"The Death of a Government Clerk" is a short story by Anton Chekhov. It was first published in "Fragments" in 1883 with the subtitle "The Incident." It was later included in the collection "Motley Stories" in 1886.
The story details an incident between the protagonist, government clerk Ivan Dmitritch Tchervyakov, and a higher-ranking government official, Brizzhalov. One night at the theater, Tchervyakov accidentally sneezes on Brizzhalov and is overwhelmed with guilt. The rest of the story follows Tchervyakov as he attempts to apologize to Brizzhalov many times.
Tchervyakov is representative of the "little man," a figure that appears frequently in Chekhov's work: he is polite but passive, anxious, overly concerned with decorum, and fervently committed to social and political hierarchy, so much so that it ends up leading to his demise. The story is an example of dark humor, portraying Tchervyakov as an eager to please, low-level government employee who is eventually so consumed by the guilt of his minor offense that he lays down on the couch and dies. Despite its brevity and seeming simplicity, however, the story uses its protagonist to interrogate deeper themes about class stratification, anxiety, and social mores.
