Psychological Impoverishment in Chekhov's "Anyuta"

Introduction: Defining Anyuta's Impoverishment

In Anton Chekhov's short story "Anyuta," the title character is defined by her internal impoverishment. Perhaps drawing on his professional background as a doctor, Chekhov primarily explores Anyuta's psychological impoverishment through her physical behavior and body, and secondarily through her relationship with Stepan Klochkov.

The story opens with an image of Anyuta and Stepan Klochkov in a dirty apartment. This image introduces several pertinent clues about how to interpret Anyuta's character, even before the reader sees her interact with Stepan. First, the narrator has given Stepan a last name but declined to specify Anyuta's. One possible interpretation of this difference is that Stepan's identity in the world is more particular and concrete than Anyuta's. A last name is usually a family name, and the reader gets the sense that Stepan has a family, comes from somewhere, and is grounded by a historical past.

Physical Description and the Body as Symbol

Another possible interpretation of this differential naming — which may be reconcilable with the first — is that the narrator has a stronger level of familiarity with Anyuta than with Stepan, and so introduces "Stepan Klochkov" to the reader formally. The narrator's intimacy with Anyuta allows him to present her without bothering to mention her last name. The reader is also given a far fuller description of Anyuta's physical appearance than of either of the other two characters. The vagueness and intimacy of this introduction aligns the reader's sympathies with Anyuta from the outset, giving an immediate sense that she is alone in the world.

The details of Anyuta's physical appearance evoke impoverishment. The narrator describes her as "small, thin," "very pale with meek grey eyes," with her back bent (Chekhov 27). Anyuta's body immediately registers as insubstantial — as barely there at all. She has little weight in the world and little coloring or liveliness to give her presence or importance to the people around her. She is not just "pale," but very much so. Her eyes are not merely grey and colorless, but also meek. She is even bent over in a position of submission as she embroiders the collar of a man's shirt.

Submission, Stress, and Contrasting Natures

Anyuta is mild and yielding in stark contrast to Stepan's aggressiveness. Of Stepan's physical appearance, the reader is told that he grinds away at his medical studies so rigorously that his mouth is dry and his forehead is sweaty. Stepan commands a far stronger physical presence in the room. The near-anonymity of Anyuta is subtly increased by the detail that she is "about twenty-five" — not precisely any age.

Both Anyuta and Stepan are under stress to finish something, but the ways in which they respond to that stress emphasize the opposite natures they possess. While Stepan grinds his teeth and moves about actively as he tries to study, Anyuta sits still embroidering a shirt collar. The narrator describes Anyuta's work as an "urgent job," but Anyuta does not seem to work with the same urgency as Stepan. She toils over the shirt quietly, and although her work is pressing, she stops embroidering as soon as Stepan commands her.

Stepan tells her to "come here," and in response she takes off her blouse and straightens up. These immediate, unasked-for movements suggest that Anyuta is accustomed to being commanded by Stepan to assist with his medical studies. She expresses no will of her own. The reader only learns that she might be uncomfortable when Stepan asks why she is flinching, and she tells him his fingers are cold. Yet she continues to stand there even after her "lips, nose and fingers had turned blue with cold" (Chekhov 28). Stepan tells her, "Well... you won't die" (Chekhov 28). He remains completely oblivious to Anyuta's body as anything other than an instrument for his own selfish study, and she herself displays no regard for her body, making no attempt to resist or confront him.