Author Archives: Alex Banbury

What Seems vs. What Is

What lies on the surface can be deceiving; once one starts to dig deeper the truth is revealed. Turgenev’s The Singers highlights this idea as it depicts favorable peasant life despite an undesirable country landscape setting. While other works we have examined, such as Uncle Vanya, have presented a strong connection between the natural environment and the character’s behavior, the peasants in The Singers appear to act in a manner contrary to the negative influences of the environment. The narrator begins the story by describing the village of Kolotovka as “poor” and never a “cheerful sight” no matter the season (1,4). He observes the lack of water as well as the oppressive heat near Kolotovka, pointing to the lifelessness of the village and the likely poor condition of its residents (4). The narrator’s description leads one to wonder how and why under such conditions anyone lives in the village.

Instead of continuing with the description of the poor environment, Turgenev turns to the life of the peasants and focuses on their interactions at a local pub. A surprising part of this scene is how the narrator blends into the background and acts as a spectator to the events in the pub by not interacting directly with any of the peasants. Although the narrator is physically present, his removal, yet observation of the situation creates the idea for the reader that one is viewing the peasant in his or her natural environment. The convivial atmosphere around the singing competition within the pub plays out in stark contrast to the miserable country environment. Yashka’s emotional song brings both the narrator and the rest of the peasants to tears, shortly followed by all of them “talking loudly [and] joyfully,” momentarily forgetting about the problems of their past and the present (19). The narrator’s rapid departure from the pub, so as to not “spoil [his] impression” of the peasants, reveals the narrator’s desire to remember the peasants in a positive light despite their terrible environment (20). He wishes to retain this image of the peasants, as it is not plagued by the ills that the environment undoubtedly imposes on them. Particularly since the narrator reveals the difficult pasts of some of the peasants, he wants his memory of them to be this positive experience in the pub, which could very well differ from that of the peasant’s everyday lives given the harsh environment. While the narrator leads one to believe that the peasants lead a satisfying life, there is much that the narrator withholds or does not know about their everyday life, and the poor environment serves as an indicator that the way the peasants appear may not necessarily be the truth.

Gradual but Unmistakable Decay

One of the most ingenious aspects of Chekhov’s work, Uncle Vanya, is the subtle connection of the decay of the natural world to the physical and social decay of the play’s characters. The contemporary environment is presented on numerous occasions by Astrov, the doctor. He praises the natural world in its abilities to “make a harsh climate milder” and improve man’s abilities and spirit, but later in the play he describes the local district as “basically a picture of gradual but unmistakable decay” (71,93). While on the surface it may seem that the district’s environmental decay does not play a central role in the story, it does in fact present an interesting parallel to the state the characters find themselves. Uncle Vanya complains throughout the play of his declining condition and old age, commenting how he has become much lazier over the years and feels as if both he as well as his passion are dying (66, 79). The decay of Uncle Vanya’s condition and his realization of that he has squandered away his best years at the estate connect with Astrov’s comments about local environmental decline since they have both occurred within the timeframe of Uncle Vanya’s work at the estate (101). One would think that the nature and peacefulness of the countryside would prove beneficial to Uncle Vanya over the years that he lives at the estate, but surprisingly it leaves him seemingly worse off than he was before moving there, which in part can be attributed to the decaying natural environment.

Another similar theme Chekhov highlights is the connection between individual health and the natural environment. Having the doctor, Astrov, as the most ardent supporter of the environment is a very intentional choice as it ties the idea of human health to environmental health and stresses the mutual relationship they have with each other. Professor Serebryakóv’s poor health and desire for its improvement also fit within this theme of self-improvement and rejuvenation in the countryside, however, Chekhov makes it clear that while provincial living was once considered natural and pure, its “noxious fumes” now poison the inhabitants (107). The professor’s abrupt departure, claiming that he “cannot go on living in the country,” highlights how both environmental decay, along with the social decay of his relationships with others at the estate, are closely linked and degrade his quality of life (98). With nothing done by the end of the play to counteract the downward trend of environmental quality or that of individuals’ lives, one is left with little hope and a boding sense of gradual and inevitable decay.

