Gooseberries, By Anton Chekhov (1898) - Happiness and the Goal of the Life

Gooseberries, By Anton Chekhov (1898)


Rating: 8/10



In Gooseberries, Ivan talks about happiness through his brother Nikolai’s story. I always have thought that the goal of our life is happiness. I thought that things like money, honor, and love can be small goals in life but they are just meant to reach happiness and the final goal is to be happy. However, Ivan says that happiness does not exist and when we become happy, the meaning and the goal of life disappear. Ivan’s view was chaos to me. If happiness does not exist, what do we live for? Is happiness really just satisfaction? Is happiness really just being buried in the present situation? Then do we need to attempt something constantly and never be satisfied with something?


Chekhov’s short stories always make the readers think deeply about life. The Lady with the Dog made me think about true love and adultery, and Gooseberries made me think about happiness and the goal of our life. I do not know the clear answer to those questions yet, but I think the time I spent thinking about them was meaningful in itself. (182 words)





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The Boarding House, By James Joyce (1914) - Paralysis

The Boarding House, By James Joyce (1914) Rating: 8/10 In The Boarding House , we can say that Polly symbolizes a woman who is not independent. Polly's return to her mother's boarding house after working as a pie piste meant that she had failed in her attempt to become independent from her mother, who had a strong desire to dominate. Also, her marriage to Doran shows that Polly does not have any freedom. Mrs. Mooney uses her young daughter Polly to lure in her young boarders which shows her corrupted aspect. Doran fears that if he doesn't marry Polly, his reputation will suffer and he will lose his job, so he eventually marries Polly. Polly, Mrs. Mooney, and Mr. Doran all symbolize people who are paralyzed for some reason. They are all paralyzed and choose an unfortunate future. All of James Joyce's works have a common theme: 'paralysis'. Eveline's failure to choose a new future with Frank and her return to her family in Eveline can also be interpreted as p
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The Lady with the Dog, By Anton Chekhov (1899) - Adultery and the Opened Ending

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The Lady with the Dog, By Anton Chekhov (1899) Rating: 7/10 First, I want to talk about the ending of this story. Actually, there is no clear ending in this story. The ending is opened, and it makes us wonder what will happen to the characters after the story ends. At first, I did not like this ending because it felt a bit uncomfortable. However, after reading the story for the second time, I realized that opened ending makes the readers   think about the author’s message more deeply by guessing the rest of the story and changed my mind. My guess is that the main characters will divorce their original wife and husband and start a new life together. However, it will not last long and they will break up again. I think adultery is like an illusion. It is provocative and makes them think it’s true love because it is unachievable. But if they divorce and remarry each other, that illusion will be broken because it will be less provocative than it used to be and they will face up to reality.
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