Characterization in “Heartache”

This essay was originally written for AP English Literature during my senior year of high school

Original 1903 illustration of Iona and his horse

 

 

 

 

Every work of fiction has a theme which the author expresses through his use of the elements at his disposal, such as narrative perspective, characterization, setting and dialogue. An example of a story in which characterization is used successfully to communicate the main theme is “Heartache” by Anton Chekhov. Through his characterization of the main character, Iona Potapov, and the people he encounters on one particular evening, Chekhov shows that although the human need to communicate emotions with others is strong, society is too busy and self-absorbed to be able to do this. 

Iona’s son has recently died, and he is paralyzed by his grief. Chekhov describes him as follows: “As hunched as a living body can be, he sits on the box without stirring. If a whole snowdrift were to fall on him, even then, perhaps, he would not find it necessary to shake it off” (Chekhov 94). His grief is so overpowering that he is completely impervious to the cold winter evening. 

Iona feels a profound need to share his emotion with others. The only people that he is able to access in his daily life are his passengers. Throughout the evening, while taking people from one place to another, he tells them that his son has died and hopes to receive empathy from them. Each time he tries this, however, he is met with an unsympathetic response. For example, when he tells his story to the hunchback, the man responds: “‘We shall all die,’…. ‘Come on, drive on. Gentlemen, I simply cannot stand this pace! When will he get us there?’” (97).  Although the hunchback is not sympathetic to his sorrow, the conversation is at least some type of human conversation. Chekhov writes: “He hears abuse addressed to him, sees people, and the feeling of loneliness begins little by little to lift from his heart” (97). Iona is so desperate to communicate with others that he is willing to suffer abuse in exchange for not being left alone with his grief.

Review: The Peacock Throne by Sujit Saraf

Sujit Saraf’s The Peacock Throne is an epic work of historical fiction that exposes the dark underbelly of democratic politics in modern India.  The novel is set in Chandni Chowk–a major commercial market in the heart of Delhi’s Old City– and spans a period of fourteen years, beginning with the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984 and ending with the legislative elections of 1998. In contrast to a novel like Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy, which is limited in time (taking place over the course of a year and a half) but ranges all over India, The Peacock Throne is expansive in time but limited in space, restricting itself to one neighborhood in Delhi.  This restricted geographical scope serves the novel well, allowing the reader to develop a vivid picture of all the different areas of Chandni Chowk over the years.

The time period that the novel covers was a turbulent one for India. Two prime ministers–Indira Gandhi and her son (and successor) Rajiv Gandhi were assassinated. Indira’s assassination led to major riots against the Sikh community (since her assassins were her Sikh bodyguards)– riots that many claim were engineered by the Congress Party.  In addition to these assassinations, in 1992 a historic mosque, the Babri Masjid, was demolished by Hindu nationalists who claimed that the mosque had been built on top of a temple to one of their deities–Lord Ram. The last section of the novel takes place in 1998, the year that the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) first came to power. 1998 was also the year that India and then Pakistan officially became nuclear weapon states, though this is not something that is focused on in the novel.  While South Asian readers will already know much of this context and thus be able to better relate to the novel, the lack of this familiarity should not put non-South Asians off from reading the book, since Saraf has created intriguing characters, whom the reader can engage with.

While the main character of the novel is ostensibly Gopal Pandey, a middle-aged “chaiwala” (tea vendor), the book is really about the various people that use Gopal for their own schemes.  These include Hindu traders who aim to get into politics, chief among them Sohan Lal (who owns the sari shop outside which Gopal has his tea stall) and Ramvilas, a clerk in a perfume shop who is scheming to get ahead. There is also their Muslim equivalent–a venal politician named Suleman Mian.  Another major character is Kartar Singh, who is impacted by the anti-Sikh riots that followed Indira’s assasination.  The major characters are rounded out by Gauhar Muhammad, an illegal Bangladeshi migrant who becomes a child of the streets as well as a male sex worker. Gauhar also becomes Gopal’s adopted son and also ends up being involved in the Babri Masjid issue.  These major characters allow Saraf to represent many of the major fault lines of Indian society.