Anton Chekhov

“The Lottery Ticket” is a short story by Anton Chekhov about a middle-class couple that believes they have won the lottery. Ivan Dmitritch is skeptical of his wife spending money on lottery tickets...

In this one-act play, Chekhov satirizes marriage conventions among the land-owning aristocracy of Russia in the nineteenth century. The characters of Natalya Stepanovna, who is twenty-five years...

The main theme in Chekhov's story is leniency versus punishment, two opposing philosophies regarding justice. In the story, Ivan Markovitch (Sasha's maternal uncle) argues for leniency, while...

Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov is a prententious, proud, self-serving, argumentative, impetuous, hysterical hypochondriac. A wealthy landowner, he comes to his neighbor with the overt intentions of...

This story conveys the theme that even the idea of having money can make us feel dissatisfied with what we have. Further, money—even the thought of it—can distort our priorities and make us...

At the beginning of "The Lottery Ticket," Ivan Dmitritch is described as a man "who lived with his family on an income of twelve hundred a year and was very well satisfied with his lot." He is...

A Marriage Proposal is a farce that pokes fun of romance and marriage within the upper class as the consideration and pride in property takes precedence over love and marriage with Chekhov's...

Anton Chekhov's "The Proposal" is usually classified as a farce, rather than satire, because it is a short work that focuses on a single idea in a limited way with comical stereotypes such as the...

Themes for this one act play by Chekhov that is a comedy or a satire, include making fun of romance and marriage. Chekhov examines the true nature of marriage, an institution of necessity in his...

The Marriage Proposal by Anton Chekhov is a farce aimed at the Russian aristocrats' pride in and ownership of property as the overriding measure against love and romance in the consideration of...

In "A Problem," Anton Chekhov depicts a familial dispute centered around Sasha Uskov, who (to quote the story itself) "had cashed at one of the banks a false promissory note" (as translated by...

With his detached artfulness, Anton Chekhov creates conflicts within a seemingly complacent marriage, conflicts that are generated by the idea of money. For, when the middle-class Ivan Dmitritch,...

In Chekov's "A Doctor's Visit" the theme that I notice is the difference between appearance and reality—how easy it is for pretentious, egotistical and ignorant people to pretend to care for others...

In "The Lottery Ticket," Chekhov satirizes, among other human foibles, our tendency to project onto others the flaws and negative qualities we are loath to recognize in ourselves. The fact that the...

[eNotes editors are only permitted to answer one question per posting. If you have additional questions, please post them separately.] Anton Chekov's humorous one-act play, entitled "The Proposal"...

"The Chameleon," at only four pages, is one of Chekhov's shortest short stories. Despite this, it is crammed with the psychological acuity and profound moral insight one would expect from its...

The conflict in "Lucero" is essentially to do with luck. Since both Ruben and the traveler fired at the same time, neither is in the wrong. The internal conflict is something Ruben must face if he...

There are four methods of indirect characterization: through the character's actions through the character's thoughts, feelings, and speeches through the character's the comments and reactions of...

When "The Lottery Ticket" begins, Ivan is described as being content with his current life. However, after his wife asks him to check the lottery tickets (her number was 9,499–26), and he finds the...

"A Marriage Proposal" ("The Proposal") by Anton Chekhov is a fast-moving farce with stereotypical, ridiculous characters. Portraying the upper-class courtship in nineteenth-century Russia as a...

Most of the humor in "The Chameleon" is satirical, poking fun at the overly hierarchical and deferential nature of society in Tsarist Russia. The main character of the story, Otchumyelov, is an...

In "A Marriage Proposal," there is an indication that the intentions of Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov to marry his neighbor stems from something other than love because Natalia, who has lived near him...

Anton Chekhov's one-act play is a farce which depicts an absurd situation stemming from Stepan Stepanovitch Tschubukov's failure to inform his daughter of the purpose of Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov's...

"The Lottery Ticket" is a short story by Anton Chekhov, first published in Russia in the year 1887. Within the story, a man named Ivan Dmitritch, who has always been "very well satisfied with his...

Due to conflicts or challenges, a dynamic character is one who changes (either in personality, character, or attitude) as the story progresses. In A Problem, Sasha has forged his uncle's signature...

