"The Dowry" is a short story by Chekhov, written at the end of the nineteenth century, which tells the protagonist's three visits to a family.
The first visit is when the protagonist is commissioned by Colonel Chikamasov to visit his wife and daughter. The protagonist sees that their room is full of paper samples for making clothes, and they are sewing clothes. The colonel's wife tells the protagonist that this is a dowry for her daughter. There is a large market nearby, and they buy some clothes every year and then do needlework for a whole year.
The second visit, 7 years later, the protagonist passed by. At this time, Colonel Chikamasov had just passed away, and his wife and daughter were wearing mourning clothes, still cutting clothes, making clothes, and preparing the dowry.
On the third visit, the protagonist only sees the colonel's wife. The old woman with the funeral seal, with a picture of her daughter in front of her, continued to do needlework. However, at this time, the needlework she did was no longer a dowry for her daughter, but was made to give to the priest.
In the novel, there is another character, that is, Colonel Chikamasov's younger brother, Yegor Shemenec. He had been an official, and when he became angry, he planned to enter the monastery, but the monastery refused to accept him, and he had to live in the colonel's house.
Of the three visits of the protagonist, he was not seen for the first time, only heard him yawning in the next room; the second time he saw his figure and slipped through the front hall of the room; the third time he was finally seen, sitting with the colonel's wife, but when he saw the protagonist, he immediately jumped up and ran away.
This Yegor Shemenec, full of mystery, and whether there are other more complicated relationships with the colonel's wife are not stated in the novel. It is only through the narration of the Colonel's wife that we learn that he likes to drink because of his sadness, and often takes out the dowry they have prepared and gives it to pilgrims to save his soul.
As for where the Colonel's daughter went during the protagonist's third visit? Is it dead? Or is he married? It is also not explicitly stated in the novel, but from the signs such as funeral seals and photos, it can be inferred that she has died in a high probability.
Moreover, during the third visit, the colonel's wife also said a word to the protagonist, saying that she had become a wandering ghost, which seemed to provide more powerful evidence for the death of the colonel's daughter.
But these signs alone make it impossible to infer that the Colonel's daughter had indeed died. It is possible that the death badge of the colonel's wife was only worn for others. As for her describing herself as a wandering spirit, it may also be just to show her loneliness.
However, these details are not important to the whole novel. Because, the most important thing in the novel is not people, but the dowries that they spent years preparing.
All of them regard these dowries as an important sustenance in their lives.
The Colonel's wife prepares a dowry for her daughter to fulfill her mission as a mother; the Colonel's daughter prepares a dowry for herself to change her destiny and life by marrying; and Yegor Semmenec sends a dowry to others to save her soul.
These dowries mean a lot to them. So much so that the daughter is gone, and has become the wandering colonel's wife, still doing needlework, as if continuing to prepare the dowry that has long lost its meaning.
In "The Shawshank Redemption", a prisoner named Lao Bu, who has been imprisoned for decades, can no longer adapt to the external environment after being released from prison on parole, and finally hangs himself on the beam of the room.
Lao Bu's cellmate Red, after hearing about this incident, was very emotional about prison life.
He said: "These walls are interesting. When you first go to jail, you hate the walls around you; slowly, you get used to living in them; eventually you find yourself having to live on it. ”
Chekhov's dowry was like a prison wall, imprisoning the colonel's wife and daughter, as well as Yegor Shemenec, so that they could get used to this life and eventually live on it.
But life should have been rich and varied, and Chekhov, describing the Colonel's little house, specifically wrote: "The little house is surrounded by paradise on earth, with verdant trees and happy birds and finches."
However, those dowries made them unable to see the paradise on earth outside the house, but only let them see the boring life of the house full of paper, full of soot, and the smell of insecticide powder.
In social psychology, there is a view that our view of the world comes from our interpretation of the world.
Therefore, for this world, the melancholy people see the miserable wind and rain that break the intestines, while the happy people see the pleasant rays of sunshine.
Therefore, in the same world, some people seem to be hell, and some people seem to be heaven. The Colonel's family, on the other hand, saw only the long life tied to the dowry.