For Your World
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John Headle
2/8/05
Lit2110 Sec. 840
Word Count: 1526
For Your World
A story consists of many small parts. When these parts are put together they create a piece of literature that conveys a message. This message can be about almost anything. Literature can tell a story about happiness or an experience of love. It all depends on what pieces and how they are placed together which makes a story. Anton Chekhov has written a wonderfully pieced together short story titled “Misery”. The elements which allow me to understand “Misery” are narrator point of view, setting, character, and theme.
Setting is the only other device, besides the title, which can set a mood for the story before any characters are introduced. When you place any character in a setting, that setting reflects onto the character. “Iona Potapov, the sledge driver, is all white like a ghost… His little mare is white and motionless too…She is probably lost in thought. Anyone who has been torn away from the plough, from the familiar gray landscapes and cast into this slough, full of monstrous lights, of unceasing uproar and hurrying people…” (69); this quote allows for the reader to build a picture of the scenery. No one would want to have to sit on a sledge for many hours and be covered in snow waiting for someone to come by. The words used to describe Iona’s setting are very carefully picked to create this powerful imagery at the beginning of the story. The city is described as a slough. Slough is defined as a state of deep despair or moral degradation. With this deep pit of despair called a town, “monstrous lights” and “unceasing uproar” continue all round these two characters. With this as the opening paragraph the story has already started an emotion or feeling inside the readers mind.
How a story is told can alter the meaning of the story. Finding the right combination of who tells the story if very difficult. When the right order of voices are found it makes the story come alive. It allows for the imagery of the person’s actions and the characters thoughts to be read at the same time. “Misery” has found this great combination.
Narrators are used show or place a given mood in the story. “It is a long time since Iona has budged. They came out of the yard before dinner-time and not a single fare yet.” (69) At the start of the story the narrator has started the emotion of sympathy for the main character. When someone is having a bad day or bad luck you already begin to feel some compassion for them. Narrators are needed all through out the story. When dialog would become to tedious to read the narrator is needed to describe in a few quick words what is happening in the surroundings. Later in the poem the narrator his needed to help provide a transition between dialog from Iona or another character and to give details of the surrounding.
If Iona describes the surroundings it would become a long winded story. Iona’s first person point of view is only needed for the personal conversations between characters in the story. When a conversation is held in first person it allows for emotions to be shown and the character to show through. The main character of the story is shown as a poor, lonely man who is only trying to talk to someone. To help give the character more depth conversations between the drunks, cop and he need to be expressed through dialog and not through a third person point of view. One example of this device is, “He-he me-er-ry gentlemen. The only wife for me now is the damp earth… He-ho-ho! The grave that is! Here my son’s dead and I am alive…” (71) This quote shows us that it is more powerful to have a character convey emotions through their vocabulary. If the narrator had told of this information the message would have just been a footnote in the reader’s mind.
It does not matter who is telling the story if the characters do not fit. The two main characters of the short story “Misery” are Iona and his horse. Characters are the biggest part in a short story. Unfortunately for the short story, space is limited. Characters can not be fully developed in stories that short. All we learn about Iona is that his son has died and that he is lonely. No further detail is given. The reader is not told of what he does in his spear time or what his interests are. However, that is what makes a short story enjoyable. The quick straight to the point story, which has no desire or need to add immense descriptions, gets its points or morals across. In order to do this the characters need to be simple and moldable to the story. They must not need great introductions but traits which everyone can understand.
Misery is the