Andrei, the Academic
One of the main ways the Prozerov siblings define themselves is by their education, and Andrei (and his sisters') desire for him to become a scientist, an academic - to teach at the University (Fun Fact: Chekhov himself was denied a faculty position at Moscow University after his return from his survey of the penal colony in Sakhalin).
In the aftermath of the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, there was an expansion in education and social mobility in Russia. The son of a peasant could, through education, become a lawyer and therefore enter the emerging, educated middle class. The term 'Intelligentsia' is derived from the Greek for 'educated' but it not only a reference to education, but to a predominant attitude “rooted essentially in the notion that life was important, that ideas were important, and that the world should and doubtless could be changed.”(Steinberg)
"Though stifled by the ambivalence of country life, the Prozorovs are still intelligentsia: they continue to value life, they continue to value ideas and they continue to hope that their world, somehow, should and will be changed for the better." (Steinberg)
The disappointment in Andrei's career as a clerk for the local council is wrapped up in the juxtaposition of his education (and what the siblings see as his potential to 'change the world') and the small-minded bureaucracy of his actual career. The siblings having been 'smothered in education' has prepared them to exchange ideas and discuss art in the big cities (like Moscow), in the country, they find their education not only useless, but a source of discontent. They know the possibilities of educated, cultured society, but are not in one.
In the aftermath of the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, there was an expansion in education and social mobility in Russia. The son of a peasant could, through education, become a lawyer and therefore enter the emerging, educated middle class. The term 'Intelligentsia' is derived from the Greek for 'educated' but it not only a reference to education, but to a predominant attitude “rooted essentially in the notion that life was important, that ideas were important, and that the world should and doubtless could be changed.”(Steinberg)
"Though stifled by the ambivalence of country life, the Prozorovs are still intelligentsia: they continue to value life, they continue to value ideas and they continue to hope that their world, somehow, should and will be changed for the better." (Steinberg)
The disappointment in Andrei's career as a clerk for the local council is wrapped up in the juxtaposition of his education (and what the siblings see as his potential to 'change the world') and the small-minded bureaucracy of his actual career. The siblings having been 'smothered in education' has prepared them to exchange ideas and discuss art in the big cities (like Moscow), in the country, they find their education not only useless, but a source of discontent. They know the possibilities of educated, cultured society, but are not in one.
Sources:
Steinberg, Rachel. Intelligentsia
in Exile: The Prozerovs and the Moscow Dream. Berkeley Repertory
Theatre. April 3, 2013. http://www.berkeleyrep.org/season/1011/ts_program.asp#four
Gordin, Michael D., and Karl Hall. "Intelligentsia Science inside and outside Russia."Osiris 23 (2008): 1-19. Print.
Gordin, Michael D., and Karl Hall. "Intelligentsia Science inside and outside Russia."Osiris 23 (2008): 1-19. Print.
Chebutikin, the Doctor
Chekhov was a trained and practicing physician in addition to his prolific writing career and many scholars attribute Chekhov's objectivity and compassion to his work as a doctor. In all Chekhov's major plays (except Cherry Orchard) and many of his short stories, a doctor is present, and often plays a central role.
"These doctors represent a wide spectrum of behavior, personality, and character. Some are committed, some are lazy, and some suffer from burnout. Many are pompous, several are drunks, and very few are heroes." (Coulehan, xx)
Chebutikin represents one of Chekhov's most 'burnt out' doctors. He is constantly drunk and questioning the meaning of life (and whether we exist at all). He claims to have forgotten everything he ever knew about medicine and his uselessness at the fire in Act III sends him into a drunken introspection; bringing up the death of the woman in Zasyp that ends in the smashing of mother's clock (perhaps because it reminded him of his helplessness at the death of the girls' mother).
However, instead of allowing Chebutikin to be an empty shell of a man with nothing to live for, Chekhov has filled him with abundant love for the Prozerov siblings (especially Irina). Chekhov understood that there is no such thing as total despair, one must have hope in order to live. Chebutikin's hope is wrapped up in his desire to '...live out my century near you all...' Chekhov does not condemn his doctor for his shortcomings, as he understood too well the overwhelming nature and the ultimate impotence of the doctor's task.
Source: Coulehan, John L. Introduction. Chekhov's Doctors: A Collection of Chekhov's Medical Tales. Kent, OH: Kent State UP, 2003. N. pag. Print.
"These doctors represent a wide spectrum of behavior, personality, and character. Some are committed, some are lazy, and some suffer from burnout. Many are pompous, several are drunks, and very few are heroes." (Coulehan, xx)
Chebutikin represents one of Chekhov's most 'burnt out' doctors. He is constantly drunk and questioning the meaning of life (and whether we exist at all). He claims to have forgotten everything he ever knew about medicine and his uselessness at the fire in Act III sends him into a drunken introspection; bringing up the death of the woman in Zasyp that ends in the smashing of mother's clock (perhaps because it reminded him of his helplessness at the death of the girls' mother).
However, instead of allowing Chebutikin to be an empty shell of a man with nothing to live for, Chekhov has filled him with abundant love for the Prozerov siblings (especially Irina). Chekhov understood that there is no such thing as total despair, one must have hope in order to live. Chebutikin's hope is wrapped up in his desire to '...live out my century near you all...' Chekhov does not condemn his doctor for his shortcomings, as he understood too well the overwhelming nature and the ultimate impotence of the doctor's task.
