But foremost the story is short, and while inspiring complex thoughts to its readers, <The Student> has a clear and concise composition. These features enabled me to ponder over an only subject on which the story focuses: the development of Ivan’s viewpoint on his world.
Ivan, at the beginning, “did not want to go home.” He hated the “desperate poverty and hunger” of his life, and the future that would not bring about any change. The expression “…the same darkness, the same feeling of oppression” reflects that Ivan had an absolutely pessimistic perspective. However, after he witnessed the widows impressed by the story of Peter, he grasped that truth and beauty of human life had continued without break to this day. Then Ivan sweetly expected contentment in life with youth, health, and vigor. As I thought earlier, it might be considered impetuous that Ivan immediately brought a revelation from his personal interpretation of an experience. Nonetheless, the point is not the validity of his realization, but that he started to consider lofty values of his world. No one would know the true meaning of Vasilisa’s tears, yet Ivan discovered an evident relation between the past and the present by appreciating her reaction. Maybe it was Ivan, rather than Vasilisa, who really quivered when he touched one end.
True, nothing changed in Ivan’s bad, dreary life. A cruel wind was still blowing, his finger numb, and he to see his mother, barefoot, cleaning the teapot. Therefore some might think that this part lucidly reveals the author’s dark viewpoint. But for Chekhov, it was an effort to convey his optimism to readers. The progressive world view of Anton Chekhov is obvious in his quote: “I say ’…see how bad and dreary your lives are!’ The important thing [is that] they (readers) will most certainly create another and better life for themselves.” Also, at least one thing changed: Ivan’s attitude towards his reality. It could be cold to-morrow, but the matter is how he faces his life with such challenging obstacles. “Everything is in the mind.” The story got even more sanguine when he gradually found his life to be rapturous, wonderful, and full of noble values.
In the story, Ivan told the widows an event that represents bitterness of an unescapable hardship in reality. But in fact, the real listeners of his story are us the readers. We, if not weep, appreciate the story and contemplate the theme. Then, how exactly should we do so? I strongly believe that Chekhov wanted us to undergo a process similar to that of Ivan’s perspective change. For much of his life Chekhov suffered from the debilitating disease of tuberculosis, and eventually died from it. But he managed to achieve an enormous amount – a large number of short stories, a scientific treatise on prison conditions, and the plays for which he is best known. Thus, Anton Chekhov himself was an epitome of such an eventual progressive viewpoint. And he asks us through his short story – that wouldn’t we quiver if he touches one end.
