In a number of Anton Chekhov's short stories, he addresses the roles which class plays in personal and social interaction. This study will examine class as a theme in Chekhov's short fiction, focusing on its dehumanizing effects on both the poor and weak and the rich and powerful.
In general, Chekhov does not present political, social or ideological arguments in his stories, but instead uses class as a fact of life which shapes, or misshapes, individual characters and human relationships. As Kirk writes in her analysis of "The Peasants," the story "is not so much a . . . social commentary on rural life as it is an expose of the dehumanizing effects of poverty everywhere" (Kirk 100). Chekhov focuses on class primarily as a window through which to view the human condition and especially the mistreatment of human beings by other human beings.
Not all of Chekhov's class-related stories deal exclusively with economic differences. Chekhov is not, after all, a Marxist intent on exposing the evils of the forces of production or calling for violent revolution and the establishment of a classless society in earth. Chekhov's interest in class has to do less with ideology and more with humanity, with the specific emotional, psychological, physical and spiritual effects of class divisions and prejudices on all concerned, but especially on the poor.
However, as if to perhaps deliberately de-emphasize the economic aspect of class, Chekhov writes such stories as "The Grasshopper," in which intellectual rather than economic differences create and sustain class conflict and the damage done by such conflict. Olga's marriage to a doctor is unsatisfying. She sees him as a dull and common man, a relative failure even as a doctor. On the other hand, she sees a ring of artists she knows as full of excitement, brilliance, daring and promise. She has an affair with one such artist, and the affair soon goes bad. Her husband becomes sick and dies. ...