The document provides an analysis of Anton Chekhov's short story "A Man in the Shell" using different literary theories. It summarizes Chekhov's life experiences and era that influenced his writing. Biographical criticism examines elements in the story that reflect Chekhov's shy personality and bound life as a serf's grandson. Marxist criticism analyzes the impact of economic class conflicts in Chekhov's age. Psychological and myth criticisms explore the protagonist's indecisiveness and socially suppressed character. Formalist criticism examines the story's frame structure and use of characters.

1. IN THE NAME
OF ALLAH THE
MOST
MERCIFUL THE
MOST
BENEFICENT

2. APPLICATION OF
DIFFERENT LITERARY
THEORIES ON SHORT
STORY “ A MAN IN THE
SHELL”
Submitted to :
Reverend Sir Nijatullah Shah
Submitted by :
Rashid Behram Khan

3. BIOGRAPHICAL/ HISTORICAL
CRITICISM
• literature is regarded as the reflection of
• author's life
• and Age
• These critics put in: literary works depict life of
author and the political, economical, and
sociological context of his times.
• To truly understand and enjoy the
literature one must know author’s
life and historical background.

4. ANTON CHEKHOV AND HIS AGE
 Russian physician, renowned short story author and
playwright (1860-1904).
 “Medicine is my lawful wife and
literature is my mistress.” (
(letter to Alexei Suvorin, 11 September 1888.)
 Suffered by father’s tyranny, religious fanaticism
and strictness.
 Shy with women even after marriage.

5.  Experienced bound life:
life in shell
 Grandfather a serf ;
bound to owner; no
individuality
 Father, strict fanatic,
keenly observing
obligation
 Inborn literary person
but economically bound
to medicine
• Like Chekhov, his
character Belkov is
living in a shell
• Shell of mental conflicts,
indecisiveness and
unsociability
• His life was shell…not
only physically but also
mentally..
• Shell of conservative
past: resistance against
modern future
Chekhov Belkov
BIOGRAPHICAL ELEMENTS IN
THE STORY

6. EXAMPLES
He has a perpetual urge to create a
covering for himself as it were a case.
He tried to keep thoughts in a case
 his bedroom was like a box

7. AGE
 Capitalism in all its
power
 Communist and working
class bound to them
 Capitalists struggle to
nip modern ideas of
equality
 Age of pessimism
confusion and conflicts.
• Such elements can be probe
down from the confused and
miserable character of
Belikov.
• “ reality irritated and
alarm him.”
• “always praising past .”
• As Ivan Ivanich comments in
the end “is not our living in
towns, in our stuffy,
cramped rooms,……..
Among drones, idle women
talk and listen nonsense .”
Chekhov’s Age Age in story

8. CONTINUE
 Negative influences of
industrialization
 And about life he says
its” tolerating lies,
swallow insults, not
dare to speak up and
declare yourself on
side of honest, free
man…and for the sake
of a crust of breed
and a snug corner to
live in….life is
intolerable.
Chekhov age Belkiv age

9. MARRIAGE
 Married at age of 41
with a girl of thirty plus
year old. He was
confused whether to
marry or not because he
was patient of T.B and
on verge of death
 He married but died
after 3 year of struggle
between life and death.
 Same is found in story
 He is well over forty
and she is thirty
 but he is confused
about marital life and
responsibilities
 In story, however, he
doesn’t get marry and
dies soon after
rejection.
chekhov Belkiv

10. MORAL/PHILOSOPHICAL
CRITICISM
View literature as to teach
 morality and
 philosophy of life
authors intend to instruct certain
type of morality and philosophy to
the audience.

11. CHEKHOV’S MORALITY AND
PHILOSOPHY
• Chekhov concept of morality is evident in
following dialogue from his play “Uncle
Vanya (1899);
• “ We must live our lives. Yes, we shall live,
Uncle Vanya. We shall live through the
long procession of days before us, and
through the long evenings; we shall
patiently bear the trials that fate imposes
on us; we shall work for others without
rest, both now and when we are old; and
when our last hour comes we shall meet it
humbly,

12. CONTINUE
 and there, beyond the grave, we shall say that we
have suffered and wept, that our life was bitter,
and God will have pity on us. Ah, then dear, dear
Uncle, we shall see that bright and beautiful life;
we shall rejoice and look back upon our sorrow
here; a tender smile--and--we shall rest. I have
faith, Uncle, fervent, passionate faith. We shall
rest. We shall hear the angels. We shall see
heaven shining like a jewel. We shall see all evil
and all our pain sink away in the great
compassion that shall enfold the world. Our life
will be as peaceful and tender and sweet as a
caress. I have faith; I have faith

13. CONTINUES
Chekhov believes in
Life is full of hardships and miseries
Man must face such difficulties manly
And struggle for improvement, change and
development in life
With a faith that good will be rewarded here in
this life or afterword in second life.

14. PHILOSOPHY IN THE
STORY
• Life in shell is no life
• Man must struggle to change and improve
his life
• He condemns Belkiv because he
suppressed his feeling and lack
development

15. GENERAL CRITICISM ON AFRAID
MEN
 Last words of Ivan
“tolerating lies, swallow insults, not dare to
speak up and declare yourself on side of honest,
free man…and for the sake of a crust of breed
and a snug corner to live in….life is intolerable.”
also shows Chekhov's inclination towards change.

16. MARXISM CRITICISM
 Economic lens of analyzing text.
 Marxist believes in
 BASE = economic condition
 SUPERSTRUCTURE = political + legal
institutions + religious + philosophical + and
other ideas
 Base structures the superstructure of society
 Aim of Marxist critic is to find out impact of
base on superstructure of society in text and
conflict between have and have-not class.

