 Drama: September 10, 2008 Issue [#2587] |
  Drama
This week: Edited by: Joy  
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"There is nothing new in the writing art except talent."
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Hello, this is Joy , this week's drama editor
First, Happy Eighth Birthday, Writing.com!  I hope you all had a wonderful time. 
In this issue, we will discuss the contribution of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov to the world of drama.
“"A writer is not a confectioner, a cosmetic dealer, or an entertainer. He is a man who has signed a contract with his conscious and his sense of duty."
“"The time has come for writers, especially those who are artists, to admit that in this world one cannot figure anything out, just as Socrates admitted, just as Voltaire admitted."
“Any idiot can face a crisis, it is this day-to-day living that wears you out.”
Quotes by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
Sometimes, we discover new ideas when we look back and search the past. Looking into my own past, I recalled a teacher who loved Russian literature and especially its drama; therefore, this week, I decided to bring you a great dramatist from the nineteenth century Russian literature, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov.
Anton P. Chekhov--a Russian playwright, a short story author, and a renowned figure of the Russian literary circles at the time of his death--became internationally famous after World War I. with Constance Garnett's English translations. Afterwards, his work influenced the Western literature and the world of drama so much that, in our day, his plays are still put on stage in theaters worldwide.
Chekhov is probably the last writer of Russian literature’s golden age, which took place against the background of the czarist regime. Most of the works of this period were realistic, although they leaned toward mysticism, gloom and introspection, and emotionalism.
Chekhov was born in 1860 in Taganrog, Ukraine. His father was a grocer and a tyrannical religious fanatic, whose character later echoed inside Chekhov’s heroes and heroines. In 1879, Chekhov entered medical school where he started publishing short stories to support himself, his mother, and five siblings. He gained writing fame before he graduated from the Medical School.
In 1892, already a doctor, Chekhov bought an estate in the country village of Melikhove to become a full time writer. Although Chekhov wrote countless highly successful short stories like The bear, Neighbors, Ward Number Six, The Black Monk, The Murder, Gooseberries, Lady with the Dog, and Ariadne, his fame comes from his plays. He wrote his first full length play while still in high school and was only twenty-seven when his first major play, Ivanov, was performed in 1887. He was awarded the Pushkin Prize in 1888, and in 1900 and elected as a member of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg.
He died in 1904 in Germany. At the time, Chekhov was Russia’s greatest celebrity after Tolstoy.
Chekhov has taken the ideas of the late nineteenth century novel to apply them to stage. He has also used complicated and unique characters, straightforward plots, and common activities to point out the universal truths. He portrays his characters with compassion and without making them into heroes or total villains, while the characters handle adversities in their own special ways. Chekhov’s plays deal with people and families that have declined in fortune and social status. Always the human foibles but mostly the memories of the past hold the people back from attaining happiness, although they strongly yearn for it.
Since Chekhov’s storytelling tactics challenges many writers, he has become a sought-out teacher to learn from. For one thing, Chekhov wastes nothing. Chekhov’s gun is the literary technique where an element or an object like a gun is introduced early in the story, but its importance is felt later. This alerts writers not to introduce an object unnecessarily in the beginning of a story, if it is of no use at the end.
Seagull, one of his earlier plays, is the first one to draw the western critics’ attention to Chekhov’s talent. The conflict, climax, complications, and the end of the play gain from the varied problems and complex relationships of its characters, giving depth to the story. In the play, a cast of well-developed characters with unfulfilled lives speak around what they want to say, rather than telling them directly. They are all damaged people. The play gets its name from a seagull, which the novice playwright Treplyov has shot and gifted to Nina. Although Nina is horrified by the dead seagull, she signs her name as Seagull, later on. Written as a comedy in the beginning, Chekhov made the play into a tragedy and gained fame for it, if not at first but later on.
In the tragicomedy Uncle Vanya: Scenes from Country Life, Serebryakov, who inherited an estate from his first wife Vera, brings his new wife to the estate. The estate serves as Vera’s family’s home. To pay for his luxurious life in the city, Serebryakov decides to sell the estate. Vanya, Vera’s brother who has managed the place for the family members, objects. Uncle Vanya is in four acts, encompassing the themes of idleness, ungratefulness, selfishness, regret for opportunities missed, and built-up resentment.
In the Three Sisters, three Prozorov sisters , Irina, Olga and Masha, live in a small town with their brother, Andrei, after the death of their father. The sisters with their very unique but complementary make-ups lead lonely and purposeless lives, three of them representing one real woman with different sides.
The cherry Orchard is Chekhov’s last and probably the most famous and oft-staged play. A cherry orchard is the center of the conflict for an upper-class Russian family. Because of financial problems, the estate with the cherry orchard is auctioned. The buyer cuts down all the cherry trees, and letting go of the past becomes very hard for this family.
Inside his powerful plays, Chekhov interweaves character and theme delicately, to lead to an inevitable and deeply moving climax. Chekhov’s plays are marked as milestones of modern drama, and any writer or student of drama can benefit from paying attention to Chekhov’s work.
All of Chekhov’s plays are available on the internet for free for drama lovers everywhere. Consider taking a look. 
Chekhov's stories will be featured in another newsletter, later.
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Items on Chekhov by Writing.com authors:
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To practice your skills, a few interesting contests:
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very thankful 
I do use some of the same characters in my stories about Deacon, Mississippi. I agree that adding to a characters traits makes the stories more interesting.
How very interesting and thank you for writing to us, very thankful
I'd love to read all your stories of that area just as soon as I find the time.
I believe any story makes interesting reading if the characters show growth, change, or maturation, especially when used in other stories, instead of staying the same.
very thankful 's stories using the same characters:
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Douglas returning
Joy,
Great newsletter and tips on character usage. Abundant use of a character for the sake of the author's satisfaction without regard for the reader or the character's growth can certainly be detrimental to the story. Thanks for the reminder.
And imagine my surprise when I saw my investigative short in your list of picks. I am honored and humbled that you chose it. Thank you.
Doug
Thank you, too, Doug.
People usually remember well-drawn characters better than the titles of stories and books, which proves the importance of originality in presenting characters.
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