The satirical story “Thick and Thin” was created in 1883 and belongs to Chekhov’s early works. Its first publication took place in the humorous magazine “Oskolki” on October 1 of the same year. At first, the plot of the story was based on an anecdotal incident, and the conflict between “thick” and “thin” arises accidentally due to the latter’s mistake. In 1886, the story was edited; in general, the text was close to the original version of 1883, but some changes made quite significantly changed the meaning of the story. The author removed the motive of subordination in service. The “thin” man now fawned over the “fat” one without any practical background, purely out of habit and developed reflex. Thanks to the changes made, the story became more generalized and satirically sharp.
The ideological content of the story is to ridicule veneration and the associated way of thinking. The author shows how ridiculous and pathetic a person is for whom position and social status are above simple human relationships. Main character a little person who makes himself such, servile even when there is no need for it. In the story we see the world of the “subtle,” the world of slave psychology, which the writer mercilessly and truthfully exposes. A world in which a person voluntarily loses his own dignity and his personality.
Story Analysis
Plot
The action takes place at a railway station, where two old school friends meet, one of them is “fat”, the other is “thin”. “The thin one” comes out of the arriving carriage, accompanied by his thin wife and his equally teenage son in a school uniform, while the “fat one” comes out of the station buffet, where he apparently had a rather hearty lunch. Friends happily meet and begin to ask each other about life, who has achieved what. When asked by thin Porfiry what he has become now, fat Misha, without any ulterior motive, answers that he is now an important official, a secret councilor.
This is where a dramatic metamorphosis occurs with Porfiry and his entire family, which leads Misha into some confusion. The son, a high school student, instantly buttons up all the buttons and stretches out. The long chin of Porfiry’s wife becomes even longer, and he himself begins to behave as if at a reception with an important official with a petition. He begins to fawn, switch to “you”, and chuckle humiliatingly. Misha tries to reason with him: “stop it, we’re old friends.” However, Porfiry does not calm down and continues to behave in the same spirit. This becomes so unpleasant for Fat Misha that he tries to quickly say goodbye to Porfiry and leave.
Main characters
Speaking about Porfiry’s family, we can talk about all three as one person, since the head of the family, judging by their behavior, was able to mold his exact likeness from his wife and son. If at the beginning of the story they all behave like normal people, rejoicing at meeting with an old friend, then, after the news of Tolstoy’s position, the same metamorphosis occurs with them as with Tonky. It’s safe to say that a person’s position is above all else for them. This whole family lives by the principle “I’m a worm in comparison with him, in comparison with him, with a face like that...”. By groveling before a person superior in position, they will apparently treat with contempt those who are lower than them on the social level.
In comparison with them, Misha evokes more sympathy, who, despite the high position he achieved, nevertheless managed to preserve simple human qualities. Remember friendship, rejoice in meeting an old friend, without looking at his social status. It can be assumed that he is a good-natured and sociable person, arrogance and arrogance are alien to him. That is why, when Porfiry began to so zealously express his veneration and servility to him, it became so unpleasant for him that he tried to leave as quickly as possible. From this we can conclude that these qualities are alien and unusual to him.
In his stories, Chekhov calls on people to stop being slaves and to remember their human dignity and self-respect.
Story by A.P. Chekhov's "Thick and Thin" is dated 1883 and is one of the author's first works, created by him at the beginning creative path. Its peculiarity is the capacity and brevity of presentation, as well as the lack of a clearly emphasized author’s position. The reader must draw his own conclusions based on what he read.
The story belongs to the genre of critical realism. This work can be considered a real example of Chekhov’s author’s handwriting, since the story incorporates almost everything character traits the author's writing style, including: a short, fast-paced plot, accuracy and vividness of presentation, attention to the most important details for understanding the idea of the story.
The main problem that the author draws attention to is the dependence of people on the social position they occupy in society. The human mind and behavior are fixated on the stereotypes generated by this status.
