We all remember Chekhov's saying that brevity is the sister of talent. First of all, it refers to the talent of Anton Pavlovich himself. Being a brilliant master of "talking" details, the writer knew how to use one or two well-defined words, to present his heroes as living people to the court of judges, and to outline the situations in which they turned out to be comprehensively described.
"Thick and thin", plot and plot
Consider for example the story "Thick and thin." The summary of it is reduced to such events: on the platform of the Nikolaevsky railway station the official's family descends from the train. The head of the family is called by someone who turns around, and it turns out that he was recognized by a former classmate, and now also an official. The one who arrived - "thin": thin, not well dressed, and smells of him not too presentable, ham road sandwiches and coffee grounds. He is loaded with suitcases, cartons and other road belongings. A former friend of his - "fat." His lips are full of satiety, he smells sweet expensive cologne and expensive wine and dinner, which he just ate at the station restaurant. Here, in fact, and the whole plot, which is the story "Thick and thin." The summary of it is further: a small conversation between Misha ("fat") and Porphyry ("thin"). And here Chekhov's "details" come to the fore. Slim at first does not notice the difference in social position between himself and the second official. He does not live well, but he is quite satisfied. Has a small salary, makes cigarette cases for sale, the wife gives private music lessons. Porphyry sincerely happy to meet with a childhood friend, emotions and memories flooded and overwhelmed the hero. He, like his friend, has tears in his eyes, and both, as Chekhov writes, are "pleasantly overwhelmed." However, the tonality of the work radically changes when the "party" of the thick enters the narrative. "Friend Misha", it turns out, has already become a secret adviser - a rank in tsarist Russia is considerable! Has a "two stars", and in general, well settled. Here, and tied the hidden conflict of the work, embedded in the very title of the story "Thick and thin," a brief summary of which we are considering. For Porphyry, a friend's take-off on the career ladder was unexpected. Being himself a petty official and a "small" person, he is accustomed to reverence for the powerful of this world and to be afraid of them. In the hero, the mechanism of china-worship, lazy-care, fear of authorities is "turned on". Chekhov skillfully shows this. Thin as if everything was twisted, his sincere smile becomes pathetic, strained, resembling a grin, and the long chin stretches out and becomes even longer. He mumbles something, stammers and is a very pathetic sight. Porphyry is humiliated, and humiliated voluntarily! Slavery is spiritual, mental, like poison, oozing literally from every pore of his body, from every word of it. He again represents "Misha", whom he now calls by title, wife and son, both himself and the members of the family seem to become even "thinner", stretching into a string, or cowardly hide, trying to become invisible, shrink. This episode evokes bitter laughter and resentment for a man, for his tragic virtues the story "Thick and thin." The summary of it later reduces to describing the emotions of the characters. "Tolstoy" all the excitement around his title is unpleasant. He really rejoiced at Porphyry and sees in him not a subordinate, but a man, a long-time accomplice in children's prose. "Tolsty" would gladly talk about the past, remembered the carefree childhood. But such an idyll is impossible, says Chekhov. "Thick, thin", the brief content of which we are considering, is a realistic work. And Porphyry's behavior is completely typical and corresponds to the cruel truth of life. In a society where all freedom is absent, where the autocracy tramples on human rights and comprehensively enslaves it, where the material side of life dictates its rules, a small person can very rarely behave on an equal footing with a "big man". The humanistic traditions of all Russian literature tell us this: the Pushkin stationmaster Samson Vyrin, and Gogol's Akaki Bashmachkin, and Makar Devushkin Dostoevsky. And remember the "Death of an official" of the same Chekhov - why did his hero die? Fear that I sneezed at the boss! Here, too, our brief content of Tolstoy and the Thin accentuates your attention, dear readers, on the main problem of the story: how can a man "drop by drop" squeeze out a slave? A voluntary slave!
The composition of the work is circular: it ends with the phrase uttered by Chekhov in the beginning - that both were pleasantly stunned. Of course, "nice" - already in figurative meaning. But how to get rid of this servility - this question is posed by the author before the readers. And each of us needs to answer it.