This is one of the more painful Chekhov stories, I must say, and that’s surprising given that the beings that suffer most greatly in it are animals.
I can hardly bring myself to offer a thumbnail sketch of the plot, but here goes: Zotov, a grouchy old man, alone and lonely, can no longer afford to feed himself, let alone his old, broken-down horse and his mangy dog. He determines to travel some eight or nine miles to the home of a great-niece, to whom he will leave his home and belongings, in the hopes that she will take him in now, in his old age. He leaves his animals behind, but they trail along after him miserably, and he realizes that he must take them to the slaughterhouse. When the horse is killed with a blow to the head, the dog rushes at Ignat, the slaughterer, and she too is dispatched with a blow to the head.
And then Zotov himself, drunk and forlorn, put his own forehead forward, as if to join his animals in death.
Oof.
This story, while about animals, is nothing like Chekhov’s two animal stories, “Kashtanka” and “Whitebrow.” Those are really aimed at children, although they have some adult elements. Still, between reading “The Dependents” and “Whitebrow” and “Kashtanka,” it seems clear that Chekhov believed that animals are conscious beings that can suffer and worry and mourn. That was not necessarily a common viewpoint of the day. But it makes sense that Chekhov, the grandson of a serf, who understood deeply the plight of children and the poor and the helpless, would extend his empathy to animals and humans alike.
READ THIS? READ THAT!
“The Dependents” could sit beside almost any of Chekhov’s tales about rural poverty: “Peasants,” “A Day in the Country,” “Dreams,” or “Sorrow,” to name a few.
But the story I might recommend as a companion to “The Dependents” is “Misery,” a terribly sad story of a cab driver unable to find anyone to commiserate with him on the death of his son. These two stories are awfully fine, although they don’t do much other than make you feel miserable.
A Chekhov Circus 