29 pages • 58 minutes read
Anton ChekhovThe Death of a Government Clerk
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1883A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Opera
The initial setting of the story is the Arcadia opera house in St. Petersburg, where Chervyakov watches The Bells of Corneville. Written by the French composer Jean Robert Planquette, this opera was popular with audiences in the late 1800s. It features a miserly steward who attempts to secure an aristocrat’s family fortune for himself. The fact that the opera is French signifies an elevated cultural event, as Russian citizens often looked to the European continent—and France in particular—as a model for culture and sophistication. Chervyakov’s attendance is therefore a symbol of his anticipated upward social mobility.
More subtly, the storyline with the steward also works in parallel with Chervyakov’s ambitions. Like the steward in the opera, the clerk in Chekhov’s story is a member of the lower class who works with records, inventories, and other administrative concerns. Chervyakov, like his fictional counterpart on stage at the Arcadia, imagines himself in a higher station in life. He thinks this within the first few sentences, when he watches the opera and feels “on top of the world” (Paragraph 1). The sneeze that follows is the defining event that drags him downward from this lofty position.
The Sneeze
Chervyakov’s sneeze at the opera is the small, seemingly insignificant occurrence that sets off the story’s unfortunate events. As such, it symbolizes a physical reaction to the clerk’s higher-class ambitions. It operates on two levels, signifying both an impolite bodily act and the psychological breakdown of the clerk.
As a bodily act, it disrupts the sophisticated scene at the opera and the harmony of the orchestral music on stage at the time. The sneeze also intrudes upon a high-class official, landing on the head and neck of General Brizzhalov. When the general is forced to wipe the affected area with his glove, the reader gets a glimpse of a high-class scene marred by an out-of-place audience member.
The sneeze is also a psychological impediment, as the idea of it grows and festers in the mind of the clerk. While the general is willing to accept the faux pas as “nothing, nothing at all” (Paragraph 5), Chervyakov suffers from a long, drawn-out anxiety about how the sneeze may affect his professional and social status. For the clerk, it stands as a breech in etiquette and, by association, a sign and symbol of his separation from the ruling upper classes. His wife echoes these concerns when she says that the general may not think Chervyakov knows “how to behave in public” (Paragraph 13). Thus, with the sneeze indicating Chervyakov’s removal from his desired standing in life, the memory of it causes his erratic behavior and, ultimately, his complete alienation from all society.
The Petitioners
The petitioners are nameless, speechless figures who only appear when Chervyakov visits Brizzhalov at his residence. They are not multi-dimensional characters; instead, they function in the background, ultimately symbolizing the general’s importance and highlighting the finer points of his administrative rule.
In the text, Brizzhalov engages in “questioning several petitioners” (Paragraph 15), assumedly in response to their requests for favors or preferment. In this role, the general assumes the figure of a highly authoritative person. He has the power to make judgments and hold sway over the lives of others. With the petitioners standing in as anonymous subjects, the reader gets the idea that all of Russia’s administrative system is designed around the privileged, wealthy few and the unidentifiable masses they rule over.
Chervyakov joins the petitioners, even patiently waiting his turn. Once noticed, however, he continues with his persistent excuses. The general, at this point, is deeply offended and closes the door on him. This small act is devastating to Chervyakov, not least because his alienation has increased to such a level that he is not even welcomed as a petitioner. When once he hoped to mingle with high society at the theater, he now cannot mix with the other solicitors. By comparing him so unfavorably with the nameless group at the general’s estate, Chekhov emphasizes the total desperation that accompanies Chervyakov’s failure and shame.
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