Actions Speak Loudly Chekhov and Conrad are masters of symbolism, but each author uses the literary tool differently within their stories. For Chekhov, simple gestures and subtle images meticulously placed throughout the text help to reveal psychological aspects of a character. Conrad, on the other hand, tends to employ symbolism rather visibly and allegorically, allowing the reader to directly establish a link between objects, actions, and themes. To compare Chekhov and Conrad’s writing styles, an example of symbolism in one of each author’s stories will be used: Gurov eating of the watermelon in Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Little Dog” and the lamp in Kurtz’s death scene in Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”. Using these examples, it becomes clear how Chekhov uses symbols to develop a character’s persona to more effectively have that character illustrate the story’s theme while Conrad uses symbols to directly develop the story’s theme. The watermelon scene in Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Little Dog” contains symbolism associated with the gestures and actions of the story’s male protagonist Gurov. Chekhov has the scene begin with Anna – the female protagonist – and Gurov entering Anna’s apartment for the first time. Immediately after entering, Anna begins to express her fear that Gurov will not respect her should she cheat on her husband and become romantically involved with Gurov. The details of Anna’s face also help to set the serious and gloomy tone for the scene as she is described to be “drooped and faded,” her hair hanging “sadly on both sides of her face” (269). However, as Anna begins to express her feelings to Gurov, he shifts the focus of his attention to a watermelon in the room and proceeds cut a slice of the fruit to eat. Gurov’s simple action of eating a watermelon, in this case, symbolizes the indifferent and selfish portion of his personality; rather than attempt to listen to Anna and her views on their potential adultery, Gurov decides to focus on eating. However, one could argue that Gurov ate the watermelon as a means to lighten tensions in the room because Anna was clearly uneasy and forlorn at the beginning of the scene, and that his eating of the watermelon could be a reflection of nervousness. Yet, Gurov “unhurriedly began to eat it [the watermelon],” creating the image of a calm Gurov rather that a nervousone (269). In fact, Gurov displays the characteristics of a person polar to those of an “inexperienced youth”; Gurov describes the qualities of inexperienced youth as “all the timorousness and angularity…a feeling of awkwardness” when describing Anna near the beginning of the scene (269). In addition to his collected manner, Gurov sits in “half an hour” of silence after eating the watermelon analyzing the “proper, naive, and little experienced woman” sitting next to him, taking the time to think about what he can say to make her feel better about the their adulterous acts (269). Evidence for this conjecture can be found after the two argue over whether they should continue their relationship, and when Anna is not immediately convinced by Gurov, “Gurov was bored listening” to Anna’s claims which were “unexpected and out of place” (269). Gurov expected Anna to be persuaded by his words and charm as it is implied here that others have been convinced by him in the past using the same case Gurov made for Anna. The reader now sees Gurov as a seasoned womanizer. Overall, Gurov’s actions around Anna develop his character as they symbolize several negative aspects of his persona, and these actions hold even more overarching thematic symbolism pertaining to gluttony and adultery.
Gurov is not only shown to be gluttonous in his excessive consumption of food, but also in his over-indulgent romantic life; his sole focus of spending time with Anna is to seduce her, and he becomes frustrated or focuses on something else to satisfy himself when this goal is impeded. Symbolically, Gurov’s eating of the watermelon is a manifestation of his gluttony, a sin that Chekov has associated with adultery through Gurov’s womanizing. Only by the end of the story, when Gurov finally looks into the mirror to see that “his head was gray” does he realize that he spend his life over-indulging in women through adulterous relationships rather than have “fallen in love as one ought to” (277). Chekhov’s meticulous construction of the watermelon scene has Gurov portrayed as a gluttonous man, which helps to further the entire story’s theme of illustrating gluttony in the personalities of individuals with adulterous lifestyles. The theme of Conrad’s writings is expressed differently than in Chekhov’s as the two authors have distinct writing styles that use symbolism differently. In “Heart of Darkness,” an example of Conrad’s symbolic writing style can be seen in ivory trader Kurtz’s death scene, in which steamboat captain Marlow comments on the light of a lamp on his ship. In the scene, Marlow enters the dining room of the ship to inform the other passengers that Kurtz had died from jungle sickness, and afterwards he talks in great detail about the lamp’s “light, don’t you know” and how “outside it was so beastly, beastly dark” (349). The diction in this line, specifically the adjective “beastly” to describe the darkness, draws the reader’s attention to the symbolic meaning of Marlow’s observations. Marlow is implying in his juxtaposition of the lamp and jungle that the dark jungle is monstrous and, thus, frightening when compared to the lamp’s luminescence. In fact, the jungle is associated with darkness, in Marlow’s eyes, because darkness is a common symbol of evil and of the fear of the unknown - since one cannot see in the dark. Conrad has Marlow associate the jungle, and by extension all ungoverned wildernesses, with darkness in order to symbolize the story’s theme of fear in the unknown and little-explored regions within colonial territories, like the Congo River that Marlow travels along in the story. From this analysis, it is clear how Conrad can use an object to directly convey a larger essential theme to a story.
Chekhov does not share this style with Conrad. When comparing the two texts, “The Lady with the Little Dog” and “Heart of Darkness,” Conrad and Chekhov’s styles differ in that the thing the authors use as a symbol – whether that thing is an object or action – either contributes to a story’s theme or a story’s character. For example, in “The Lady with the Little Dog,” Gurov’s actions in Anna’s apartment, most notably his eating of her watermelon, symbolically represent Gurov’s gluttonous lifestyle. None of these symbols present in the scene were tangible in that they were presented to the reader in the form of a character’s actions rather than the object to which those actions acted upon. Moreover these symbols are not obviously presented to the reader. The word that hints at symbolism in Gurov’s actions is the adjective “unhurriedly” that describes the manner in which Gurov eats the watermelon. The line, “At least half an hour passed in silence” that helps lead the reader to understand Gurov’s history of womanizing is presented as a mere factual statement, containing only eight words in the sentence. Chekhov appears to minimize the details of his characters’ actions but crafts those actions in such a way that leaves them rich in symbolism. Conrad’s style differs from Chekhov’s because of Conrad’s inclination to present a symbol to the reader in the form of a tangible object. From “Heart of Darness,” for example, the lamp and its light are contrasted with the beastly darkness outside to illustrate Marlow’s fear of the jungle, stemming from a fear of the unknown. The diction in Conrad’s writing is more vivid than Chekhov’s, but each author does share one commonality in their styles and use of symbolism. Each symbol helps to build the overarching theme of the authors’ stories. In Chekhov’s work, the eating of the watermelon ties into the theme of illustrating gluttony in adultery, while in Conrad’s work the lamp and jungle are associated with the theme of fear in the unknown wild. The two authors might use symbolism differently in their writing, but the result of both individual styles help further the theme of their respective stories.
If any one author could demonstrate the symbolic weight a single word can have, it would be Chekhov and his minimalist-like writing style. Conrad, on the other hand, best represents the style of writing that directly links themes and ideas to objects one might casually see in everyday life. Both authors develop their story’s themes with symbolism, but it is their unique choice of symbols to help develop a story’s theme that differentiates Conrad and Chekhov’s writing styles. Yet, no matter how much Conrad and Chekhov’s writing styles differ, these styles augment the quality of Conrad and Chekhov’s texts and have indubitably helped the authors’ short stories become classic pieces of literature.