Nothing will pass - Chekhov's "My Life"

"Aphids eat grass, rust eats iron, hypocrisy eats souls." Lord, save us sinners! "My Life" depicts a pair of aristocratic young siblings—Miser and Cleopatra—dissatisfied with the meaninglessness of life, trying to rebel, and ending in death and disgrace.

When Cleopatra died, Misel was in his thirties, and the descriptivity of life stopped here. There is no suspense that the rest of Miser's life will be spent bearing the mistakes of his youth. "I believe that nothing will pass without a trace, and that the smallest step we take will affect our lives now and in the future." A costly adventure of youth.

Born into an aristocratic family, his great-grandfather was a general who fought in the Battle of Borodino, his grandfather was a poet, orator, chief nobleman, his uncle was a teacher, and his father was the respected and only architect in the city, all of which Misel's father proudly called "the holy flame passed down from generation to generation".

However, Misel despised this social status, believing that it was nothing more than a privilege in exchange for money and education. He has worked in various organs, but not for long, because he does not like the very idle work in the organs.

"People without money and education depend on manual labor to make ends meet, and I see no reason why I should be an exception." He finally gave up the so-called mental work and did manual work with the contractor turnip.

"With them, I also felt that I had become a horse pulling a big cart, and I realized more and more deeply that the work I was doing was inevitable and unavoidable, which made my life easier and freed me from all kinds of doubts."

Although the workers lived without dignity or self-respect, and "often did not appreciate the moral significance of labor", they were lazy, drunk, oily, cursing, cursing, and shy to beg for money, but they got along well with Miser.

We can imagine how panicked and angry Michael's father was when he was kicked out of the house. Not only that, "My acquaintances met me and were embarrassed for some reason. Some people see me as a freak and a clown, some people feel sorry for me, and some people don't know how to treat me. ”

Miser simply chose a self-reliant lifestyle according to his own wishes, he was a gentle, kind, weak lad, he did not and could not hinder and hurt anyone, why did the people around him show such panic and anger at his actions?

Because they may feel that what Misel despises and throws away is exactly what they are trying to pursue and maintain, and they feel embarrassed and humiliated.

It wasn't until Michael lived as a worker that he really experienced the truth of life, was withheld, hung out in the cold wind, was insulted, and once refused to open a false receipt and was insulted by his well-behaved employer.

The little shop sold them stinky meat and bad flour, brewed tea leaves. In churches, the police always pushed and shoved them, and in hospitals doctors and nurses blackmailed them and gave them unbearable food, and even the most modest petty officer in the post office thought he had the right to treat them as beasts.

At this time, Misel, only to find out, the world "where is there any justice"? And those in high positions, even those who have experienced life at the bottom, will they deeply feel such "the pain of being alive"?

Talking about the stars, talking about philosophy, talking about civic consciousness, these things are as thin as the air on the plateau for the people at the bottom, and maybe when we talk about happy people, we unconsciously classify it.

Both the doctors and Misel's ex-wives were well educated, knew their situation better than the intolerable decent people, and were able to try to make some of their own efforts for humanity, but in the face of concrete realities, they almost chose to withdraw.

For Misel's sister, who is in love with herself, even if the other party is pregnant, she can shift from the topic of love to science and her dissertation, and she does not think of the girl who has always been in love with her, and does not hesitate to abandon her.

At the end of the novel, it is written that the people around Misel (except his father) no longer laugh at him, no longer throw water on him, and get used to my identity as a contractor. The death of her sister left the world with a little girl, and Misel often sat in the cemetery with her niece in her arms after work, chatting with the shy Annuda, a girl who still did not dare to say her love, but always blushed when she said goodbye.

Miser said that if he wanted to engrave words on the ring, he would choose the following sentence: "Nothing will pass." ”

This is a sad novel, especially the last few paragraphs, and people want to shed tears...