(Marian
Fell translation)
In
this story two young people who are in love, Ivan Lapkin and Anna Zamblitskaya,
are constantly interrupted during their moments together by her little brother
Kolia. A small kiss on the hand and on the lips exchanged by the young couple
and witnessed by Kolia sets the beginning of an annoying ritual of bribing the
little “rascal” with all sorts of presents so that he does not tell on them.
“But perfect bliss does not exist
on earth, it often bears a poison in itself, or else is poisoned by some
outside circumstances.”
On
a first read, the ending of the story appears unfulfilling even when one reads:
“The pleasure depicted on the
faces of the lovers when Kolia wept and begged for mercy was well worth seeing.”
The
ultimate revenge of the couple is a mere immediate reaction by two people who
are finally free to publicize their relationship through their engagement and
therefore, able to deal with Kolia’s naughty behavior. Chekhov does not offer a
clever way to punish the boy so that the reader gets the satisfaction with the moral
of the story. He simply describes what the first action would be of people
quite annoyed with the boy who was so persistent in his spying on them and
extorting them each time for a bigger prize.
Interestingly
enough, the story opens up with a fishing scene where the young man makes his
declaration of love for Anna, but during his emotional revelation, he is being
interrupted by the fishing process. In the middle of his love message he interjects
with instructions on what Anna should be doing and helping her with the catch
of a nice perch. The motif of being interrupted achieves new heights with the
inconvenient presence of Kolia everywhere Ivan and Anna wanted to share some
moments alone.
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