To Whom Shall I Tell My Sorrow

     Title: To Whom Shall I Tell My Sorrow

     Author: Anton Chekov

     Author's Background: Anton Chekhov, in full Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, (born January 29 [January 17, Old Style], 1860, Taganrog , Russia—died July 14/15 [July 1/2], 1904, Badenweiler, Germany), Russian playwright and master of the modern short story. He was a literary artist of laconic precision who probed below the surface of life, laying bare the secret motives of his characters. Chekhov’s best plays and short stories lack complex plots and neat solutions. Concentrating on apparent trivialities, they create a special kind of atmosphere, sometimes termed haunting or lyrical. Chekhov described the Russian life of his time using a deceptively simple technique devoid of obtrusive literary devices, and he is regarded as the outstanding representative of the late 19th-century Russian realist school.

    source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anton-Chekhov

     Vocabulary:

            mare - an adult female horse

            nag - old horse

            brandish - wave of flourish

            fidget - make small movements, especially of the hands and feet, through nervousness or impatience.

            galosh - a waterproof overshoe. Typically made of rubber

            colt - a young uncastrated male horse, in particular one less than four years old.


     Characters: Iona Potapov -  an old cab driver who recently lost his son

                        Iona's horse - His only companion

                        An Officer - Iona's first passenger

                       Three young men - 1 short hunchback and 2 tall ones

     Setting: A cold winter night in Russia

     Exposition: The story describes Iona as a slegde driver that is as white as a ghost, and his little mare was also white and motionless.

     Rising Action: After the coachman swears at Iona fidgets and the officer asked him what is wrong. After he revealed that his son died the officer brushed him off because he was too busy and was in a hurry to get to Vyborgsakya.

     Climax: He feeds his horse which then escalates to him talking about his son and that he should be the one to do the cabying instead of him.

     Falling Action: He talked with his horse about his son.

     Ending: Iona talked more about his son because the horse was the only one that would listen to his sorrow.

     Symbolism:  The title to whom shall i tell my sorrow shows that not everyone is willing to give their ears and here you talk to them.

     Theme: The story showed that not everyone is willing to listen to a person talk because they have their own things to worry about.

     Lesson: We should not bottle up our emotions or else these emotions might overflow and destroy us. You can just talk to something that can't talk back it evident in this story.