early March. Беликов will be played by the great Russian dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. This is a rare event, and I look forward to attending it with as many of you as possible.
Chekhov’s story “The Man in a Case” is interesting because it describes a challenge humans face within society every day. The challenge of opening up, or being ones self despite their environment or surroundings. The main character in the story, Byelikov, serves as a hyperbolic example of this idea. Within society, all humans are forced into their own shell to some extent. It is only when they are withdrawn from the judgement of their peers that humans can truly be themselves.
I agree with DJ on the idea of humans existing inside a shell. Belinkov to me is a man of exceptional anxiety, which seems to make him desire control and rules above all else. Because of this, he carries an excessive amount of both figurative and literal shells with him, in an attempt to have the tightest possible grip on the few things in life he truly has control over.
Burkin’s entire story of Belinkov originated while discussing his wife Mavra, who has developed over the past decade, a strange routine of sitting behind the stove all day and walking the streets of town at night. Both of these people, expressing “atavistic” characteristics as Burkin called them, have found unusual (and to some, agitating) ways to reconcile their anti-social nature with the very invasive way of village life.
Chekhov’s “Man in a Case” could be seen as a philosophical fiction, where a story is used to reflect on a problem, an idea. Here, the main character Byelikov is tortured by his fear of the outside world, and creates a bubble of his own to protect himself from reality, instead of facing it and learning to live with the difficulties and imperfections of society.
The protagonist eventually dies, having failed to get married, and probably to a larger extent having failed his life: there are no signs of happiness or satisfaction whatsoever in the description of the character. In his conclusion, the story teller reminds us that there are plenty of Byelikovs, and one moral of this story could be to have a more hedonist approach to life, where one focuses on his quest for pleasures and joy no matter what context he lives in, instead of burying himself in anxiety.
Wonderful piece of satirical literature! Reading the second time after many years ago, it seemed even more interesting. Chekhov has such a smart touch on the social atmosphere under the reign of Alexander III. The stifling silence of the people and the widespread paranoia have affected everyone. What is really marvelous is the ending, which was edited out of our middle school textbook because the story was considered too long for young teen students. Yet it was not just the words of Ivanovitch that touched me, but the brief reappearance of Marva. She is only a small character, but the symbolism is more poignant than that beneath Byelikov. Like Byelikov, she is a ‘woman in the case’, but in the silence of the night, she walks out of the room and just walks away. Perhaps she never leaves the farm, but the human spirit for freedom urges, even under the most repressive situations, just like those steps in that silent night.
The Man in the Case depicts the overbearing and closed-minded nature of many people who possess a noticeable degree of power, as well as the condition of the people who are subject to the this individual and his authority. The story is a very simple one, but towards the end it alludes to certain questions whose solutions are far from simple. For example, towards the end of the story when Byelikov died, the author describes the pleasure that the local inhabitants experienced upon burying him, because they viewed the end of Byelikov as the end of the oppressive reign that he imposed on the the town. However, only until the very end of the story does a one character acknowledge that maybe all oppression will not end with Byelikov but will continue so long as humans continue to be human.
My impression of the Chekhov’s story has to do with the cases people put us in and the ones we put our selves in. The towns people were oppressed by the Greek master but found that it was infant they themselves who were just as responsible for the case they lived in. Life went back to how it was after his death. Marva escaping at night was a great depiction of people’s dissatisfaction with the case they all must live in.