The description of Pesotskiy house
Chekhov gives an extensive image of the house, the garden, not missing the details and seemingly not important items, to show vividly the mood of the novel: “Pesotskiy’s gouse was huge, with the peeling stucco… Vintage Park, gloomy and austere… But near the house, the yard and the orchard, which covered ninety acres together with the nurseries, were fun and cheerful even in bad weather.” We see the contrast from the first lines of the story, and then this contrast will be seen more and more. The house and the atmosphere in it, was changing along with Kovrin, it became gloomier and duller.
Tania’s essence
The author intentionally exaggerates the “size” of Tania’s sadness, saying that “…So miserable things were enough to make this woman unhappy for the whole day, and, perhaps, for the whole lifetime…” to express her inner being, her character. And at the same time, Chekhov shows Kovrin’s attitude to this woman, his reluctance to make her happier, instead of it – a kind of irritation concerning her endless bad mood.
Of important things
We see that Kovrin doesn’t mention Black Monk, Varvara Nikolaevna, his researches in his last speech: “He called Tanya, called the garden with the gorgeous flowers sprinkled with dew, called the park, with their shaggy roots of pine trees, a field of rye, a wonderful science, his youth, courage, joy, called life, which was so beautiful.” At the sunset of his life Kovrin finally understands the idea of this life, its real values. And, what is the most important, among these values there are not those things, which the Black Monk always tried to put in Kovrin’s head: genius measures madness, Kovrin is an envoy of God.
