Trooper Jonah and his Tosca (the story of Anton Chekhov "Longing")
The story of Anton Chekhov "Longing" is one of the few stories of the great humorist, which have no sense of humor. It conveys the experiences of a lonely old man, even no one to comfort him in his grief. This is the story of human spiritual callousness, and isolation of people among the crowd. And no one to lend a helping hand or, at least, to comfort with a kind word.
The old coachman Ions died from the disease adult son. All hopes of old man collapsed overnight. He is in a deep grief that is forced to survive alone. Standing in the middle of a busy street with a horse-drawn wagon, Jonah tries to anyone to talk about the trouble. However, people passing by not to grief care. All in a hurry about their business, talking back and curse at the cabby and his horse, because they interfere with travel.
Rare passengers Ions don't show him sympathy. Heard the words of the coachman's son is dead, young gentlemen continued their cheerful conversation, and one of them even swiped Jonah because he slowly took them. On the street there was a heavy snowfall, there are a lot of people scurrying, and the driver was absolutely not to blame for the fact that the horse he was lucky not so quickly as it was expected the passengers. Old Jonah did not even feel shock, because his emotional pain was much stronger than the physical pain.
But not only among gentlemen, could not find ion of sympathy. When you try to talk about their grief to the other driver, he too was faced with complete indifference. The author of the story gave us to understand that the brutal indifference to the suffering of others defines the class class, wealth or poverty, and is a trait of human character.
However, the creature still sympathetic to the old Jonah and his grief. This single entity became a cart horse. It is the same as the host, was exhausted from hard work, but turned out to be more humane by many people. Jonah didn't need words of pity, he needed someone who could just listen to his story about the dead son. The horse, of course, could not to feel sorry for Jonah, but its silent participation, she helped the unfortunate cabman to vent his feelings.
That's what I wanted to say Chekhov: the man even among many people can be so lonely, that no one will feel sorry for him and comfort even the worst of grief, there is no one to say an encouraging word. And the reason for this is ordinary human indifference and selfishness.