The object of ridicule in this story always groveling before senior positions petty official. He is servile even when, in fact, this is not required. Chekhov vividly and truthfully demonstrates to the reader the psychology of “subtle” people, their slavish thinking and slavish behavior. Behind it, a person loses his own “I” and ceases to be a person. This is the tragedy of “thin” people.
The beginning of the story is a brief exposition that fits literally in one sentence. Here the author uses a clear contrast of two characters to each other - there are two friends, one of them is fat, the other is thin. The introduction also makes it clear that we'll talk specifically about officials, and the beginning of the whole story is a meeting of two old friends.
The climax and denouement are built around how the attitude of the “thin” to the “fat” changes greatly after the former learns about the high official status of the latter. Here we can see another interesting author's technique of Chekhov - unfinished sentences, which seem to show how the breath of the “subtle” one is interrupted by a sudden attack of respect and servility.
A special place in the works of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is occupied by the image of a man endowed with such qualities as excessive respect for rank, cowardice and helpfulness to a wealthy person. The theme of inequality of people of different social statuses is developed in the story “Fat and Thin”, where the manifestation of such vices of humanity leads to loss self-esteem and self-respect.
The limited number of characters in the work emphasizes the uniqueness of this genre. The plot of the story is simple. The meeting of former gymnasium comrades many years later on the territory of the railway station connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg delights both. However, the social inequality of men leads to embarrassment for one and disgusts the other.
The story is characterized by a meager use of details in creating portraits of the characters, but even such brevity by A.P. Chekhov does not prevent him from conveying a complete picture of them: appearance, temperament, behavior and social position in society.
Expressing sincere joy from meeting his friend, the thin-looking Porfiry (thin), who served as a collegiate assessor, cordially greets Misha (fat). He willingly introduces his family - his wife and son, who have an external resemblance to Porfiry. Without hiding, he talks about low income and lack of means of subsistence. This is evidenced by the bags and bundles that he is forced to carry on his own, as well as the smell of an inexpensive lunch.
The image of Michael is represented by a completely opposite figure. A. Chekhov portrays him as a respectable man of full complexion, with income much higher than that of an old friend. This is evidenced by his rank, the expensive aroma of perfume and his exit from the restaurant, in contrast to Porfiry, who appeared from the carriage.
To further narrate the story, the author continues to use one of the brightest artistic techniques- antithesis, further strengthening the opposition of the heroes, emphasizing the difference between them. The short dialogue between former friends at a certain moment becomes a climax. Having no idea about Mikhail’s true official position, Porfiry speaks in a confident tone, however, upon learning of his promotional achievement, he stumbles, outwardly seeming to become shorter in stature. Fear and ingratiation come to the fore; he forgets about simple human qualities.
The behavior of the subtle person changes sharply, his speech is filled with phrases from colloquial vocabulary (“gracious attention”), which smoothly turns into official business vocabulary. The author's repeated use of verbs in describing poses and facial expressions helped convey internal state heroes, to strengthen the emotional coloring of the events as the actions develop and during the climax (Porfiry “giggles”, “turns petrified”, the suitcases “shrink and wince”).
In the story “Thick and Thin,” A.P. Chekhov mercilessly ridicules the humiliating position of people who, through their own fault, lose their human appearance. Differing in some way from those around them, they begin to feel the infringement of their rights in financial matters, becoming dependent on their superiors, bowing down and currying favor with them. The author calls for reconsidering such manifestations in life in the direction of self-respect, emphasizing the equality of all people.
5, 6, 7 grade
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LANGUAGE ANALYSIS OF A.P. CHEKHOV’S STORY “THAT AND THIN”
IN 6TH GRADE
Teacher of Russian language and literature MBOU Lyceum No. 8
Smotrova Natalia Georgievna
A.P. Chekhov believed that short story is designed to increase the reader’s activity, to encourage the reader to add what is left unsaid by the author. This is the task I set for the students in class.
