Views of Modern man :: essays research papers

The Views of Modern Man   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The various short stories of the age of analysis and anxiety do not depict man in a heroic guise, nor do they reflect any deep abiding faith in his destiny. This is especially true in the short stories â€Å"Gooseberries†, â€Å"The Jewels†, â€Å"The Rocking Horse Winner†, and â€Å"The Devil and Daniel Webster† In each, theme is used to give a dim view of the future of mankind, and common themes help tie together a picture of what the authors of this age saw as a plague on mankind.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In â€Å"Gooseberries† Chekhov conveys through the actions of his characters the theme that success comes at a price, and that the ends don’t always justify the means. In the story Nikolay dreams of having a farm and an estate of his own. Throughout his entire life he scrimped and saved every penny he could find. He married a widower for her money and starved her to death, all the while not realizing that it was through his actions that she died. Nikolay did eventually obtain his estate, but at what price? He had been so blinded by his hunger for money that he did not realize that his wife died because he refused to feed her properly? â€Å"And, of course, it never for a moment occurred to my brother that he was to blame for her death. Money, like vodka can do queer things to a man.† In this quote Chekhov is showing the reader what powerful effect money has on a man. The pursuit of material wealth becomes all-important to a man, and anything e lse can be shrugged off. Chekhov is conveying yet another theme through this quote, that of materialism. He feels that when a man becomes obsessed with money his mind becomes shaded, his vision impaired. It is interesting that he compared money to vodka, as though man becomes impaired against all other ideas but those of increasing his wealth. Chekhov sees money and the pursuit of material gain as an all-important goal in the society that surrounds him. He shows what can happen when someone becomes so obsessed with money that they become blinded to the world around them. Chekhov does this through Nikolay. Sure Nikolay does finally get the estate, but it is not quite the one he dreamed of. There is no orchard or duck pond, just a stream with coffee coloured water that had been tainted by a nearby glue factory.