Chekhov commented to his brother in May 1886 that he desired his work to have "an absence of lengthy verbiage of a political, social, or economic nature; total objectivity, truthful description of persons and objects; extreme brevity; audacity and originality: avoiding stereotypes; and compassion." Certainly, there is not a 'lengthy verbiage of a political' nature present in Gooseberries, only a brief interlude which, on first reading, gives the impression of Ivan going of on a tangent, with hardly any relevance to the story itself. When analysed, the story, in conjunction with A Hard Case, gives an implication of a political stance, certainly by Ivan Ivanovich, and possibly Chekhov himself, yet Chekhov seems adept in emphasising his total objectivity using a first person narrative. He did possess political and social beliefs, for example, he was involved in the famine relief effort during 1892-1893 in Russia, but these beliefs he did not want to transcend into his writings. He wrote to A. N. Pleshcheyev, in October 1889 "I am afrai

Lee J. Williams tells us that Chekhov believed "...that Russian excitability too quickly turned '...into weariness'" and "that as soon as the Russian left School, he bit off more than he could chew so that by the age of thirty he began to feel drained and bored without knowing why." Ivan has a realisation of this beyond that of his acquaintances. "But is there any law, any order which says that a vigorous, right-thinking man like me should stand by a ditch and wait for it to become overgrown or covered with mud - when all the time I might be able to jump across it or bridge it?" Here we see the truth in Ivan's reflection that "It's not Nicholas I'm concerned with, though, it's myself." We can see Ivan's 'regret' in the bathing scene, where he "plunged in with a loud splash, swam about in the rain with broad sweeps oh his arms and sent up waves...... swam to the middle of the reach and dived...... he kept plunging and trying to touch the bottom."

d of those who look for a tendency between the lines, and who are determined to regard me either as a liberal or as a conservative." So there is not much to be said for finding a serious political statement in Gooseberries or any of his other stories. Nonetheless, the agitated character of Ivan cannot be ignored. However objective Chekhov claims to be, we cannot help but think, when reading the story, that he takes a certain displeasure in characters like Ivan, and took a certain satisfaction in depicting one such character. He once stated, that he had "... no faith in our intelligentsia; it is hypocritical, dishonest, hysterical, ill-bred and lazy." Ivan Ivanovich is of the intelligentsia, and certainly he is hypocritical and hysterical. He urges to a non-existent audience "Freedom is a blessing, said I, we need it as the air we breathe - but we must wait for it... But now I want to know what on earth are we waiting for?" He expresses the same tone of complaint in A Hard Case "Not daring to proclaim that you are on the side of honest, free men!" and though only a short time has passed between the two stori

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1391
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)