A short introductory film about the life and works of playwright Anton Chekhov. Anton Chekhov is considered to be one of the greatest playwrights that has ever lived. This film explores his life and works, considering what makes his plays still relevant and restagable.

By the way, here is a fully illustrated audio-video version of "The Darling". Or you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4v1bQsuR00So, listen and enjoy!!!

THE TALES OF ANTON CHEKHOV

Analysis

It is appropriate that this humorous and poignant story has a pitiable yet ludicrous protagonist. While Olga is endearingly sweet and unaffected, readers cannot help but be irritated by her inability to form opinions. We see that she loves the theater when she is married to Kukin but detests it when with Pustovalov; she also switches from taking an exuberant interest in life's distractions to somberly reflecting on its frivolities in accordance with her husbands' views. Consequently, we have to decide whether to pity Olga for her lack of autonomy or laugh at her ignorance. She lacks independence of mind as well as spirit and floats adrift in a sea of male opinions, ideas, and beliefs. We are left to wonder at the sheer unoriginality of a woman who, when married to a timber merchant, concludes, "the most important and necessary thing in life was timber." Essentially, Chekhov seems to use his protagonist to emblematize female disempowerment (it is deeply ironic that the anti-feminist author Tolstoy admired Olga, whom he felt personified the ideal of female selflessness.)

On this point, readers see how the characters' use of the endearment "darling" patronizes and even demeans Olga. We sense that society is collectively patting the protagonist on the back for subordinating to the male intellect. But Chekhov does more than merely condemn his heroine as anti-feminist. Looking closely at the text we see that the author's treatment of his protagonist is far more complex. Chekhov first cultivates our sympathy toward his protagonist by noting that Olga felt a "deep and genuine feeling" toward her first husband; he then shows how she suffers through a string of bereavements. Olga thus emerges as a flawed yet gentle woman whose life has been blighted by disappointment. Even the sense of fulfillment she gains looking after Sasha is spurious because the child does not love her in return. We see that while Olga is prepared to die for the little boy, Sasha asks his "auntie" not to walk him into school because he is secretly ashamed of her. As a result, readers feel both sympathy and exasperation toward the protagonist. Because she has loved and lost so many times, one is tempted to forgive her for being unintelligent.

Although this tale is unusual in that Chekhov introduces a female protagonist, many familiar motifs reappear. One is the repeated "hammering" of people clattering on the pavement and banging on gates. This motif also appears in On Official Duty and Gooseberries, although in slightly different form. In general, noises play a key role in Chekhov's tales as they emphasize life's irrationality and man's lack of control over the forces of nature, destiny, and fortune.  

Characters

Olenka: the daughter of a retired collegiate assessor. Very beautiful, but is also emotional, gentle, soft-hearted, compassionate, mild and tender eyes. Easily sways with the opinions around her and follows those that are closest to her. Is referred to as "darling" for her sweet personality and willingness to give.
Plemyanniakov: Olenka’s Father - A retired collegiate assessor – has fallen ill and dies in the beginning of the story. Olenka's first male figure.
Kukin: neighbor of Olenka – manages the open air theater. Becomes Olenka’s first husband and dies when he works in Moscow. Described as a small thin man, yellow face, with curls, talks in a thin tenor voice with an expression of despair, but had a deep genuine affection in Olenka
Vassily Andreitch Pustovalov: Olenka's neighbor is a merchant from a timber yard. He comforts her after the death of Kukin and falls in love with Olenka. Falls ill from a cold and later dies a few months later. Olenka's third male figure.
Smirnin: a veterinary surgeon – has separated from his wife who has his son, left her because of unfaithfulness. Easily embarrassed by Olenka. Olenka's fourth male figure
Sasha: Smirnin’s son from his previous marriage attends school and is very intelligent. Parents abandoned him for work and social lives so was raised by Olenka. This is the last male figure that Olenka cares for, but smothers him with maternal love as compared to her previous husbands/male figures

His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics.Chekhov practised as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress." Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theater.

Chekhov renounced the theatre after the disastrous reception of The Seagull in 1896, but the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Constantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which subsequently also produced Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and premiered his last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. These four works present a challenge to the acting ensemble as well as to audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a "theatre of mood" and a "submerged life in the text."

Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. His originality consists in an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later adopted by James Joyce and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

(born Jan. 29 [Jan. 17, Old Style], 1860, Taganrog, Russia—died July 14/15 [July 1/2], 1904, Badenweiler, Ger.), major Russian playwright and master of the modern short story. He was a literary artist of laconic precision who probed below the surface of life, laying bare the secret motives of his characters. Chekhov’s best plays and short stories lack complex plots and neat solutions. Concentrating on apparent trivialities, they create a special kind of atmosphere, sometimes termed haunting or lyrical. Chekhov described the Russian life of his time using a deceptively simple technique devoid of obtrusive literary devices, and he is regarded as the outstanding representative of the late 19th-century Russian realist school.