My dear gaoler, I am writing these lines in six languages. Show them to experts. Let them read them. If they do not find one single mistake, I beg you to give orders to have a gun fired off in the garden. By the noise I shall know that my efforts have not been in vain. The geniuses of all ages and countries speak in different languages; but in them all burns the same flame. Oh, if you knew my heavenly happiness now that I can understand them!” . . . “And I despise your books, despise all worldly blessings and wisdom. Everything is void, frail, visionary and delusive as a mirage. Though you be proud and wise and beautiful, yet will death wipe you from the face of the earth like the mice underground; and your posterity, your history, and the immortality of your men of genius will be as frozen slag, burnt down together with the terrestrial globe. . . .” Analyze how Chekhov uses language choice to develop theme in these excerpts.
Answers
These two excerpts are both written by the lawyer in letters to the banker. The diction in the first excerpt is obsessive and passionate. The lawyer seems to be involved in the world of knowledge and finds joy in the little ways in which he can communicate with the world. Although he doesn't have much access to the world, he still tries to be masterful in its beauty. The diction in the second excerpt, written years later, almost seems like it's written by a different person. The lawyer is bitter, unhappy, and pessimistic. The language choices that Chekhov gives to the lawyer supports the theme that life needs to be lived well, not just lived. Although the lawyer is still alive, he's lost all desire to live. He bet that just being alive would be enough, but since he has just walked out on all that he once saw as valuable (money), he has no reason to live.
"The choice of the form of language applied by Chekov and the form and methods of its usage in these excerpts reflects on the very basic theme of the concept that follows which is, it is the way of living life that matters- the life should be lived well and not just dragged and lived.
All of the things depend on rather how life is lived and taken. The lawyer making reference in the excerpt referred has lost the interest and reasons to live life and he believes that all that which had meaning for him or made sense to him has lost its meaning or value to him and thus he has no reasons to live and now is just living life mechanically. "