Anton Chekhov is widely considered one of the greatest writers and dramatists of all time. His legacy long outlasted his own humorous prediction that people would continue reading his work for only a year after he died. Instead, he continues to be one of the most celebrated authors in the Western literary canon.
While not his most famous work, some elements of Chekhov's signature style are on display in "The Death of a Government Clerk." Chekhov is known for his commitment to realism in his writing, meaning he wrote to portray the world precisely as it appeared. Many writers criticized Chekhov's realism as prosaic or even boring. However, his interest in realism, scholars have noted, reflects his interest in themes related to Russian society – notably the hierarchy of classes, the role of political leaders, and general austerity of living. In "The Death of a Government Clerk," the protagonist is haunted by the realistic stratification of Russian government workers, he himself being of the lower class and therefore living in fear of the influence of higher-ranking official.
However, Chekhov's writing – and this story in particular – often balances realism with a sense of personal conflict or, in the case of "The Death of a Government Clerk," absurdism. This seemingly paradoxical structure of the story, in which a realistic setting becomes host to an absurd conflict, ultimately helps highlight the critical lens through which Chekhov was writing. It is indeed Tchervyakov's seemingly absurd obsession with the sneeze that leads readers to question whether his perspective is really so absurd after all, especially when considered against the backdrop of nineteenth-century Russian society. In this way, Chekhov infuses his signature realism with humor and hyperbole in order to showcase how "reality" itself can at times contain elements of the absurd, frequently at the expense of the lower classes.
