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"A Gentleman Friend" Is A Short Story by Anton Chekhov Originally Published On 20 April 1886 in Oskolki

The short story "A Gentleman Friend" by Anton Chekhov follows the character Nastasya Kanavkin who finds herself without money or home after leaving the hospital. With only a single rouble from pawning her ring, she worries that she cannot afford fashionable new clothes needed to enter social clubs. She visits her dentist friend Finkel for help but he fails to recognize her in her plain attire and treats her as an ordinary patient, pulling out one of her teeth. The next day, wearing an expensive new hat, jacket, and shoes, Nastasya enters a club and attracts the attention of a young merchant who takes her out to supper. The story critiques vanity

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606 views3 pages

"A Gentleman Friend" Is A Short Story by Anton Chekhov Originally Published On 20 April 1886 in Oskolki

The short story "A Gentleman Friend" by Anton Chekhov follows the character Nastasya Kanavkin who finds herself without money or home after leaving the hospital. With only a single rouble from pawning her ring, she worries that she cannot afford fashionable new clothes needed to enter social clubs. She visits her dentist friend Finkel for help but he fails to recognize her in her plain attire and treats her as an ordinary patient, pulling out one of her teeth. The next day, wearing an expensive new hat, jacket, and shoes, Nastasya enters a club and attracts the attention of a young merchant who takes her out to supper. The story critiques vanity

Uploaded by

Waseem Abbas
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A Gentleman Friend:

"A Gentleman Friend" is a short story by Anton Chekhov originally published on 20 April 1886
in Oskolki.

Anton Chekhov’s “A Gentleman Friend” revolves around the character of “the charming
Vanda,” Nastasya Kanavkin, who, having no home and money, finds herself in adeficient
position in the time of leaving the hospital. At first, she pawns her “turquoise ring”and gets only
“a rouble” in return.

The narrator states, being in such a miserable position, the lady doesn’t have any strain
regarding the issues like food and shelter. Nonetheless, she has been troubled by the thought that,
with a ‘rouble’, she won’t be able to buy “a fashionable short jacket, nor a big hat, nor a pair of
bronze shoes” and she claims, without those things she would feel like being undressed. She
also thinks that because of her plain attires, horses and dogs would laugh at her.She says’

“She felt as though, not only the people, but even the horses and dogs were staring at her and
laughing at the plainness of her clothes.”

Wittingly, the narrator uses ‘ personification’ as a tool to criticise the people of that certain
period. ‘Horses’ and ‘Dogs’ personify those socially constructed people who judge people,
inhumanly, according to their dressings.

“And clothes were all she thought about: the question what she should eat and where she
should sleep did not trouble her in the least.”

However, to overcome such misery, she needs some money; but with plain dressing, she
wouldn’t be able to enter the club, ‘Renaissance’, where she might get financial help from her
friends. So, she decides to visit one of her friends, named Finkel, who is a dentist.
Unfortunately, her dentist friend does not recognise her. He treats her like an ordinary patient
and asked,

"What is the matter?"


Nastasya becomes furious, but revealing nothing, she says that she has got a toothache.
Thedentist pulls out one of her teeth. That lady, walking along the street becomes frightened. She
utters,

“Oh! how awful it is! My God, how fearful!”

But the very next day, Nastasya Kanavkin, wearing “an enormous new red hat, a new
fashionable jacket, and bronze shoes,” enters the club and be “taken out to supper by a young
merchant up from Kazan.”

There are a few striking elements in the story those portray some self-contrasting social
viewpoints. Number one, Nastasya, being in a lost position, never becomes terrified of having no
home and money, but of her lifeless style. The reason could be that she is well aware of the
social traditions of her time that with good attire she will get everything she needs.

Number two, Finkel, the dentist, couldn’t recognise Nastasya in her plain outfits. There could be
two reasons: firstly, that dentist didn’t recognise her because he had no idea about the
unornamented Nastasya and secondly, he pretended that he didn’t recognise her , though he did.
The dentist could have sensed that she is at his place for help. Chekov has shown us how two
ex-friends have assumed an air of being unknown to each other merely on monetary
consideration.

Number three, the name of the club, ‘Renaissance’, itself is a satire, because the word
‘Renaissance’ refers to some “intellectual revival,” but the club does not belong to that class.

Lastly, the author, deliberately, used the word, ‘Vanda’ to demonstrate the character of
Nastasya. The word ‘Vanda’ refers to the Vanda genus of the orchid family. And interestingly,
orchids are of a showy type with a very short lifetime. The word, ‘Vanda’, metaphorically
criticises every single character, because all of them are orchids in terms of their showy attitudes
towards fascinating elements.
Chekov has admirably drawn here he psychological rejection of vanda. He has also shown us
how a girl rejected by one is thrown at the mercy of everyone. If Finkel had helped her, she
would not have knocked at the door ofdancing club.

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