The country concept is the most mobile in the history of Russian culture. The change in the image of the dacha was subordinated to the restructuring of the lifestyle of the Russian nation from the XVIII century to the present day. In Russian literature, the dacha theme began to be actively developed from the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, due to the active change of life paradigms: the traditional manor was a thing of the past, the new urban one has not yet settled. The image of the dacha appears even in A. S. Pushkin, it is he who sets the tone for the playful perception of the dacha as an easy pastime. Further development of the suburban image of aristocratic writers who lived briefly in dachas – I. S. Turgenev, I. A. Goncharov, L. N. Tolstoy – it went in the direction of strangeness, the peculiarities of this place.
Since the end of the XIX – beginning of the XX century, we can talk about the dacha chronotope – the time and place in the work – forming a special carnival-theatrical consciousness of a person of the new time. The dacha as a place of growing up of a new generation, in which the playing space (“stage”) correlated with the playing (“resting”) time, formed a new type of behavior of an intellectual, turning him into a “human artist”.
The country space occupies an important place in the work of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. For example, in his story “The Green Spit”, all the main plot actions take place in the country.
The first chapter – introductory – is devoted to the description of the dacha “Green Spit” on the shore of the Black Sea and its owners – Princess Maria Egorovna Mikshadze and her daughter Olya, and the second – the events that took place at this dacha – one of the “stupid medieval stories”. Namely: the mother wants to marry Olya, but she is in love with Egorov, and a group of friends arranges a conspiracy, disrupting Olya’s engagement to an unloved person.
“Dacha in Sillomyagi” by Nikolai Dubovskaya
The narrator is a summer resident who came every summer at the invitation of the owners, and this person is autobiographical. And as commentators note, some of the characters of the little novel (for example, E.P. Egorov, M.P. Korobov) are real people, friends of A.P. Chekhov. Here, the narrator’s “Novel thinking” is expressed in the design of what he witnessed. The events taking place on the Black Sea coast in a dacha, which he compares to a medieval castle, become the basis for writing a whole novel.
His romantic mood, “poetic” view of the world, allows you to imagine a picturesque landscape. The cottage is a kind of medieval castle “with its turrets, spires, notches, poles”, which, meanwhile, corresponds to the trends of architecture of the second half of the XIX century. The description of the plot is made in a romantic way with their characteristic personification and introspection. The green braid in the narrator’s narration is a charming cottage with humble beauty (“I like her for her humble beauty …”) and a flirtatious breeze (“The air through which a wet flirtatious breeze runs every now and then, all kinds of bird voices, an eternally clear sky, transparent water – a wonderful place!”), a wonderful place with a garden with alleys, fountains, orangery (“This dacha stands on a mountain; around the dacha is a thick, thick garden with alleys, fountains, greenhouses, and below, under the mountain – a harsh blue sea …”):
“On the shore of the Black Sea, in a place that in my diary and in the diaries of my heroes and heroines is listed as a “Green Scythe”, there is a charming dacha. <...> She looks friendly, warm, romantic… Because of the slender silver poplars, with their turrets, spires, notches, poles, it looks like something medieval. When I look at her, I remember sentimental German novels with their knights, castles…”
“Dacha in the Crimea” by Alexander Kiselyov
The most interesting thing is that Chekhov here, in addition to the topos itself, also means a kind of summer chronos, since the narrator literally talks about the timing of the “summer season”: (“We gathered on the Green Spit every year in May”, “We came and stayed until September”). In the future, the author expands this chronotope with the help of a plot function and also frames the work itself from the frame of just the summer season, adding a specific invitation to the narrator by the Princess and Olya: “Every March we were invited to the Green Braid by two letters …”. With the help of this, a kind of circular composition is created here, which carries the idea of cyclicity, which seems to imply the continuation of the novel (“Soon I should receive two letters”, “In May I’m going to the Green Spit again”).
Such a comparison with the chivalrous Middle Ages is no coincidence, since, in general, the country plot in the “Spit” is exactly what parodies chivalrous novels. In support of this idea, there is also a love triangle characteristic of them in the story, in which there is: Prince Chaikhidzev (the groom), Lieutenant Egorov (the knight) and Olya (the Beautiful Lady).
