Embodies The Human Condition In Exile By Anton Chekov

Anton Chekov is well known for expressing the human spirit through vivid storytelling. In Exile embodies the totality of the human condition; from its seemingly blissful Elysium to its hellish disfavor, Chekov gives the reader and Tartar a choice. Peter is a cynical social hermit who is a strong anarchist and believes to have found nirvana for all people on earth. Tartar is a young 25 year old man, yet he was described to appear as a mere child as his appearance at introduction was disheveled and sickly. He had come from Simbirsk and had been sent out from his homeland to find work in Siberia. His two brothers and uncle stole horses from a poor man and nearly beat him to death. Tartar and his brothers were then exiled to the harsh and unforgiving cold of Siberia, while his rich uncle received no scrutiny; Tartar is introduced into this story with a dismal
past. At this point we lay the scene, and both reader and character must decide upon a choice.
Is living alone the best way to live life, to shun out the world and have no worries or problems, but miss out on its lavish rewards, or is it better to have a life with the human community with hard working days, but silver linings that would nurture the human needs. Sitting by a fire that provides insufficient warmth, Tartar tells Peter of his brilliant wife and mother in his homeland and how he pines to see them again. Peter tells him to pine no longer and to instead focus on improving himself as the only way to reach true happiness on earth is to abandon fear of mortality, disregard self-gratification, be content with what is owned, and to isolate one’s self from other people’s problems. Peter tells a story of a man named Vassili Andreich. Andreich was a nobleman who was exiled due to a misunderstanding that he made alterations to a will, and was subsequently cut off from his fortune and fated to live out his days in Siberia. Like a runaway child, he still had optimism in the belief that there could be life in Siberia and held ardent that belief that if work was found he would be able to live and
support himself, and make his history a dream, to which Peter tells Tartar that he supported immensely. And like a child, he became lost in himself and therefore had an underlying longing for his fortunes and human connections, and two years later he brought a cure; an “ideal” wife from his urban homeland with grandiose luggage. They had only one daughter, however his wife originated from a metropolis and to metropolis she would return as “clay, water, cold, no vegetables, no fruit; uneducated people and drunkards, with no manners” would not keep her. She left, yet Andreich still raised his daughter to be a kind and clever person, but despite his efforts, in Siberia people live and then face their mortality under grave circumstances. His daughter fell to consumption, and like a child he ran for help; he took the ferry manned by Peter daily and spent his life’s fortune to find her a doctor, but no doctor would be found. Peter lines the path for the reader and Tartar to inquire whether one should live for others happiness with the risk of falling victim to social evils, or live for one’s self and care for nothing; with identical end, until all is subject to oblivion “sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything”.