Ward No. 6 (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Anton Chekhov
- First Published: 1892
- Type of Plot: Psychological
- Time of Work: The 1890's
- Setting: A provincial Russian town
- Principal Characters: Andrei Efimych Ragin, Ivan Dmitrich Gromov, Mikhail Aver’ianych, Evgenii Fedorych Khobotov
- Genres: Psychological fiction, Short fiction, Sketch
- Subjects: Philosophy or philosophers, Mental illness, Hospitals, Russia or Russian people
- Locales: Russia
The Story
Anton Chekhov begins his tale by taking his readers on a tour of the mental ward of a hospital in a provincial Russian town. His initial description stresses the filth and disorder prevailing in the institution, as well as the cruel barbarity that the caretaker Nikita shows toward the helpless patients in the ward. One patient in particular draws the narrator's interest. This is Ivan Dmitrich Gromov, a polite but very agitated young man who suffers from a persecution complex. The narrator recounts how Gromov came to be placed in the mental ward: As a sensitive...
[The entire page is 1411 words long]
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