A Country Doctor Literary Elements

Short story

The story takes place in a rural area in the middle of a snowstorm. However, one could also argue that the story is a dream occurring in the doctor's own mind.

The country doctor narrates the story from a first-person point of view.

The tone of the story is at times indifferent, as the doctor describes the events occurring around him. Other times, the tone is desperate, as the doctor begins to notice how powerless he is within his surroundings. The mood of the story is eerie and grave, suggesting the doctor's ultimate fate.

As the doctor is an unreliable narrator, there is no discernible protagonist or antagonist in the story. However, the groom could be considered an antagonist due to his animalistic pursuit of Rosa. The doctor could be considered the protagonist of the story as readers are privy only to his point of view.

The major conflict in the story is the doctor's inability to act in order to accomplish what he wants – he does not find his own horses, nor is he able to spare Rosa from the groom, despite how frequently he thinks about her fate.

The climax of the story occurs when the doctor throws himself out of the patient's window in an escape attempt to rescue Rosa. This act – the first that demonstrates the doctor's sense of agency – ultimately leads to his doom, as he is still naked, cannot reach his coat, and trapped with two now slow-moving horses in a snowstorm.

The doctor's constant reminder of Rosa and his desire to return home foreshadow his ultimate fate of never returning home at all. When the doctor is laid next to the patient and his wound, the story foreshadows the doctor's own demise as he realizes the patient is dying.

When the patient's family undresses the doctor, he says, "I am completely calm and clear about everything and stay that way, too, although it is not helping me at all" (4). This moment is an example of understatement, as the doctor's passivity is precisely what is causing his own predicament.

There are no explicit allusions made in the story, but themes related to psychoanalysis, sublimation, and the unconscious appear throughout in the form of particular characters or circumstances.

The story's use of imagery underscores its absurdism and the suggestion that it is perhaps modeled after a waking dream. The events are described as if they really happened but are so unusual that their legitimacy is questionable, as is the doctor's role as a reliable narrator.

The central paradox of the story is that the doctor experiences a series of strange events and circumstances – which eventually lead to his own demise – without ever actually making a decision of his own.

The groom's appearance from the pigsty parallels the movement of the pigs themselves – he crawls out on all fours, suggesting his animalistic and debased nature.

The doctor frequently describes the horses metonymically, referring to their individual body parts as representations of the entire animal.

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