Chekhovian Piety

"In a letter of April 16, 1897, Chekhov rejected Tolstoy's idealist notion of immortality...'He recognizes immortality in its Kantian form, assuming that all of us (men and animals) will live on in some principle (such as reason or love), the essence of which is a mystery. But I can only imagine such a principle or force as a shapeless, gelatinous mass; my I, my individuality, my consciousness would merge with this mass--and I feel no need for this kind of immortality'" (quoted by Pevear in Stories by Anton Chekhov, "Introduction," xx).

Chekhovian piety takes Tolstoy's naturalism to its logical conclusion--banishing the ghosts of metaphysical speculation that Tolstoy had tried, without complete success, to jettison.

And yet, there is another side to Chekhov--one that prompted the critic Leonid Grossman to exclaim that "the atheist Chekhov is unquestionably one of the most Christian poets of world literature" (ibid., xxii)! Grossman was commenting on Chekhov's brief and (typically Chekhovian) enigmatic tale "The Student" (1894). There Chekhov recounts a conversation between a seminary student and two widows on Good Friday. The conversation revolved around Peter's denial of Christ prior to his crucifixion, and the tearful response of the women upon recollection of the story. Caught off guard by their emotional reactions, the seminarian reflected that "the past...is connected with the present in an unbroken chain of events flowing one out of the other." Chekhov remarks: "And it seemed to him that he had just seen both ends of that chain: he touched one end and the other moved" (ibid., 266).

Chekhovian piety--if piety is even the right word--shares something in common with Paterian piety as we encounter it in Walter Pater's 1885 novel Marius, the Epicurian. The common element in both is an aesthetic appreciation for the emotional power of myth, practice, and tradition--but with the ghosts of metaphysical speculation sent into their final exile.