The Man in a Case (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Anton Chekhov
- First Published: 1898
- Type of Plot: Character study
- Time of Work: The 1890's
- Setting: A provincial Russian town
- Principal Characters: Ivan Ivanych Chimsha-Himalalsky, Burkin, Belikov, Mikhail Kovalenko, Varenka Kovalenko
- Genres: Short fiction, Character study
- Subjects: Teaching or teachers, Freedom, Oppression, Russia or Russian people
- Locales: Russia
The Story
“The Man in a Case” chronicles the story of a narrow-minded schoolteacher named Belikov. Narrated by Burkin, a fellow teacher, to his friend Ivan Ivanych Chimsha-Himalaisky, after a long day spent hunting in the countryside, this tale provides a sobering view of pettiness and paranoia in a provincial Russian milieu. In Burkin's description, Belikov—a teacher of Greek—emerges as a highly insecure individual obsessed with following official rules and fearful of any suspicion of permissiveness in his environment. From the very way he dresses (in a pair of...
[The entire page is 1207 words long]
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