The complete quote reads: "We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds." The source is the play "Uncle Vanya" I read that a variation of this quote is...

The story reminds us of the bewildering variety of ways in which human beings can experience joy. The protagonist, Mitya Kuldarov, is overjoyed to read about his drunken exploits in a local...

Chekhov's 'The Lottery Ticket' explores all the real world challenges of being a ticket winner. Both Ivan and Masha's paranoid fears are indicative of the kind experienced by individuals suddenly...

In "A Marriage Proposal" Chekhov is poking fun at the courtship rituals of the Russian upper classes. Marriage is presented in the play as being dictated by the needs of economic necessity and...

The setting in "The Lottery Ticket" is the modest home of a middle class family. This is stated in the first sentence: Ivan Dmitritch, a middle class man who lived with his family on an income of...

According to Carol A. Flath ("Art and Idleness: Chekhov's 'The House with a Mezzanine'"), one of Chekhov's signature themes is the contrast between work and idleness. As Flath says, this theme is...

Interesting question. Most teachers stress the basic conflict types. Man vs man, man vs. society, man vs. nature, and man vs. self are the most basic conflict forms. At the beginning of the...

The simplest answer to your question is that Anton Chekhov's "A Marriage Proposal" is written in the third-person point of view. Throughout the play, the audience sees the actions of everyone, not...

Appropriately named to allude to the well-known simile "as stubborn as an ox," "Oxen Meadows" comes to represent the strong wills of Natalya and Ivan. Both are convinced that they have true...

Anton Chekov's A Marriage Proposal follows the awkward intentions of Ivan Vassiliyitch Lomov, a hypochondriac who wants to marry Natalia, the daughter of his neighbor, Stepan Stepanovitch...

One of the aspects of human nature that Chekhov consistently explores is that of sincerity and genuineness. In many of his stories and plays, characters find themselves being torn by circumstances...

The main theme in "Peasants" is that violence, ignorance, moral degeneracy, and severe impoverishment were unfortunate realities of peasant life in nineteenth-century Russia. In the story, Chekhov...

I don't think it's really right to say that their conversation changes because all of the move from joy to seriousness and dissatisfaction is going on in Ivan's own head. The couple actually says...

Sasha demands that his shocked and disbelieving uncle Ivan Markovitch give him a hundred rubles. He asks this despite the fact that Ivan has just managed to convince Sasha's relatives to pay off...

One theme or message Chekhov expresses repeatedly in his short stories is that the happiness of the privileged is based on the silence or invisibility of those who are poor, oppressed, and...

The short story "After the Theater" by Anton Chekhov takes place in the bedroom of a sixteen-year-old girl named Nadya, who has just arrived home after attending a performance at the opera. She has...

Before the application of the bet, the banker had argued that life in prison was worse than capital punishment (death). The lawyer argued that death was clearly worse. To prove that imprisonment is...

The climax of a story is its point of highest tension or crisis. All through the story, Iona, a poor man who drives a horse and cab in freezing, snowy Russian weather, wants to tell someone of his...

We learn many character traits about Sasha Uskov through his speech and actions in the short story, "The Problem." First of all, at the onset of the story, Sasha appears totally disconnected with...

In A Marriage Proposal, Chekhov satirizes the courtship rituals of the upper class by emphasizing the land exchange between two wealthy families over love in the proposal scene. Lomov begins his...

Chekhov's fast-paced one-act play is a farce about aristocratic marriages. A cynic about love and marriage, Chekhov employs a far-fetched humorous situation and ridiculous stereotypes in this...

A Marriage Proposal is a Russian play by Anton Chekhov written in the late 19th century. It is a comedy-drama, and all the action takes place in one single act as Ivan Vassilevitch Lomov visits...

The narrator of Anton Checkhov's short story "The Confession" is a man of relatively little sophistication and not enough malice to realize that he has been played for a fool by the people around...

In Anton Chekhov's short story, "The Bet," a banker and a lawyer make a bet after arguing about which is worse-life imprisonment or the death penalty. The lawyer says, "Capital punishment and life...

A Marriage Proposal is a farce written by Russian author Anton Chekhov. The play is less about the marriage proposal between two members of the gentry and more about the constant fights they get...