Summary
Ivan Tchervyakov is a low-level government clerk. One evening while watching a performance of the opera Clothes de Corneville, Tchervyakov sneezes. He is instantly concerned that he may have disturbed someone around him, though he attempts to put his mind at ease by remembering that everyone sneezes.
To his horror, Tchervyakov realizes that he has spattered a man in front of him. This man, Tchervyakov realizes, is Brizzhalov, a general in the Department of Transport and therefore a much higher-ranking government official than himself.
Tchervyakov is overcome with remorse and resolves to apologize to Brizzhalov right away. When he leans down to address the incident, however, Brizzhalov waves him off. Perturbed, Tchervyakov tries once again to apologize during the intermission, but is waved off by Brizzhalov for a second time as Brizzhalov tells Tchervyakov he has forgotten all about what happened.
Tchervyakov, convinced Brizzhalov is lying about having forgotten the incident, consults his wife about what to do later that evening. She encourages him to apologize in person because otherwise Brizzhalov might think that Tchervyakov does not know proper decorum.
The next day, Tchervyakov gets a new haircut and puts on a new uniform before going to Brizzhalov's office. Among a group of petitioners, Tchervyakov tries once again to apologize. Brizzhalov ignores him and moves on to the next petitioner. Tchervyakov tries again to apologize, and Brizzhalov ushers him out of his office.
That night, Tchervyakov resolves to write a letter of apology to Brizzhalov instead. However, he struggles to write the letter and returns to Brizzhalov's office the next morning.
Brizzhalov, frustrated with Tchervyakov's persistence, becomes visibly angry and thrusts Tchervyakov out of his office. Tchervyakov, overwhelmed by the rejection and feeling sick to his stomach, walks home. Once there, he lays down on the sofa and dies.
Analysis
Death of a Government Clerk is a brief and straightforward short story that can be interpreted as humorous, tragic, or both. The central literary device at work in the story is irony, particularly dramatic irony – the reader is well aware that Tchervyakov's sneeze was a minor incident and that Brizzhalov genuinely wishes to forget it altogether while Tchervyakov continues to bombarde Brizzhalov with apologies. While this dissonance between the two characters is the source of the story's comedic drive, it is also a window into the story's more serious social criticisms about class and status.
Tchervyakov does not begin to experience his debilitating anxiety until he realizes that Brizzhalov is a higher-ranking government official. Once he recognizes that he has potentially insulted someone with more status and more power, Tchervyakov's affect shifts from one of quiet reassurance to one of panicked remorse. While Tchervyakov's response to the incident is so dramatic that it becomes entertaining, the story suggests that his reaction is compelled by a genuine sense of fear for how Birzzhalov could influence the rest of his life.
The brief conversation that Tchervyakov has with his wife is perhaps the best example of this fear, as his wife is only reassured after she finds out that Brizzhalov works in a different department than her husband. At first, however, the narrator notes that Tchervyakov's wife was "a little frightened," and she even tells Tchervyakov that he should still apologize because "he will think you don't know how to behave in public" (2). Tchervyakov's wife's response serves to validate Tchervyakov's own skewed perspective, as both of them are hyper concerned with appropriate social decorum, especially given the proximity of the two men as government workers.
Thus, as Tchervyakov agonizes over what, to the reader, is a rather innocuous incident, the story subtly indicates that his anxiety is not entirely unfounded, however bizarre it may seem. While the story stops short of explaining what consequences Tchervyakov could possibly face at the hands of Brizzhalov, the extremity of Tchervyakov's fear suggests that, as a low-level employee, he is in many ways at the mercy of those who outrank him.
What develops from this exploration of Tchervyakov's anxiety is a distinct criticism of social hierarchy, specifically nineteenth-century Russian social hierarchy. Chekov takes a unique approach to this subject matter by showing how it is Tchervyakov – the lower-class worker – who seems more committed to upholding social mores than Brizzhalov, the higher-ranking official. Brizzhalov, after all, strives over and over again to forget the incident altogether while Tchervyakov is so plagued by remorse that he eventually dies. What this disparity ultimately shows is the lasting grip that societal rules have on those who cannot afford to dispel with decorum, lest their livelihoods be affected. That Tchervyakov is so obsessed with apologizing to Brizzhalov is, on one hand, a humorous representation of one man's desire not to offend. But it is also, on the other hand, a reflection of the tragic reality that Brizzhalov has the luxury of choosing whether to care about the incident or not, while Tchervyakov's entire existence becomes consumed by his fear of repercussions. Tchervyakov's death at the end of the story is presented in a straightforward manner as the narrator says, "Seeing nothing and hearing nothing he reeled to the door, went out into the street, and went staggering along... Reaching home mechanically, without taking off his uniform, he lay down on the sofa and died" (3). The nonchalance with which the narrator reports this tragic demise ultimately suggests that Tchervyakov's death was an inevitability brought on by his inability to "forget" the incident like Brizzhalov did – that is, Tchervyakov's death stems from his devotion to an arbitrary set of social rules that he, as a government clerk, had no choice but to follow.