One of the main works of A.P. Chekhov, which is studied in the 6th grade, is the story “The Thick and the Thin.” In order for sixth graders to understand its meaning, I conduct a research lesson. Each teacher usually thinks through the structure of a lesson individually, so I will focus on those linguistic features, which students can see for themselves, i.e. to find that “leaven on which images and ideas rise.”
How does a writer create funny images, what linguistic techniques help him with this? E.A. Zemskaya rightly noted that “the essence of the comic effect created by means of language is the deliberate violation of the accepted method of expression, the creation of a contradiction between the generally accepted system of expression and the given one (“speech device”).” This contradiction can manifest itself in different ways, creating a variety of comic speech techniques. One such technique may be the metaphorization of words and expressions.
We begin the analysis of the text with the title, which is based on lexical antonyms. Please choose nouns for them: thick - thin (stick, thread, hair, etc.). But the story is about people, and usually in such cases they say: fat - thin. What meaning does the word “thin” take on in context? Synonyms for this adjective are given to make sure that it has multiple meanings (the guys themselves call possible values) and carries a certain characteristic, assessment. Therefore, “thick” and “thin” are perceived as contextual antonyms. Further, it turns out that for the definitions “thick” and “thin” we ask the question who?, therefore, they already act as nouns (here it is appropriate to say about expressive possibilities word formation when words move from one part of speech to another). I draw the children’s attention to the fact that the author’s text is very small, but how much can be learned from it.
The contrast indicated in the title is increasingly intensified in the first five sentences, and it becomes clear to us that the financial situation and well-being of our heroes is also contrasting. We prove this with an epithet, metaphors and comparison: the fat man has “lips..., coated with oil, shiny like ripe cherries"; thin "was loaded suitcases, bundles and cardboards.” The impression is also reinforced by the description of the wife of the thin one, in which we find contextual synonyms for the word “thin” - “ skinny», « long».
Since the story is almost completely dialogical, we analyze the speech of the thick and the thin, but do not forget about the author’s text, which helps us better understand the meaning of what is happening.
Of course, children immediately note the abundance of exclamation marks, interrogative sentences; they are predominantly one-component, uncommon; they contain a lot of interjections (“ Fathers”, “oh my God”, “ho-ho”, “well, God bless him”), reinforcing particles ( here you go) and, of course, appeals, funny and touching at the same time (“darling”, “childhood friend”, “my dear”, “darling”). These are all characteristic features conversational style speech. Friends call each other by name, address each other as “you,” and use purely colloquial vocabulary (“well”, “I guess”, “nice”, “cigarette”, « excellent cigarette cases"), phraseology (“How many winters, how many years!") We understand that this creates a feeling of sincere joy from the unexpected meeting of two former classmates. Therefore, the author's phrase "both wereNice stunned" is understood by us in the literal sense. It is necessary to pay attention to replays in the speech of the subtle. Why does he mention twice that his wife, “née Vanzebach, is a Lutheran”? This probably constitutes a kind of source of pride for him, confirming his success in life. But after Tolstoy’s message about his rank, everything changes dramatically, and we again see contrast, opposition. The author's words are extremely expressive here. In one paragraph you can see metaphors (“face distorted”, thin “petrified”, “narrowed”)), and personifications (suitcases, bundles, cardboard boxes "cringed, winced"), and lexical repetition (“he himself shrank”, suitcases, bundles, cardboard boxes “shrank”), and a hyperbole (“the wife’s long chin has become even longer”), and gradation (“shrinked, hunched over, narrowed”), and transformation of phraseological units (“sparks fell from his face and eyes”. Compare: “sparks fell from the eyes”). Every word here helps to create a bright, memorable image, to understand the whole gamut of subtle feelings. And how his speech changes! Starting with respectful address "Your Excellency"(3 times), verbs used in plural (“come out”, “have mercy”), derogatory particle (“pleasant, sir,” “nobles, sir,” “you, sir”), which is even present in the pathetic semblance of subtle laughter (“hee-hee-s”), to a large number of introductory words, indicating not only the confusion of the subtle, but also the loss of the ability to think at all (just read the phrase “wife Louise, a Lutheran, in some way") and build a sentence with a complete meaning ("the gracious attention of your Excellency... It’s like life-giving moisture..."). In addition, after each “dangling” phrase there is an ellipsis. It’s easy to imagine how the subtle one’s breath is taken away, he painfully searches for words appropriate to the changed situation, so as not to somehow inadvertently break the chain of command: after all, in front of him is a SECRET ADVISOR, who has two stars.
