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  • Essay / The Heart of a Man's Sorrow - 815

    Anton Chekhov "Misery" focuses on the misery of one man, Iona. Chekhov uses dialogue and events to show Iona's loneliness, illusion, and displacement of grief, to define her different forms of misery. Iona Potapov, the character from “Misery,” is a taxi driver in St. Petersburg whose only son died the previous week. Iona's loss of his son isn't the root of his pain, it's the fact that he can't grieve properly. Iona's misery comes from the fact that he tries to hide his pain, by detaching himself from reality. The story takes place in 19th century Russia, in winter. Iona who was a coachman, the illusion leads him to ignore the horrible weather conditions around him, and he allows himself to be covered in snow. “If a simple snowdrift fell on him, it would seem that even he would not consider it necessary to shake it off.” (327). Ignoring the snow is a perfect example of Iona's depression consuming him. The displacement of Iona's grief does not end there; towards the end of the short story, Iona even tries to attribute her pain to the low salary acquired for that day and completely ignores the death of her son. “I didn’t even earn enough to pay for the oats,” he thinks, “that’s why I’m so unhappy.” (329). Iona is obviously trying to avoid the fact that he can't grieve by trying to attribute his anguish to unrelated matters. His symptoms of depression are visible. On the other hand, it seems that Iona's grief comes from not having anyone to express his pain to. Throughout the story he is surrounded by people, but he remains truly alone. He “craves” the opportunity to talk about his grief, but no one will share the burden of his misery. Even when he is not respected by the people around him, he always looks for a conversation...... middle of paper ...... story Iona searched for a soul to tell why he is in a immense sorrow. He didn't realize that his real mate was pulling him all the time. “The little mare nibbles, listens and breathes on her master hand. Iona is carried away and tells him everything. (330). The connection is clear, Iona's grief has allowed her to neglect the only being who has an ounce of compassion for Iona. Couldn’t the connection with her horse be one of the true roots of her grief? In conclusion, Iona's misery has its roots in several different areas. Through this analysis, I showed his illusion, his loneliness and his displacement of grief. I also showed how his companion the mare had her ears open all the time. His son's death is only part of his misery, the other trials and tribulations he went through that day, and his belated realization of his true companion..