The Brute

The drama essay The Brute by Anton Chekhov is typically referred to that subgenre of comedy hit the hayn as the farce. What separates a farce from the to a greater extent pedestrian and commonplace comedy is that it is infused with a common sense of whimsy as well as a detachment from reality that, paradoxically, should serve to gain ground it all the more realistic. In the case of The Bear the farcical genes be utilized to heighten the emotional intensity that is under normal lot return to far in addition much control and respireraint to consent to it freedom in a work of drama as abruptly as this play.The revelation that love and the identification of love is enough to key Smirnoff undergo the series of truly bizarre and unexpected changes in read could probably only be accomplished in a farce. The arguments that canvas place between Mrs. Popov and Smirnov serve both to provide the comic actual for the play and as a foundation upon which to build Smirnovs growing re alization that he succumbing to the ultimate debt of love. Popov has retained her commitment to her husband long afterwards his death has released her from that debt.Smirnov is a landowner who had lent money to Mr. Popovs husband sooner his death and who has now shown up to demand repayment because he, in turn, is set about down his own creditors. The cyclical nature of debt and repayment serves as a metaphor for relationships between men and women. The play proceeds from a heading of Popovs refusal and Smirnovs reactions. It is the evolution of Smirnovs reactions that is the key to understanding his character.The progression of the play is through with(predicate) dialogue rather than action and the progression of the dialogue of Smirnov is one of self-assuredness-almost cockiness-to a sense of losing control, which ultimately leads Smirnov to realize he has rowlocken in love. Smirnov boasts that he has refused dozen women and nine have refused him. These ar the words of a man whitewash secure in his independence before a woman an precarious man never admits that a woman has refused him, much less nine. The subject at hand is still the debt as the argument intensifies, but thus Mrs.Popov takes it from the financial to the personal. She attacks his very humanity by crying out Youre nought but a crude, bear A brute A junkie . Finally, things progress-as it seems it always must-to weapons being brought to bear. Mrs. Popov goes for her husbands pistols, essentially turning the argument into a broad scale duel. There is only one problem Mrs. Popov does not know how to fire the gun. At this point, she ceases to be a debtor and is well on her way to becoming a woman. Smirnov is lost.Smirnovs reactions to Mrs. Popov change considerably after weapons are introduced and since it is clear he has no real fear for his life, this change that comes every(prenominal)place only can only be attributed to a death in his original feelings for the widow as his emo tional trek comes to a rest a full one-hundred eighty degrees from where he started. Nothing in any his words or his actions could lead one to suppose that any element of truth is expressed when Smirnov asserts If she fights Ill shoot her like a chicken . angiotensin converting enzyme can well imagine the Smirnov who first entered Mrs. Popovs home at the begin of the play actually entertaining this idea-if not actually going through with it-but the words ring empty and hollow by the point at which they are actually spoken. The Bear is a drama-perhaps even a catastrophe if one cares to extrapolate what may happen to these two characters once the mantle comes down upon this small moment in their lives-masquerading as a farce. And, of course, it has to be that way.If the events that take place within the short period of time mete out in this short play were played straight and dramatically, Smirnovs strange, comedic odyssey from cold, heartless debt accumulator to overwhelmed ob ject of love would draw even more laughs, albeit unintentionally. To show the absurdness of Smirnovs situation, indeed the absurdity of how any two people come to fall in love, the farce is the writers best weapon. It provides a method of distancing the audience from realizing they too are characters in a real life farce every time they fall in love.