The guys notice a strange discrepancy at first glance: “so much was written on the thin man’s face... sweets and respectful acids..." This is nothing more than an oxymoron. He helps us understand why the fat man “vomited” at the sight of such an expression on the thin man’s face (this is also a metaphor). At the end of the story, the already familiar and slightly modified phrase “ All three(here is thin, his wife and son) were pleasantly stunned" The word “pleasant” gives an ironic and satirical sound not only to this sentence, but also to the very meeting of two former friends.
Thus, detailed analysis linguistic means used by A.P. Chekhov in the story “Thick and Thin” allowed students to understand the author’s intention, characterize the characters, identify the originality of Chekhov’s satire and methods of creating a comic effect.
/ / / Comparative characteristics Tolstoy and Tonkoy
In the story by A.P. Chekhov's main characters are two childhood friends, Misha and Porfiry. The title of the work is ambiguous. The author shows us both the appearance of the heroes and their character. Thin Porfiry was a representative of the “little people”, who from childhood received an education about humility and veneration of rank. Fat Misha is a man of high rank, but he treats his childhood friend as his equal.
What these two have in common is that they are both approximately middle-aged, received elementary education, and they have many shared memories of their childhood friendship.
If everything is clear from the story about Thin’s marital status, since he was at the station with his wife and son, then whether his friend has a family is not known. What they have in common is that they both serve as officials, but the difference is that their rank is different. If thin Porfiry held the low rank of collegiate assessor, then fat Misha rose to the rank of Privy Councilor, whose rank is much higher than his friend. The number of orders these friends have is different: Porfiry has one, and Misha has two.
Friends' incomes also vary. Porfiry receives a small salary, and he has to earn extra money by making cigarette cases out of wood with his own hands. And the thin one’s wife also works, teaching music. Fat Misha, as can be seen from the story, has considerable wealth, since he smelled of sherry and perfume. And lack of money won’t make you fat.
The difference between the thin and the thick lies in their attitude towards friendship, rank and rank. At the first moments of their meeting, thin Porfiry behaves towards the fat one like a friend from distant childhood, and when he learns that the fat one has a much higher rank than himself, he sharply changes his behavior. The appearance and expression of the thin man’s face changed sharply; the fat man thought that sparks were falling from his eyes, and he himself suddenly became bent and small. And even his wife and son showed their respect for rank by their appearance and behavior.
Before the fat man stood people who were accustomed to servile veneration, did not believe in themselves - and in the end they got by as best they could. Even when Misha opens his arms to them, they do not respond to his friendly attitude. Porfiry began to address Misha as “you”. From a friend he became like a man who stands with his petition in front of a big official. Thin began to show respect for the man whom a couple of minutes earlier he had hugged and called his childhood friend, with whom he grew up and studied. For the fat man, such a turn was unexpected; in front of him was no longer a friend, but a little man who was subservient to him. The fat one tried to explain to the thin one that he was his friend, and not an official of higher rank. Misha doesn’t like this behavior of his childhood friend; he can’t stand the hypocrisy and leaves. Tolstoy in the story is shown as a man who believed that there should be no respect for rank in friendship.
In his story, Chekhov criticized the type of people who, from childhood, were accustomed to respect for rank.
Story by A.P. Chekhov's “Thick and Thin” was written in 1883, the year of the beginning of the reign of Alexander III after the liberal reforms of Alexander II. This period is considered the era of great reforms, as well as the time of the democratic movement, machines and industry, so it is not surprising that there are references to another period equally rich in changes in social life - the reign of Peter I with its newly introduced table of ranks and indicators of technical progress.
