Chekhov’s Gooseberries: And the Russian theme of unhappiness

"Tell a story, Ivan Ivanich." And Ivan Ivanich heaved a sigh and began telling his story.

In the tranquil Russian countryside, under an ashen sky that threatened rain, three men found themselves sheltered in a mill, their voices rising and falling like the nearby river. This scene sets the stage for Anton Chekhov's short story "Gooseberries" (1898)f. "Gooseberries" presents a profound meditation on happiness, self-deception, and moral responsibility, delivered through the intimate conversations of three friends.

In Chekhov's "Gooseberries," Ivan Ivanovich writes one of literature's most famous soliloquy of complacent happiness: "There ought to be behind the door of every happy, contented man someone standing with a hammer continually reminding him with a tap that there are unhappy people." This unsettling image captures something essential about Russian literature's complex relationship with happiness and conscience, that is, guilt.

The Russian literary tradition seems almost allergic t…