Introduction
This paper is an attempt in tracing the change in Chekhov's art of characterization from 1886 to 1902 through his farce- vaudeville monodrama in one act, On the Injurious Effects of Tobacco. Chekhov wrote the first version of the play in 1886 and revised it multiple ties in the subsequent years. The final version of the monodrama is the most popular and well-known of all the published versions. The paper will also take into account the other nine one- act plays Chekhov wrote in this period (1886-1902): the Farce- Vaudevilles- The Bear, The Proposal, A Tragic Role, The Anniversary, The Night Before the Trial, and the Dramatic Studies- On the High Road, Swan Song, Tatyana Repina and The Wedding.
The paper will cite English translations of the two versions of the monodrama On the Injurious Effects of Tobacco; the first was published in 1886 and the second was published in 1902, just two years prior to Chekhov's death in 1904. The monodrama or monologue was completed on 14 February, 1886, and was originally published in the Peterburgskaja gazeta on 17 February, 1886 over the signature A. Chekhonte. The translation that will be referred to in the paper was made from O verde tabaka, as published in A. P. Chekhov, Sobranie socinenij (The Collected Works, IX 1886). …show more content…
They reduce plot to a minimum, and the ending is more an interruption than a conclusion. The stress is on character types in an everyday setting. Traces of naturalistic technique can be occasionally spotted in some of Chekhov's vaudevilles. The hard, cutting undertone in the satire of his farces, for example, the “ surgically precise and economical characterization, colloquial speech, fragmented dialogue, and the peculiar Stimmung of the sickeningly petty bourgeois milieu” all take their edge from a “clinical determinism in presenting human folly caught by an unblinking camera eye” ( Moravcevich
This paper is an attempt in tracing the change in Chekhov's art of characterization from 1886 to 1902 through his farce- vaudeville monodrama in one act, On the Injurious Effects of Tobacco. Chekhov wrote the first version of the play in 1886 and revised it multiple ties in the subsequent years. The final version of the monodrama is the most popular and well-known of all the published versions. The paper will also take into account the other nine one- act plays Chekhov wrote in this period (1886-1902): the Farce- Vaudevilles- The Bear, The Proposal, A Tragic Role, The Anniversary, The Night Before the Trial, and the Dramatic Studies- On the High Road, Swan Song, Tatyana Repina and The Wedding.
The paper will cite English translations of the two versions of the monodrama On the Injurious Effects of Tobacco; the first was published in 1886 and the second was published in 1902, just two years prior to Chekhov's death in 1904. The monodrama or monologue was completed on 14 February, 1886, and was originally published in the Peterburgskaja gazeta on 17 February, 1886 over the signature A. Chekhonte. The translation that will be referred to in the paper was made from O verde tabaka, as published in A. P. Chekhov, Sobranie socinenij (The Collected Works, IX 1886). …show more content…
They reduce plot to a minimum, and the ending is more an interruption than a conclusion. The stress is on character types in an everyday setting. Traces of naturalistic technique can be occasionally spotted in some of Chekhov's vaudevilles. The hard, cutting undertone in the satire of his farces, for example, the “ surgically precise and economical characterization, colloquial speech, fragmented dialogue, and the peculiar Stimmung of the sickeningly petty bourgeois milieu” all take their edge from a “clinical determinism in presenting human folly caught by an unblinking camera eye” ( Moravcevich