The red line running through all of Chekhov’s works is the idea of the collapse of culture, so the text turns out to be saturated with cultural elements that can destroy its understanding. So, when reading the story you need to know where Nikolaevskaya is located Railway(between St. Petersburg and Moscow, that is, in the most key place Russian Empire), what is fleur-d'orange (a flower of the orange tree, borrowed from French) and Lutheranism (a Protestant faith that came from Saxony). It is useful to understand the system of the table of ranks and being a civilian.
In particular, you may still need knowledge about the meanings of names and the traditions behind them. For example, Porfiry (thin) is sickly and compliant, a martyr, and Mikhail (fat) is an equal, like God. The subtle family is characterized as follows: Louise, according to different versions, on behalf of Louis (glorious warrior, famous battle), shining and bright, or the one who was helped by God. Nathanael is a gift from God. That is, at the level of religious “translations” of names, the subtle family appears to be dependent on the will of the thick one.
The genre of the text is defined as humorous story, accordingly, the work is built on unexpected connections, written briefly and succinctly, with one event characterizing at least the era and its key trends. Stylistically, it is similar to a sketch: the features of the image are superficial, the basis for depicting the images of the characters is metonymy, that is, one characteristic is given as the embodiment of the entire character: “thick” and “thin”.
I would like to call the characteristics of the characters two main concepts of the text; basically, the concepts in the work are divided into conventionally high style, important, thick and low, thin. So the first category includes, for example, the words sherry, shiny, butter, full, and the second - loaded, knots, cardboard, thick, thin, squint, kissing, dandy, little soul, sneak, contortion, turn pale, petrify, shrink, hunched over and others.
It is interesting that many more words are collected around the concept of the thin one, the lines of this character are much longer, the family is larger and even the name (Porfiry) has a higher tradition behind it than the name of the fat one (Misha). Also, when meeting with a thin person, the concept of a wide smile appears, and breadth is a characteristic of a thick one. That is, the thin, insignificant one swells up, tries to outwardly resemble a more significant one, to cover as much space as possible with itself, to stand in the center of the world. An attempt to give oneself meaning also manifests itself at the level of speech; in particular, the subtle one begins to use bookish expressions ( life-giving moisture), introductory words to enhance the formality, and with it the weight of what is being said.
Another remarkable fact is that the phrase “childhood friend” can be attributed to the two concepts, that is, they should erase boundaries, reduce differences to nothing, but in reality - which emphasizes the abnormality of the situation - it does not work that way. Also, the heroes of the story are initially united by the stupefaction of the meeting, but in the end it is completely overtaken by the subtle, also depriving what should be common of the function of unity.
Comparing the characters and the concepts they represent allows them to have different ideas about the same thing. The thin one calls the fat one a nobleman, an excellency (the theme of high versus low), the fat one speaks of this as veneration of rank, that is, there is no contrast in level of rank in his mind. It is also possible that this feature indicates the integrity of the thick one as opposed to the split of the thin consciousness into opposition.
The text tells about a chance meeting of two former classmates, now a collegiate assessor and a privy councilor. Over the years, the distance between them has grown significantly in the eyes of the thin, but not for the fat. The comic effect is that one is trying to establish equality, to curry favor, but, in fact, balance is implied from the very beginning.
The story is based on dialogue. The space is represented by one point, the characters are described by one line, there is no movement - when greeting and saying goodbye, the characters neither converge nor separate. There is only speech and a culture of dialogue. At the very beginning there is a lot catchphrases(how many years, how many winters), the speech appears to be quite decent. The gradation, the decline in the quality of the dialogue, is marked by three repetitions in which the thin one reintroduces his family. In these remarks, the number of ellipsis increases (2, 3, 6), and, accordingly, pauses, break points in speech. It literally begins to disintegrate into indistinct sounds - the fat man’s giggling and nausea as his last remarks. Moreover, the dialogue is closed in a circle by repeating a phrase about childhood friends, which indicates a loss of topic of conversation and a lack of variety in what can be said.
