On The Anxiety Of The Protagonist In Chekov 's Novels

The protagonists in Chekhov’s novels are usually anxious:On behalf of the bureaucratic system,the rank system made petty government officials lose their hope for promotion.Facing the threat of power,they lived in fear and anxiety.When bourgeois values which made people seek nothing but profits control the society,money worship not only influenced in all areas of society but also became an important precondition for marriage.Due to the lack of money,young men and women in Russia who wanted to have the freedom to pursue love were immersed in anxiety.Facing all kinds of setbacks in real life,urban petty bourgeois who wanted to accomplish a great cause lowed their heads.They felt confused,anxious.They were at a loss what to do…Modern civilization created unprecedented prosperity of city life.On the one hand,it stimulated people’s consumption desires.On the other hand,in order to survive, the Russians became the slaves of goods and the preies which were chased after by time.People in the city space lived like a group of ants that could not find the direction…In the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century which was full of uncertain factors and made people fell anxious,Russians felt a strong sense of fickleness and confusion that were floating in the air.Taking this as a breakthrough,the paper analyses the protagonists’ anxiety in Chekhov’s novels. Using Freud’s psychoanalytic theory,the protagonists in Chekhov’s novels are divided into two parts in the paper: the protagonists who were consumed by anxiety about real life; the protagonists who were consumed by moral anxiety.Through the analysis of the protagonists’ anxiety,i mainly study the concrete manifestations,the complex reasons of their anxiety and the artistic value of the description of their anxiety.At the same time,according to the city space theory,the paper analyses the protagonists who lived in the city from the perspective of Modernity.Through the analysis, this paper draws a conclusion:The protagonists’ anxiety in Chekhov’s novels have developed from a simple and short psychological mood to a complicated and long state of existence.The anxiety is a kind of psychological imbalance with the contradiction between human and environment had been growing rapidly.At the turn of the century,in Russia,the contradiction between human and environment had been growing rapidly with the development of capitalism.People not only wanted to escape from the cramped and repressed city space,but also could not stop being tempted by the various temptations in the city.When all chasing efforts came to naught, a very modern color sense of futility came.It can be said, the protagonists’ anxiety in Chekhov’s novels is a kind of emotional representation with the obvious characteristics of Modernism during social transition in Russia.In the aspect of aesthetic value,the protagonists’ anxiety in Chekhov’s novels is the embodiment of Introverted realism with a strong sense of Modernism.It is beyond the traditional realism novels "typical environment and character".One the one hand,it shows readers the protagonists’ inner world,highlights the protagonists’ spiritual temperament,adds the modern literature gene into the realistic literature.On the other hand,behind the anxiety,it reflects a strong sense of loneness,fearness and a kind of Wasteland consciousness.In a word,it shows the general picture of human existence in modern society.