In the description of these applicants for the heroine’s hand, Chekhov introduces the first contrasting layer. So, for example, Chaikhidzev is described unflatteringly, because Olya does not want to marry him – “a rather limited fellow”, “bug-eyed, narrow-chested”. Whereas Lieutenant Egorov, with whom she is in love, is “handsome, successfully witty, silent and military a lot.”
“A girl going on a date”, illustration for the “Green Braid”, Nikolai Chekhov
Speaking in a similar way, in order to designate the characters a little, the narrator’s poetic perception of the cottage is overshadowed by the prosaic component of life, which is represented mainly by a strict and capricious hostess-the Princess – Chekhov calls her “the gray spot.” In contrast, he also notes the brightest memory of the hero – her daughter Olga, without whom “the poetry of the Green Braid would be incomplete.” With the help of images Chekhov literally contrasts prose and poetry:
“If it were not for her daughter, then, perhaps, we would hardly be delighting ourselves now with memories of the Green Spit. A kind woman is the greyest spot in our memories”
“The decoration of the Green Braid is the daughter of Marya Egorovna, Olya. <...> Without her, the poetry of the Green Braid would be incomplete”
Here we see that the principle of pun prevails in the construction of Chekhov’s character gallery. The Princess appears rolling on her two skates, but naturally in a figurative sense: “Etiquette is her hobby. That she is the prince’s wife is her other hobby,” he writes. And her behavior is characterized as “eternal and terrible over-salting”: “Riding on these two skates, she is forever and terribly overdoing it” – a pun with over-salt here hints that the princess is clearly overdoing the etiquette, because she is “the enemy of frivolity and frivolity, loves silence,” considers it indecent to smile and likes to lecture.
For the narrator-poet, Marya Yegorovna is “the wife of a Georgian, or a Circassian prince.” Here this pronounced inaccuracy is put on purpose: through it Chekhov emphasizes the somewhat ironic attitude of the narrator to the lady, for whom the highest virtue is represented by nobility, with pompous. The description of the princess in the course of the text, in general, is contradictory, since it is constantly clarified that she was “not strict, but capricious”; “she loved us, but at the same time reproached and tormented.”
But despite such a temperamental hostess, the Green Braid for summer residents still seems to be an earthly paradise, which again is invested in Chekhov’s contrast. At the same time, the main feature of this suburban space is its musicality, because there are a lot of sound images in the text:
“The splashing of the sea and the whispering of the trees are good in themselves, but if they are joined by the soprano Oli with the accompaniment of our basses, tenors and piano, then the sea and the garden become an earthly paradise…”
“Puppet show at dachas” by Vladimir Makovsky
From another contrasting layer in the Braid, the carnival theme, mentioned by us at the beginning, can also be distinguished. There is a playful atmosphere at the dacha: summer residents in the fight against the rules of the princess use innocent children’s pranks. It is mentioned that they: “took her scissors somewhere, forgot where her alcohol was, did not know how to find her thimble.” At the same time, these summer residents were necessarily punished for this, which is also presented in a comic role – Chekhov notes that summer residents could be called for fun, and according to the phrase “they were called to the old woman” a kind of ironic image of the court is created: “Sometimes for fun, one of us gets involved in something and is called to the old woman according to the report”.
This theme continues at the ball, at which the cottagers conspired against the Princess and against her plans for Olga, at which the carnival top (the princess herself and Prince Chaikhidzev) swapped places with the carnival bottom (Egorov and the cottagers). When the plot of the cottagers succeeds, the Princess instantly loses all her etiquette, while it is described that she “lost her temper and sniffed alcohol,” “was angry, ashamed of the guests, the groom,” and she was “furious.”
A. P. Chekhov not only managed to fully convey the romantic and Gothic style of the suburban area, fully responding to the trends of his time, but also endowed the cottage with a special symbolism, applying his legendary subtle humor to it. The story “The Green Spit” is definitely worth it to give him a little of his time and enjoy the witty Chekhov prose!
Author of the article: Varvara Kartushina