Time does not unfold - the narrative goes in the past and is focused on the memory of the past, and on the other hand, it is fixed by specific moments in denominative sentences. There is no future in the situation depicted; degradation is inevitable, that is, a return to the stages from which development began. Fixation in time may reflect a certain point of no return, after which movement forward is impossible.
Involved and participial phrases relate only to the characteristics of a fat person, emphasizing his status, reducing some side elements next to his actions. For the only time, the same applies to the thin one at the end (the thin one chuckled, cringing even more), in order to enhance the conveyed decrease in significance. Also, in relation to the thin, passivity arises (translated), which does not exist in relation to the thick.
It is difficult to evaluate a text at the level of emotive space. On first reading, it is conventionally divided into two parts - ordinary conversation and fawning conversation, but both are defined by the stupefaction that initially covers half, and then three-quarters of the participants in the scene. The first part of the text is characterized by emotional balance, because then the opposing parties equally experience the same thing. In the second, there is a 100% preponderance towards the thin side, there is basically no chance of restoring the balance. But this is what is directly called, other states are read in replicas, which, as already said, are given greater importance.
At first, both central characters are surprised and joyful, they are delighted with the meeting, and perceive the situation in approximately the same way. The thin one is the first to “couldn’t stand it” - he gets scared, closes down, but tries to portray the same pleasure. This disgusts the fat man, which he does not hide. Thus we discover another feature - the subtle one has to mask his states, he does not allow himself to be honest with anyone. In addition, he draws conditional boundaries in his understanding of the world, the crossing of which urgently requires a change of state.
A line of exclamations runs through the entire text, emphasizing a certain hysteria and tension in the situation being described. Perhaps there is a proximity to falsehood, staging of a scene or a loud sound that turns into an inarticulate semblance of speech, but not speech. Fewer, but also a considerable concentration of questions as clues for answers, which allows you to form a holistic dialogue. When the questions are completed, the meeting ends, they work like driving force, pendulum of conversation and dating. If in one of the heroes (in in this case- in the thin one, because the fat one asks why such a tone) there is not enough fortitude to swing the pendulum back, then the interaction stops. Not believing in your own significance and creating a false one in its place suppresses the spirit of the subtle.
The functional-semantic type of speech in a story is a narrative with microelements of description, which provokes the reader to reason about the situation, because no direct conclusion from the situation is voiced in it. The narration is neutral, the author, as it were, distances himself from the events, transfers primacy to the heroes, and they, in turn, take matters into their own hands, bringing their dialogue to a key place in the text (therefore, in this text it is difficult to talk about transmitting someone else’s speech).
There are two main syntactic actualizers of meaning; they complement each other. In the first half, this is the coherence of all remarks through the repetition of the end of the previous one (not always complete) at the beginning of the next, that is, their smooth connection, the creation of a holistic and unified speech pattern. At the end there is an abundance of ellipses with, accordingly, the opposite meaning. The lexical actualizer is the use of suffixes characteristic of the vernacular (father, soul, good), which works to simplify the image of the subtle, and book vocabulary, which reduces the same image to ossification and banality. This allows us to emphasize that the perception of subtle life is very close to many and has frozen in the consciousness of the Russian person, this leads to stagnation or degradation.
So the story of A.P. Chekhov's "Thick and Thin" draws the reader's attention to the problem of Russian society. Even after the abolition of serfdom, during the period of external progress, it cannot throw off the internal slave shackles and develop personality in parallel with mechanization. Otherwise, the personality begins to lose to technology and formal structures (table of ranks, according to which one is higher than the other, and this is considered objective), in particular, to lose its characteristics and advantages over the machine - analyze the situation at the level of feelings, respect the individual, speak coherently and conduct a free dialogue according to your own rules, and not according to the law of question-answer-question. It is important that the reader thinks about the situation himself and comes to an understanding of the problem.