Source: Coulehan, John L. Introduction. Chekhov's Doctors: A Collection of Chekhov's Medical Tales. Kent, OH: Kent State UP, 2003. N. pag. Print.
Fedotik, the Photographer
"The development of photography in Russia during the nineteenth century followed a history similar to that of other European countries. After Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot made public their methods for capturing images on light-sensitized surfaces in 1839, I. Kh. Gammel, corresponding member to the Russian Academy of Sciences, visited both inventors to learn more about their work and collected samples of daguerreotypes and calotypes for study by Russian scientists. The Academy subsequently commissioned Russian scientists to further investigate both processes. As elsewhere, Russian experimenters quickly introduced a variety of refinements to the initial processes.
Photography found immediate popular success in Russia with the establishment of daguerreotype portrait studios in the 1840s. The similarity of the photograph to the Orthodox icon (an image that is believed to be a direct and truthful record of a physical being) heightened the early reception of photography and resulted in the persistence of portraiture as a major genre in Russia. While the first generation of photographers was largely foreign, native practitioners soon appeared. Some, such as Sergei Levitsky, achieved international recognition for their role in the development of photography. A personal acquaintance of Daguerre, Levitsky established studios in both France and Russia, serving as court photographer for the Romanovs and Napoleon III. During the later nineteenth century, Russian photography became institutionalized with the establishment of journals, professional societies, and exhibitions.
While photography was initially largely rejected as an art, it became widely accepted with the emergence of Realism. Russian photographers used the camera to capture the changing social landscape that accompanied the liberation of the serfs and growing urbanization. Simultaneously, ethnographic photography became an important genre with the expansion of the Russian Empire and the opening of Central Asia. Numerous photographic albums and research projects documented the peoples, customs, landscape, and buildings of diverse parts of the Russian Empire. With the rise of Symbolism, a younger generation of pictorialist photographers rejected the photograph as document in pursuit of more aestheticizing manipulated images.
At the turn of the century, technological developments led to the appearance of popular illustrated publications and the emergence of modern press photography. The Bulla family established the first Russian photo agency; they documented such events as the Russo-Japanese War, World War I, and the 1917 Revolutions. The growing commercial availability of inexpensive cameras and products rendered photography more pervasive in Russia. However, with the commercialization of photography, Russian practitioners became increasingly dependent upon foreign equipment and materials. With the outbreak of World War I, photographers were largely cut off from their supplies, and the ensuing crisis severely limited photographic activity until the mid-1920s."
Source:
WOLF, ERIKA. "Photography." Encyclopedia of Russian History. Ed. James R. Millar. Vol. 3. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 1178-1180. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 5 Apr. 2013.
Of interest:
The Museum of the History of Photography, St. Petersburg: http://www.photohismus.spb.ru/index_eng.html
A Brief History of Photography, Exhibition, St. Petersburg Times: http://www.sptimes.ru/story/34884
Photography found immediate popular success in Russia with the establishment of daguerreotype portrait studios in the 1840s. The similarity of the photograph to the Orthodox icon (an image that is believed to be a direct and truthful record of a physical being) heightened the early reception of photography and resulted in the persistence of portraiture as a major genre in Russia. While the first generation of photographers was largely foreign, native practitioners soon appeared. Some, such as Sergei Levitsky, achieved international recognition for their role in the development of photography. A personal acquaintance of Daguerre, Levitsky established studios in both France and Russia, serving as court photographer for the Romanovs and Napoleon III. During the later nineteenth century, Russian photography became institutionalized with the establishment of journals, professional societies, and exhibitions.
While photography was initially largely rejected as an art, it became widely accepted with the emergence of Realism. Russian photographers used the camera to capture the changing social landscape that accompanied the liberation of the serfs and growing urbanization. Simultaneously, ethnographic photography became an important genre with the expansion of the Russian Empire and the opening of Central Asia. Numerous photographic albums and research projects documented the peoples, customs, landscape, and buildings of diverse parts of the Russian Empire. With the rise of Symbolism, a younger generation of pictorialist photographers rejected the photograph as document in pursuit of more aestheticizing manipulated images.
At the turn of the century, technological developments led to the appearance of popular illustrated publications and the emergence of modern press photography. The Bulla family established the first Russian photo agency; they documented such events as the Russo-Japanese War, World War I, and the 1917 Revolutions. The growing commercial availability of inexpensive cameras and products rendered photography more pervasive in Russia. However, with the commercialization of photography, Russian practitioners became increasingly dependent upon foreign equipment and materials. With the outbreak of World War I, photographers were largely cut off from their supplies, and the ensuing crisis severely limited photographic activity until the mid-1920s."
Source:
WOLF, ERIKA. "Photography." Encyclopedia of Russian History. Ed. James R. Millar. Vol. 3. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 1178-1180. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 5 Apr. 2013.
Of interest:
The Museum of the History of Photography, St. Petersburg: http://www.photohismus.spb.ru/index_eng.html
A Brief History of Photography, Exhibition, St. Petersburg Times: http://www.sptimes.ru/story/34884