Please talk about the theme of Chekhov's short story "Distress".

Answer 1

The attitude of the officer, the young man, and the young coachman towards Yao Na was a reflection of the spiritual barrier between the small characters. Although they were in the same social class as Yao Na, they had closed the door to Yao Na's heart. It was precisely these small figures who had the same status and identity as Yao Na who inadvertently sent out a signal of indifference to the existence and needs of others, which led to the great distress and sorrow of their kind.
The minor characters such as the officers, the young men, and the young coachmen who caused Yona's distress were the passers-by and people on the road in Chekhov's works. Their special significance was to reveal the estrangement of people's hearts and the indifference of reality by saying that "no one cares about the suffering of others". The small figure's refusal to tell Yao Na about his troubled experience was meaningful and thought-provoking. People were busy." Who really cares about those who are eager to care? Sometimes, the standard of this desire is very low. Just give him a pair of ears to listen to him talk; give him a look that contains concern, sympathy, and understanding." "Even if friends meet, it's just a small talk. In this kind of atmosphere, your own troubles are not worth mentioning to others." The result of the barrier between hearts was that people could not communicate with each other. They were unfamiliar and incomprehensible to others.

The alienation of self was represented by the alienation of human nature itself. When expressing the internal alienation of human beings, Russell compared civilized people with natural people and believed that the so-called civilized people in contemporary society were the natural people after alienation. Civilized people were different from natural people. Natural people were close to the true state of nature and enjoyed the freedom of their inner nature. Civilized people, on the other hand, were more bound by the rules of society, living in the opinions of others, enslaved by the opinions of others, thus losing their inner independence and habitually attaching themselves to the opinions of others. This kind of civilized person was not a self-sufficient individual, but an extended self. They lived outside of themselves and rarely paid attention to the feelings inside themselves. They were extroverted individuals who had lost their independent personality.
The protagonist, Yona Potapov, was the representative of such a "civilized man" who deviated from his natural state and constantly self-mutated. He was limited by the rules and systems of human society and could not separate himself from the shackles and slavery. He could only endure the enslavement of others without complaint and regret. He lost his independent personality and longed to seek spiritual relief through the opinions of others. The first sentence of the novel," Who do I tell my troubles to?", showed that as a civilized person, Yona Potapov lacked his own independent personality. After the unfortunate death of his son, he was suffering from the pain of losing his son. He longed to tell others the truth of this suffering, let others feel his pain, and hope that others could give him the comfort of survival. This state of emotional attachment to others was the "alienation of the human self" in Russell's Day. People in social life couldn't get rid of the opinions of others, and they longed for the attention and emotional communication of others. They believed that the meaning of self could only be confirmed by listening and communicating with others. This emotional attachment also made people like Yona Potapov unable to face their own survival predicament when they suffered emotional pain. They could not reflect on the causes of disasters and misfortunes, and they could not get spiritual salvation from the care of their own internal feelings. Instead, they were stuck in their own way. He attempted to obtain the spiritual comfort of the other through the narration of his distress. This kind of behavior itself was a kind of alienation between human existence and nature, but it was understandable as a means to relieve pain. It was just that in the local social context at that time, the lack of audiences made the unexplainable depression even more intense. Yona Potapov also lost the passion for self-survival in this irresolvable emotional depression, so that " now it's the same for him, as long as he has a master..." Old Yona longed to seek effective advice and some comfort from others. However, he was destined to be stuck in a difficult situation, unable to break through.