Diagnosis and Balagan

A reading of the numerous studies of Chekhov’s plays reveals how much is left to be said about their poetics; indeed, one has the impression that an analysis of their poetics on the level on which Aleksandr Chudakov analyzed the poetics of the prose fiction has yet to be started. ² Discussion of the plays has tended to be deeply influenced by classical productions of the works and to offer impressionistic discussions of the different characters’ motivations or various motifs, such as the famous breaking string. ³ Even careful reading of the texts of the plays is hard to find, so that the implications of, for example, the ending of The Cherry Orchard remain unexamined. Moreover, less consideration is generally given to the vaudevilles and monologues, which are considered to be less important and substantial than the four final plays. Further, writing on Chekhov’s dramaturgy has historically tended to separate it from the larger context of his work. The organic relationship between the short stories and the plays has tended to be neglected. This is surprising, since the dramatic principle is deeply engrained in the prose works, so that it would be appropriate to say that in Chekhov the writer the dramatic principle has precedence over the prosaic. If some works, such as the early story “On the Road,” could be easily translated into a short play with a description of the decorations, stage directions, and dialogue, then others, like “Lady with Little Dog,” are film scenarios waiting for a director, as Iosif Kheifits demonstrated in his 1960 film version. Chekhov’s search for new dramatic forms thus has its origins in his prose fiction. This quest begins as early as his first short stories, many of which read as miniature scenarios that evoke either a comic scene or a parodistic monologue, e.g., “An Unsuccessful Visit” (1882); in it a visitor to a genteel house pats the rump of the hostess’s daughter, thinking she is the maid. These brief mises en scène grew into the vaudevilles that Chekhov subsequently began to write and that constituted an important part of his dramatic output.