Anton Chekhov's "The House with the Mezzanine"

Anton Chekhov's "The House with the Mezzanine"

As the first story in Anton Chekhov’s collection of short stories “The Lady with the Little Dog and Other Short Stories, 1898 - 1904”, “The House with the Mezzanine” introduces the reader to many concepts also highlighted in later short stories that are frequently articulated, suggesting the issues are fundamental to the author’s purpose for writing.
“The House with the Mezzanine” details the unchangeable mindset of a large majority of Russian society at the time of his writing. The artist who narrates the story is presented with endless opportunity for change and broadening of his view through the constant challenge of Lida. She and the artist stand ideologically polarised on almost every issue, ‘never [able to] see eye to eye’ since they do not share values. In conjunction with the inflexible, obdurate way that they refuse to even consider each other’s ideas, as they have ‘heard it all before’ and there is no point to discussion. Lida and the artist invariably argue, and Chekov’s utilises this to highlight this unending disagreement to cement his view that the refusal to compromise between those who think without action, like the artist who is ‘doomed to a life of perpetual idleness’ and so, due to circumstances supposedly out of his control, cannot do anything more; and the pragmatic men and women of action like Lida, who act without considered thought. Through repetition of a quarrel that consists of little more than the same points being stated and remaining undiscussed, Chekhov uses Lida and the artist as a synecdoche of this malady the keeps Russia from progressing.
“The House with the Mezzanine”, due to the narration of the artist, centres the short story on stagnation and aimlessness. Chekhov’s beautiful yet lacklustre description of the environment, the ‘dahlias and roses … all seemed the same colour’ and the old oriole singing ‘feebly’, ‘most probably because he was too old’ augments the sense of monotony and sameness that the artist explicitly...

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