Fragment--The Black Monk by Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov was the Russian playwright and short story writer, who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of short fiction in history. As a playwright, he produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. In addition, he was much more prolific than many of famous writers because he always wrote articles for magazines. His work was so numerous that his outstanding intelligence could not afford this kind of overwork. The black monk is the fiction about that Kovrin who had the master degree of philosophy met the black monk because of overwork and stress during his rare vacation and his afterward life. This work will focus on four aspects which have the close relevance to Kovrin who is the most important protagonist and incarnation of Chekhov’s psychological journey and himself: the symbolism of the black monk and its further meaning, monk’s dialogue, the character setting and several issues related to the fiction.

First of all, according to the plot development of the whole story, the first appearance of the black monk was a pretty significant point. The black monk symbolised depression which was a kind of psychological illness. Here are several details to prove this idea. The outward appearance was totally black without any decoration and the blackness led us to have oppressed feelings. The identity of a monk made people associate with the sober atmosphere. The second proof is the existence of the black monk. The black monk did not stay with Kovrin during all of the time and although Kovrin was the only person who had the ability to see and talk with him, Kovrin still was not able to decide when and where the black appeared such as the symptom of depression coming suddenly. Furthermore, from the psychological perspective, the other layer of the black monk’s meaning is Kovrin’s eager mania, which was a kind of expression incorporated into the subconsciousness which always stays in human beings’ mind and does not appear in the normal life but owns the great power to influence people’s behaviours. These characteristics of the subconsciousness could also be the reasons to explain why Kovrin accepted the black monk without any obstacle. Nobody could refuse something which had grown in their own minds. At the beginning, the author mentioned it by a legend which could not be date back to. This characteristic was a subtle hint in order to coordinate with the symptom of depression because it was too hard to notice when the patient fell into this sickness. What’s more, the prerequisite that Kovrin could meet the monk was the vacation which was caused by the overwork. In other words, the main reason of Kovrin suffering from depression was the stress which was also the important element of Chekhov contracting depression. Chekhov used Kovrin as a tool to reflect the situation of himself in the reality.

Secondly, the monk’s dialogue is worth paying attention to think about. In general, a philosopher who got the master’s degree had his own ideology to judge his life without the exterior guide. However, every time, the dialogue between the monk and Kovrin caused the protagonist to turn into what the monk said. For instance, the monk offered Kovrin a suggestion of enjoying his life. Then, Kovrin started to fall in love and have the marriage. The monk devoted to asking Kovrin to enjoy his life but the way of enjoyment which the monk suggested did not fit the hedonism but was similar to being human. From the preceding description, Kovrin worked so rationally and managed himself strictly. This kind of behaviours with only learning and working was like the machine. After the first dialogue with the monk, Kovrin became humanised. In other words, he owned more human characteristics. Thus, the main point of the monk’s dialogues was to ask the protagonist to make life changes.

Thirdly, this fiction also provides us with a variety of suspicious issues to discuss such as why Kovrin called Tanya at his last moment, the completely different character settings of Kovrin and Tanya’s father, and Kovrin should be categorised as the genius or the mad. The reason why I feel suspicious about the first question is that at that time, the woman who accompanied and took care of him was not Tanya. However, the causes of a dying man mentioned the woman who had divorced him confused me. When Kovrin was approximating to the death so close, he still reviewed the woman who always had arguments with him. Some people thought people always intended to get the former lovers. Some of them guessed Kovrin still had negative emotion to Tanya and this caused she was so unforgettable. Then, two completely different character settings of Kovrin who kept still and calm without human feelings and managed himself as machine and Tanya’s father who possess any human traits such as emotional, unthoughtful and driven by his instinct because he did not experience the educated life. Two opposite experiences caused two different personalities although we cannot judge which one is better. However, the achievements Kovrin gained were greater than Yegor’s. From this, I make an inference that people who can get the marvelous achievements should overcome their own instincts to obtain the greatness. As an old saying goes, “There is only one line between the genius and the mad.” When Kovrin made the analogy with Shakespeare, Buddha, and Mohammed, he was going to crazy. Actually, he was just more intelligent than the normal but far weaker than the legends. The common point between these kinds of human beings is that they possess the special, not the mediocre ideology. For instance, in the series of Batman, Joker is the antisocial character but always can escape from the arrest by policemen because he has the ability and logic to spot the weakness of humanities. Therefore, the most significant thing which decides whether this outstanding person becoming the mad or the genius depends on whether the force which controls the subconsciousness is powerful enough or not. The world is so too flamboyant that most of us lose the way to find ourselves.

In conclusion, The Black Monk focuses on the author’s inward world and the protagonist reflects psychological questions of himself. Additionally, the author leaves a number of engrossing issues to readers to think about. After reading that, I notice that life cannot be bipolar and should incorporate the desires to instincts, enjoyment of the ritual and rational restraint.