Worksheet: Anton Chekhov, “A Doctor’s Visit”
Read:
Anton Chekhov, “A Doctor’s Visit”
http://www.online-literature.com/anton_chekhov/1293/
Then answer the following questions.
Protagonist:
- Read the chapters on Narration (p. 121-122) and Point of View (pp. 122-132) in Essential Literary Terms. From what point of view is the essay told? (first-person, second-person, third-person limited, or third-person omniscient).
- Explain why the term or terms apply to this story (per what you read in Essential Literary Terms).
- Describe the effects of the point of view on the meaning and the tone of the passage.
Opening / Exposition:
Read the sections on Dialogue (pp. 144-152) and Setting (pp. 162-165) in Essential Literary Terms.
- What are “speech headings” in a novel or novella or short story (use the definitions from Essential Literary Terms)?
- What is the difference between a novel and novella and short story (use the definitions from Essential Literary Terms?
- Why do you think the professor (rank of a full doctor in Russia at the time) sent his assistant and did not go himself?
- Describe the assistant.
- How is the family described?
- What is the setting for the story? What role does the setting play in the story? Is it important to the plot that the story is set where it is?Inciting Incident
10. What is the doctor’s initial diagnosis? - He thinks to himself, “She needs a husband” Should this be a concern of his? He also thinks a paragraph later that “He is bored.” Has he dismissed the patient’s concerns?
After making his diagnosis and hearing that Liza, the patient, is being cared for by the factory doctor, he remarks that he will leave them.
- What does Madame Lyalikov ask him to do? Is this acceptable to him?13. Unable to sleep, he takes a walk and hears the criers call out the time. He reflects on the nature of the family’s wealth. What does he believe?
- The doctor’s problem is his prejudices towards the patient and her family. How are those prejudices challenged?Mid-point
15. When he comes back from the walk, he finds the patient is awake. He has a conversation with Liza, the patient, and he comes to a realization about her. What is it? - How does this change the way he treats her as a patient?Climax:
17. This story will never be labeled as an action packed, so there is no easy rising action that we can pinpoint as we move to the climax. How does he solve the problem? What is his advice to Liza? - Is his advice in the form of direct dialogue, or is it summarized dialogue? (see Essential Literary Terms).
Theme:
19. In many ways, this story could be seen as having a similar meaning to “The Girl with a Pimply Face” or it could be interpreted differently. What is the theme?
Truth Value:
20. The theme represents at least one truth in life. What is it (or they?)
Content from Text book if needed:
Narration refers to the act of telling a story, whether in prose or in verse, and the means by which that telling is accomplished. The main narrative forms in prose are the novel, the novella, and the short story; narrative forms in verse are the epic, and other poems, such as the romance, that contain an explicit or implicit plot and individualized characters. The drama is also narrative in the sense that it tells a story, but it does so directly, with characters who act out the plot on a stage and who speak for themselves, usually without the intermediary of a narrator. In its broad sense, narration includes all of the aspects of a story and all of the techniques available to the author: the nature of the narrator, the choice of point of view, the roles that the characters play in the plot, the pace at which the narrative proceeds, the setting in which the story takes place, the means of conveying the characterization, the use of dialogue, the structure, the themes that emerge, the tone that the work conveys, and, standing behind the fictional narrative, the authorial voice implied by these various choices.
Voice The narrator of a literary work, of fiction or poetry, is the one who tells the story. He or she may stand outside of the action or partake in it as the PROTAGONIST, a minor character, or
a witness. His or her identity differs from that of the author, because the narrator is always in some sense the author’s invention, one of the devices that he or she is using to shape the narrative. The narrator often differs notably from the author in age, gender, outlook, or circumstances.
Point of view can be identified by the pronoun that the narrator uses to recount events: “I” (or, occasionally, “we” for the plural form) for the first-person; “he,” “she,” or “they” for the third-person; and “you” for the rarely used second-person.
First-Person The first-person point of view has the advantages of immediacy and directness. It invites the reader to engage with a speaker who is involved in the action and seems to be relating first-hand experience..
Third-Person The third-person point of view, in contrast, presents a narrator that has a much broader view and, usually, an objective perspective on characters and events. Third-person narration falls into two major subtypes. An omniscient third-person narrator can enter the consciousness of any character, evaluate motives and explain feelings, relate events occurring simultaneously or in different places, and recount the background and predict the outcome of situations. The other major type of third-person point of view is called the third-person limited, which means that the narrator describes events only from the perspective and with the understanding of one, or sometimes, a select few, characters. One example of a work narrated
A third-person narrator whose presence is merely implied is called an objective narrator.
Dialogue is the presentation of what characters in a literary work say. It is a crucial element of drama, in which, except for stage directions, dialogue makes up the entire text; it is also an important aspect of fiction and of some narrative poetry. Dialogue has several possible uses: to reveal characters’ motives, feelings, values, and relationships; to advance the plot; and to suggest tone—that is, the speaker’s attitude toward the character that he or she is addressing and the narrator’s attitude toward the audience. Dialogue is a primary means of depicting character. Both the style and the content of characters’ words can reveal such qualities as their relative levels of intelligence and refinement, their sense of humor, and their values. The responses of other characters can suggest their relationship, including the level of power relative to each other. In works of fiction, the narrator’s commentary
In a novel, a novella, and a short story, the author may also shape the impact of dialogue by using speech headings, descriptions of characters’ vocal tones or gestures as they speak a line. The description may simply imply a speaker’s attitude—for example, in the passage from The Great Gatsby, “slapping him jovially on the shoulder” suggests Tom Buchanan’s feigned bonhomie, and “explained quickly” shows Wilson’s eagerness to placate his would-be benefactor. Speech headings may also state outright what the speaker is not saying aloud. In “The Red Convertible,” for example, the first-person narrator comments after a sarcastic retort, “I said, like I was getting mad.” In short, speech headings give the reader an insider’s access to the characters’ feelings and motives and so can provide an important guide to both meaning and tone.
Hamilton, Sharon. Essential Literary Terms: A Brief Norton Guide with Exercises (Second Edition) (Page 149). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
