Portrayal of Women by Chekhov

In the story "The Name-Day Party," Chekhov focuses on Olga Mihailovna and her relationship with her husband Pyotr. In Olga we see immediately what editor Yarmolinsky means when he writes of Chekhov's portrayal of females: "What splendid women!" We see also a universal, timeless quality to Chekhov's appreciation of women. His works maintain a continuity of appreciation for the humaneness and endurance of women in the face of suffering and patriarchal prejudice that would not be out of place in our own feminist-oriented era. At the same time, Chekhov was neither a conservative nor a liberal politically, but rejected all "theories" meant to generalize about life, choosing instead to put his faith in the people:

His mind was not doctrinal, much less dogmatic. [He wrote in a letter:] "My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love and absolute freedom---freedom from violence and falsehood. . . . " He put no stock in classes or institutions, he had no faith in the intelligentsia or the proletar

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condition. Olga tries to remain the good hostess, but she hates the others and herself for all her and their falseness. This sense of the falseness of her own life and of all around her apparently leads to a miscarriage and the loss of her child. Chekhov is clearly making a statement about the blind superficiality of life in all eras, not just his own. Just as clearly, he sympathizes deeply with the plight of Olga, the only one to see through this superficiality. In "Anna on the Neck," Chekhov draws a more liberated woman, and instills his tale with more humor, but the historical setting is the same superficial and corrupt society. Anya is the young bride of a pompous older man, Alexeich. She is disgusted with her new husband, as miserable in her life as was Olga, having married Alexeich to save herself and her father and brothers from poverty: "She did everything her husband told her to do, and was very angry with herself that she had let herself be deceived like the silliest little fool." Her husband at the governor's ball uses her to get himself a promotion. She rubs his face in her success and in his ingratiating behavior before His Excellency, the man on whom she had used her charms to get Alexeich the promotion. She call
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Approximate Word count = 1612
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)