summary of gooseberries by Anton chekove
Answers
Answer:
Gooseberries'' is a frame story. In a frame story, one fictional character tells a story in the context of the larger plot. In this case, the man Ivan Ivanich tells a story about his brother, Nicholai, while spending time with his two friends.
Answer:
The sky is overcast with heavy clouds, but it does not rain. Two old men—Ivan, a vet, and Burkin, a teacher—walk across the fields. Ivan prepares to tell his friend a story and lights his pipe in preparation. At this point a storm breaks and the men run to shelter at their friend Aliokhin's estate. They find the forty year-old standing in one of his barns near a winnowing machine. Aliokhin is dirty from his work, and he invites his friends into the main house to bathe. A beautiful young girl named Pelageia brings the men towels and some soap, and all three start to wash. Ivan and Burkin are shocked when the water around Aliokhin turns brown, but Aliokhin makes the excuse that he has not washed for a long while. Unexpectedly, Ivan rushes outside and flings himself into the wide expanse of water in front of the house, flinging his arms around and asking god for mercy.
The men return to the house, and the "lovely Pelageia" serves them tea. Ivan recounts the story he had intended to tell Burkin. He explains how he and his younger brother Nikolai spent their childhood "running wild in the country" after their dead father's estate was liquidated to pay debts and legal bills. Nikolai hated his job as a government official, which he found too restrictive, and yearned to buy himself a country estate. He then became "fearfully avaricious" and married a rich widow whom he did not love in order to raise capital. Nothing deterred the young man from his ambition to buy a townhouse where he could grow gooseberries. Following the widow's death, Nikolai purchased an estate where he planted twenty gooseberry bushes. On a visit to see his brother some years later, Ivan found that Nikolai had become insufferably supercilious. The vet comments that even his fresh gooseberries tasted "sour and unripe." Ivan remembers growing steadily depressed, because he identified in his brother's smug self-satisfaction the "insolence and idleness of the strong." He recalls wishing that a man could stand with a hammer "at the door of every happy, contented man … reminding him with a tap that there are unhappy people." The vet ends his tale by examining his own sense of happiness and personal fulfillment. He concludes that he used to be as complacent as any other wealthy individual, believing that all men would one day become free. Sadly, Ivan admits that he is now too "old and unfit for the struggle," and he implores Aliokhin to do something.
Despite Ivan's impassioned sermonizing, Aliokhin and Burkin remain "unsatisfied" by his tale. Aliokhin feels sleepy but delays going to bed in order to see if the conversation becomes more interesting. He is intrigued by something that the two men discuss, but it is not revealed what this is. The three men soon go to bed, where Burkin is kept awake by the smell of Ivan's pipe. The tale ends with a comment that the rain lashed against the windows all night.
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