This is a heavy-handed tale illustrating the vast chasm between the rich and the poor in Chekhov’s Russia, and the blind ignorance of the rich to the suffering of the poor.
Kunin, a local land-owner (but not, until the story begins, an actual resident of the area), is tasked with creating a parish school, working with the local priest. But the priest, Father Yakov, is unimpressive at best, and pathetic or even repulsive at worst. He wears tattered clothing, he isn’t much of a preacher, and he doesn’t even have a cup of tea to offer a visitor.
The reader, of course, sees the problem right away: Father Yakov is desperately poor. On his first visit to Kunin, he pockets a biscuit. The dense and entitled Kunin chalks it up to greed or childishness.
By the end of the story, Kunin has understood the truth of the situation. He vows to help Father Yakov and the other poor people of the parish.
Eh… Well, it’s a perfectly nice message (give generously to those with less than you!) but as fiction it falls pretty far from being a compelling read.
Chekhov is famed for his carefully shaded, highly nuanced portraits, but he was just as likely–especially in his early years as a young writer on the make–to create fairly obvious portraits of greedheads, hypocrites, poppinjays and ignoramuses. These doofuses get what’s coming to them, and the reader (theoretically) has a good laugh at their expense. (Tolstoy thought these kinds of skewering stories were an absolute hoot.)
“A Nightmare” is not meant to be funny, but instructive. Well, we’ve had our lesson and can move on.
READ THIS? READ THAT!
Chekhov occasionally found a high horse to ride and the results are generally similar to “A Nightmare” – kind of a bore. “The Letter” is a much more interesting portrait of the relatively rough lot of small-town priests.
A Chekhov Circus 