Forest Otherworldliness and the Fear of the Unknown

Many of the works pertaining to the Russian forest place particular emphasis on the secrecy of the forest and its ability to conceal things from the outside world. The boundary of the forest creates a distinct separation between the real world and one of magic and mystery, which makes it a prime backdrop for numerous fairy tales that take place within a world separate from our own. In “Vasilisa the Beautiful” for example, the forest that conceals the home of the witch Baba-Yaga is described as rising “like a wall,” and obscuring the view of stars and “the bright crescent moon” (7). Upon crossing this boundary into the magical forest world, Vasilisa’s encounter of the three horsemen as well as Baba-Yaga’s talking animals, birch-tree, and gate, highlight the mystery of the forest that the outside viewer is unable to observe. Another element of the forest’s secrecy is the danger associated with it by the outside viewer. While Vasilisa initially expresses fear of the forest because of the horseman and Baba-Yaga, who “gobble[s] people up in the wink of an eye,” she overcomes these fears throughout the course of the story (7,14). Her fear fades away once she has experienced what the forest has hidden from the outside viewer, implying that any danger and fear associated with the forest is a fear of the unknown.

The forest’s secrecy can also be observed in the works of Ilya Repin. His painting “Sumer Landscape” evokes a sense of both danger and adventure as the woman crosses a worn bridge into the overgrown forest. The observer cannot see through the thicket and the presence of a path through the woods is hardly visible, making it unclear as to what the woman will encounter once entering the woods. The painting also ties directly into the idea of the forest as a separate world given that the forest is physically removed from the foreground by a ravine and only connected by a small bridge. Repin’s painting “View of the Village of Vavarin” gives the forest this similar air of secrecy because of the stark contrast between the bright openness of the fields on the left side and the darkness of the dense woods on the right. The buildings on top of the hill behind the fields further this contrast, since it beckons the viewer to wonder what the trees conceal from view. Just like in a magical fairy-tale world, one cannot know what to expect in the depths of the Russian forest.

Autumn the New Spring?

Pushkin’s poem “Autumn (A Fragment),” examines human attitudes toward seasons by rejecting common characteristics associated with them. One aspect of particular interest is the narrators apparent disdain for spring. In the second stanza, the narrator describes himself as “bored with nature’s thaw” and rendered “ill” by the advent of spring (10-11). While spring is commonly associated with ideas of rebirth, youth, and vitality, the narrator rejects this notion and instead assigns these characteristics to other seasons. In the eighth stanza, for example, the narrator describes how with the return of autumn he is “young again… and full of life once more,” which is in stark contrast to the traditional thought of autumn as the final chapter in the natural lifecycle before the dead of winter (62-63).

In the ninth and tenth stanzas, the narrator again plays with traditional seasonal characteristics by describing his intellectual creations in relation to agricultural production. By late autumn and early winter, he describes how he is allowed to “nourish in [his] soul[‘s] expansive dreams” and “bring forth at last the fruit of free creation… the harvest of [his] dreams” (71,78,80). Pushkin’s use of “fruit” and “harvest” allude directly to agriculture and bounty from the land, but it is to some extent surprising that he uses these words while describing creation during late fall and winter, when the agricultural harvest has long passed.

While these terms create a stronger bond between intellectual creation and products of the natural environment, the narrator points to the rift between humans and the natural environment not only by the seasonal misalignment of when intellectual vs agricultural harvest occurs, but also through a comparison to other natural occurrences. In the third stanza, the narrator asserts that “[t]he bear himself must hate so long a sojourn in a cooped-up place,” which presents itself in contrast to the narrator’s love for both autumn and winter (21-22). As the natural environment’s vitality begins to wane throughout autumn and winter (exemplified by the bear going into hibernation), the narrator to the contrary becomes invigorated and reaps the products of his intellect. The narrator may simply be describing the attitude of a writer who relishes in the calmness of autumn and winter, but his view of the natural environment through the seasons may reveal what the writer sees in the environment that the common person fails to see.