Study Of The Repetition In Chekhov’s Novellas And Short Stories

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov(1860-1904)is an incomparable artist,and his works are just like the abundant recourses that can never be run up.As for his novellas and short stories,he breaks traditional methods in many aspects and reaches a high level in the combination of artistry and thought which the descendants can hardly achieve.Chekhov’s novellas and short stories have their own unique style.The proper use of repetition is an important factor in forming the writer’s style,and if there is no use of repetition,it is hard to imagine what his novel would be like.In Chekhov’s novellas and short stories,repetitions appear everywhere from the level of language,to the level of structure and thought.First of all,the use of repetition is related to the writers writing purpose.Chekhov pursuits conciseness,and just like what he says,conciseness is the sister of the genius.The use of repetition is an effective way to realize conciseness and can achieve a better effect by using less words instead of more.Secondly,the objectivity of narration is the aesthetic core of Chekhov’s novellas and short stories,but it does not mean that the writer is lack of his own attitude and value of the life.His thought and aesthetic tendency is between the lines.The research on the use of repetition can help us to understand the rich meaning and know the subjective tendency behind the objective narration.Many researches have been done on the use of repetitions on Chekhov’s novellas and short stories,but there are still some weakness to be strengthened.There are some certain valuable point on studying the repetition artist,the theoretical value of this dissertation is that it can grasp the writing style and artistic characteristics of Chekhov’s novellas and short stories more comprehensively and profoundly by using the related theories.The practical value is that it can help readers to enhance the abilities to appreciate literature classics by analyzing Chekhov’s novellas and short stories from the aesthetic aspect of repetition.On the basis of researches at home and abroad,this dissertation discusses the repetitions of the image,the plot structure,the motif and the linguistic factors by using the theory of repetition and a detailed reading of the text.It digs deeply into the connotations and thought by analyzing the characteristics of Chekhov’s novellas and short stories in details.Through the study of repetition method on Chekov’s novellas and short stories,we have made a different findings from the previous.From the micro perspective,we made more in-depth discussion on repetition as rhetorical method and images.It systematically discusses the language repetition’s role in the creating a novel poetic,portraying characterization of characters and highlighting the theme of ideas.Examining in detail the images repetition function in Chekhov’s novellas and short stories:shaping symbolism,portraying the characterization of characters,acting as the narrative means.From the macro level,we also made overall discussion on plot structure repetition and motif repetition rarely mentioned in Chekhov’s studying in this paper.Within the text,the plot structure repetition makes the Chekhov’s novel be simple words but rich meaning.The plot structure repetition between the text and motif repetition can be regarded as Chekhov’s intertextual,which enhance the links between different works and show the internal unity in Chekhov’s artistic world.Generally speaking,we analyze the repetition technique in Chekhov’s novellas and short stories from the aspects of text language,genre structure,thought content and so on.Both includes the repetition in one text and examines the repetition of between different text,both microscopic analysis and macro understanding.After more comprehensive feasibility studies,we find that repetition plays an important factor in revealing potential content,writers thought and forming Chekhov-style features.Chekhov’s repetition is numerous,but due to the space limitations of this paper,we cannot include all the repetition phenomena of Chekhov.In the paper,we concrete the language elements repetition,images repetition,plot structure repetition and motif repetition.First of all,literary repetition is a rhetorical method.Chekhov give a full display of the repetition.The repetition is embodied at voice,vocabulary,grammar structure and so on.Voice repetition play the role in shaping the beauty of music features and sound image.By using voice repetition,the work becomes poetic,so that readers can grasp more clearly the text content.Words repetition,especially in character language vocabulary repetition play different roles in Chekhov’s novellas and short stories of different period.In his early works,the repetition of words is a way to describe the comic characters,which can have a playful effect.But in his late works,the repetition of words is mainly used to describe the characters’ mental state,which not only reveals the characters typical personality,but shows their mental state under certain circumstance.Lexical and syntactic levels repetition is also a way to describe the characters’ personality and mental state,and imply their attitudes toward themselves.others and the whole world.From the microscopic point of view,repetition is depicted at the images level of Chekhov.In his novellas and short stories,the repetition of the image is realized in various forms.There are not only repetitions within the novel,but also repetitions between different novellas and short stories.Under Chekhov’s pen,the repetition of theimage firstly forms one part of the symbolic system.Any image in the life and nature can be a symbol through repetition.Secondly the repetition of the image is also an effective way to describe the character’s mental state.Through the repetition of the image,the writer not only emphasizes the personality of the character,but also reveals the changes of the character’s inner world and the ups and downs of their mood.Thirdly the repetition of the image is an important way of narration.In Chekhov’s novellas and short stories,in can be both a clue through the whole novel to maintain the completeness of the plot,and a motivator to motivate the development of the plot.From a macro point of view,repetition is depicted at the level of plot structure that exist first in in one text of Chekhov.The writer learn the theory of the conglomerating story in Propps folklore.According to the corresponding relations between the character and the action,Chekhov’s early novellas and short stories are divided into three kinds as followings:the same character+the same person,different characters+the same action,and different characters+different actions.The repetition of the plot structure is also the main way of narration in Chekov’s late novel "my darling",which forms the theme of the novel.The repetitions of the plot structure within the text do not make the novel longer,but instead make it shorter,through which the writer realizes the effect of expressing more meanings in fewer words.There is also the repetitions of the plot structure between texts,which mainly presents in Chekov’s discovery novellas and short stories.This kind of novel is totally different in characters and events,but they have similar theme and unified plot structure:trapped in daily life—motivated by certain event discover(think).The repetitions of the plot structure between texts enhance the relations of Chekov’s different novellas and short stories,and form the intrinsic unity of the works.Motif repetition also belongs to the macro level repetition.Fear and runaway are two basic repeated motifs,the fear for others,the fear for death and the fear for life is various.In his works before the year of 1887,the fear for others and death is the majority,and the writer focuses mainly on the fear of the individual.In the later works of Chekhov,the fear for life becomes the majority,which is also the common sense of fear.There is the regularity in the repeated appearance of the motif of the run away in Chekhov’s later works.In general,the characters runaways often develop in the following mode:from the unrealized runaways to the future runaways and to the realized runaways.By analyzing the two motifs above,we not only reveal the common mental state of the characters in Chekhov’s novellas and short stories,but also prove the intrinsic unity of the writer’s works.In summary,we believe that the reason why the charm of Chekhov’s novellas and short stories is enduring is not only that the novellas and short stories criticize and reveal the reality in Russia profoundly,but more important that they are of high artistic value—the unique artistic skills,the concise language and the profound thought.Under Chekhov’s pen,repetitions are important to form the style of expressing more meanings in fewer words,which fully show Chekhov’s excellent language skills,reveal the theme and the writer’s thought of the works,and ensure the intrinsic unity of all the Chekhov’s novellas and short stories.