Ryann Walton - Part I

To me, "Misery" was about the grief Iona was attempting to deal with after the death of his son. The setting of the story was in the dead of winter. Iona's description as old and doubled-over alongside the blankets of snow and white mare reflected a feeling of cold death. Iona was so desperate to alleviate his grief and loneliness, that he even enjoyed the company of the three rude and abusive men in his cab. Eventually, he has to resort to confiding in his mare, who cannot even respond to him, let alone listen and understand the story Iona is telling.

I related this story to "The Fly" by Katherine Mansfield. Both of these stories revolve around grief and both the boss and Iona are dealing with the grief of the death of their sons. Both Mansfield and Chekhov illustrate the emotional state of these characters through a narrative without much insight into the characters minds. Both stories also have a simple act that define their emotions as well. The boss kills the fly and Iona tells his mare about his son's death.

Charles May points out that the story, "maintains a strictly objective point of view to communicate the latent significance of the protagonist's emotional state" (16). This is part of what defines Chekhov as a realist writer. This story simply describes the setting and action that is used to express the inner feelings of Iona. May enforces this point by saying Chekhov is "creating the illusion of inner reality by focusing on externals only" (53).

One gap I encountered while I read was wanting to know more about Iona's death. I am not sure if it was Chekhov's intent to stir this kind of interest in the reader, but I thought it was significant that while I wanted to hear Iona's story, none of the other characters would give him a chance to tell it.