ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes representations of medical practitioners in fiction, encompassing classic and contemporary literature. In Ward No. 6, when Doctor Ragin ceases to attend to his duties and spends most of his time reading philosophy and religion, he no longer follows the medical literature. This attitude might have reflected Anton Chekhov's personal dilemma of sacrificing his medical practice to writing fiction. He returns to this subject in a short story, Grasshopper, featuring Dr. Dymov, a decent, good-natured man and a dedicated physician with an inquisitive mind. His busy schedule is divided between patients and research in pathology, and he is highly respected by his peers. Chekhov portrays realistically the vast countryside and the factories and acquaints the reader with Liza, her old mother, the governess and the doctor, who are real people coping with the vagaries of daily life. Chekhov's stories about doctors and the kind of medicine they practiced at the end of 19th century are of historic interest.
