It is known that Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is the author of many short humorous stories. In terms of describing the characters of his characters, he was an unsurpassed master.
His characters "came to life" in the works. “You read one of them, and then you look out the window and see his continuation in life. All the heroes of the author’s stories are residents of our town. Their conversations, appearance, clothes, manners: everything is literally as if snatched from Chekhov's books. ” So spoke of the master K.I. Chukovsky. The story of Anton Pavlovich "Surgery" was written by him in the style of realism. This is a small episode from the life of the
zemstvo hospital. The main characters are a paramedic named Kuryatin and the clerk of the local church, Vonmiglasov, who came to see him. The following is a summary of Chekhov's “Surgery”.
Vonmiglasov arrives at the reception
Zemsky hospital. Due to the fact that the doctor left to marry, the reception is led by paramedic Sergey Kuzmich Kuryatin.
This is a stout man of about forty untidy appearance. He is wearing a worn jacket and tricky trousers. He sits and smokes a stench. At the reception comes the local clerk Vonmiglasov. This is an old tall man. He is dressed in a brown cassock with a wide leather belt. Entering, he looks for an icon with his eyes, and not finding a doctor in his office, is baptized on a bottle with carbolic solution next to him. Then the clerk removes the prosphora from the folds of clothes and puts it in front of Kuryatin. To the question of the medical assistant “What are you complaining about?” Vonmiglasov replies that he suffers from severe toothache, such that "even lie down and die." The last night before the reception, the clerk did not sleep, and now he hopes that the "deliverer" paramedic will save him from this nightmare. It would seem that a disastrous situation is an intolerable toothache in a patient. What can you be on top of here? What can be ridiculed? But the author, the master of the humorous and satirical genre, further outlines the main characters so comically that it is impossible to resist a smile. We read further the story of Chekhov "Surgery".
Clerk's flattery
The paramedic tells his ward to sit on a chair and open his mouth. The clerk hurriedly follows his instructions. Kuryatin frowns and sees a bad tooth in his mouth with a large hollow. All this time Vonmiglasov does not stop talking. He tells the doctor that his father deacon told him to put vodka with horseradish on his gum, Glykeria Anisovna gave him a thread from Mount Athos and advised her mouth to rinse with warm milk ... Nothing helped. To this Kuryatin replies that, they say, all these are prejudices, that only medicine can cure a bad tooth. But the solution here is one - the tooth needs to be pulled out. Here the deacon begins to flatter the paramedic, calling him a "benefactor" and promising to pray after him day and night. Chicken meat praise is pleasant. He smiles and says that it’s a matter of “time to spit” for him. As an example, he cites the case of the landowner Alexander Ivanovich of Egypt, when he came to Kuryatin with a bad tooth and asked him to tear it out. Sergey Kuzmich, who had never done this before, arranged everything as it should. Even a brief summary of Chekhov's “Surgery” is able to convey the character of the main characters. At the beginning of the story, Kuryatin is important and boastful. He makes significant mines, tries to “direct the fog,” using medical terms that are incomprehensible to the clerk. And he, in turn, is polite with the doctor, courteous. Vonmiglasov praises him in advance for the result, flatters him. On his face is a mask of humility and full confidence in this unlucky "luminary of science." How will the characters' speech, their relationship to each other, change, we will see later.
The procedure begins
The patient, tirelessly praising the doctor, sits with his mouth wide open.
Chicken meat with an important look reports that you need to tear your teeth with knowledge: sometimes you can restrict yourself to just a key or a goat leg, and in some cases, forceps may be required. The paramedic takes the goat’s leg first from the table, looks at it, then puts it back, takes the tongs and sets to work, asking the patient to open his mouth wider. The procedure of
tooth extraction is further described by Chekhov's story “Surgery”. The summary of the work will reveal to us all the subtleties of this difficult surgical intervention.
The Seven Circles of Hell by Vonmiglasov
The clerk squinted at what is strength. For several minutes in the office the words are heard: "Holy Mother ...", "Fathers Benefactors ...", "Vvv ...". Kuryatin, all in tension, drags a tooth, screaming at times: “Not good, like him! Do not grab your hands! Now…". Vonmiglasov, unable to bear the pain of hell anymore, shouts: “Fathers! Guardians! Angels! Help ... Yes, pull it! ” The doctor pulls with all his might, but in vain. The patient bulges his eyes, raises his legs high, moves his fingers. His face turns red, tears appear. It takes another painful half a minute. Kuryatin stomps around him, but there is no result. When reading these lines, we get a picture in front of our eyes: a poor patient is sitting on a chair, opening his mouth and waving his hands in pain. And next to him stands the doctor, rolling up his sleeves, and drags his tooth with forceps.
The same image will appear before the eyes of a reader who is familiar with the story of Anton Pavlovich when he hears the words: “Chekhov. Surgery". A very brief summary of the work is given here, and it conveys the main meaning of the author’s creation.
Doctor's failure
Suddenly, the forceps slide off the tooth. The patient and the doctor take a hard breath. Then the clerk pokes his fingers in his mouth and discovers that the ill-fated tooth is still in place. He begins to reproach the doctor for drawing too long. Kuryatin, in turn, makes excuses and tries to prove that the patient is to blame: grabbed his hands, interfered, kicked, and that’s the result is zero. The paramedic seats his client, intending to repeat an attempt to pull out a bad tooth. He asks for a moment to catch his breath, and again prepares for execution. Vonmiglasov gives the doctor advice not to pull, but to pull immediately. To this Kuryatin mockingly remarks the dialer that pulling his teeth is not to read on the choir and not to ring the bells. “Surgery is not an easy task”, follows from all his remarks. The paramedic pulls a tooth, but again he fails. He tries to yank, the patient screams. And suddenly - crunch. The tooth broke, and the spine remained in the gum.
Further, reading the summary of Chekhov's “Surgery”, it will be possible to make sure that the main characters have not shown wisdom. The patient, angry, cursing, left with nothing. And the doctor, instead of somehow correcting the situation, entered into a skirmish with him.
Rebuke's reproaches
Kuryatin looks puzzled and says a little audibly: “A kind of opportunity. But what if a goat’s leg ... ” At first the patient does not understand what happened. He sits with his eyes wide, then reaches into his mouth and says: “Damn the hell! Why are you Herods just planted here? ” Kuryatin tries to object to him, saying that Mr. Alexander Ivanovich of Egypt, having passed through this test, did not swear. But Vonmiglasov, belching curses and taking the prosphora, leaves home. We read a summary of the story Surgery. Chekhov in his work ridicules pomp, stupidity, rudeness, reverence and boasting. The ending of the story remains open. This is a feature of most of the works of the author. Thus, he as if offers the reader to come up with his end to this story.
After reading Chekhov’s short summary “Surgery”, we understand that there are many situations in life that seem tragic at first glance, and only the author’s talent turns the everyday scene into an immortal humorous work.