Sublime

Chekhov and Tolstoy,

“According to Chekhov,” Tamaru said, rising from his chair, “once a gun appears in a story, it has to be fired.”

It was probably Chekhov who said that the novelist is not someone who answers questions but someone who asks them. It was a memorable phrase, but Chekhov applied this attitude not only to his works but to his life as well.

But Chekhov chose to make Marya a person unhappy because of the monotony of her life. Out of the mist of every-story-that-could-possibly-be, a particular woman has started to emerge.