17. MARXISM IN THIS
STORY
 it was age of conflict between capitalists
and communists. Economic status was
criteria of evaluation and importance.
 In text we find impact of base on
superstructure when everybody convinces
Belkiv to marry Varya because she has a
farmstead of her own and is daughter of a
counselor. That was criteria of getting
marriage. Burkin suggests Belkiv
 “she is daughter of a counselor and
has a farmstead of her own.”

18. PSYCHOANALYTICAL
CRITICISM
 Applying the principles of psychologists like
Sigmund Freud and Jung to a literary work
 Find out the elements that show psyche of the
characters.
 Probing id (hunger, sex), superego conflict.
 Certain things showing sexuality
 concave images, such as ponds, flowers, cups,
and caves as female symbols
 phallic (male )symbols, objects that are longer
than they are wide, are male images
 dancing, riding, and flying are associated with
sexual pleasure

19. PSYCHOLOGICAL CRITICISM OF
THE STORY
 Belkiv is psychologically disturbed.
 His superego(fears, punishment) suppresses his
id completely by disturbing ego balance.
 He is full of fears; looking evil in everything;
confused to accept change.
 He has a perpetual urge to create a covering for
himself as it were a case.
 Reality irritated him…..he always praised past
 He tried to keep thoughts in a case
 Lets hope no evil comes out of it
 He never kept female servant for fear of people
getting notions

20. INDECISIVENESS AND LACK
OF COURAGE
 Psychologically disturbed; afraid of people, he is
unable to have one decision about marriage.
I find Varya an agreeable girl and every
man ought to marry but….it is sudden…..one
must think
Marriage is serious step, one ought to
weight future duties first….so is to make
sure no evil will come out of it…it worries
me. I can’t sleep at night……when I think, I
get mixed up in something.
In short, fears suppressed his mental faculty
to decide and live according to his own

21.  Name of story “ A MAN IN THE SHELL”
 Abundant use of words like “case” ,“shell”,
“covering” throughout story.
he has an urge to create a covering for himself
Belkiv tried to keep his thoughts in a case
his bedroom was like a box.
Case, shell, and concave images like these are
female images showing sexuality. Frequent use of
these images throughout the story sets an idea
that he wanted to have sexual relations and
pleasure but overpowering fear of people
restrained him even from marriage.

22. MYTH CRITICISM
 View literature as full of repeated universal
characters, themes and images that appeals
equally to all ages and all places.
 Every reader gets same common meanings of
these images
 For example
women as nurturing mother, loving wife, suffering girl or
revenge seeking lady.
water a symbol of purification and regeneration
bird as a symbol of freedom and imagination.
these images are often repeated and carries
universal appeal and meanings.

23. INDECISIVENESS AND SOCIALLY
SUPPRESSED CHARACTER
 Belkiv lack decision making power. He is socially
suppressed and psychologically confused to decide
what to do. All the time, he is concern what
society will say, what will happen in future.
 we have so many characters in literature who
lack power of decision and suppressed by societal
pressure
 “Hamlet”: To be or not to be that’s the
question”
 “Prufrock” : And time yet for a hundred
indecisions / And for a hundred visions and
revisions.

24. FORMALISM/ NEW CRITICISM
 Takes a text as an autonomous object, non-
related to the author, the culture, history,
psychology etc.
New Critics often performed a "close reading" of the
text
The main aim of New Criticism was to make literary
criticism scientific
 focuses on analyzing irony, paradox, imagery,
and metaphor and other literary devices.
 also interested in the work's setting, characters,
symbols, and point of view

25. FORMALISM IN THIS STORYFORMALISM IN THIS STORY
 GENRE
 Short story …sharp and short depiction of Belkiv
 STORY WITHIN STORY
 It’s a frame story of two characters who tell a
story of third person, starting from description of
these two characters, who narrate a story of third
person and in the end, again description of first
two characters is present.
 This frame is witness upon main theme of
story “ societal frame or societal pressure
rendering people to retrieve into shells and
creating unsociability.

26. CHARACTERS
Ivan Ivanich: veterinary surgeon, bore
hyphenated name “chimsha-Himalaisky; a
complex name :as he himself was complex
 Flat character: In very start and in the end he is
sitting in moonlight thinking about the confusion
and societal pressure on individuals. He thinks
every person in world is bound by different forces
and no one is free to live after his/her own.
 “tolerating lies, swallow insults, not dare to speak
up and declare yourself on side of honest, free
….life is intolerable.

27. CONTINUE
Burkin: high school master; a flat character.
In beginning of story, he is laying in dark and
again in final scene he is sleeping in dark and
don’t answer Ivan’s question “ are not all we
living in shell?”
He narrates the story of Belkiv and condemns
his odd behavior of living in different shells of
societal force and pressure. But he himself like
darkness and was not enjoying full freedom. As
he says nothing changed in his life even after
death of oppressing Belkiv. “Things were no
better than they had been before”.

28. OTHER ELEMENTS
 Setting
 Story is set in countryside; in a village named
Mironositskoye. Characters are outsider,
spending night in a shed of Prokofy. In the very
beginning dark and gloomy setting of story sets a
bleak atmosphere of story. Shed is also a symbol
of boundaries upon man; an idea projected
throughout story.
 Point of view
 3rd
person narration; detachment of writer
 Narrator
 Two: one frame narrator and 2nd
story narrator

29. LITERARY DEVICES
Long complex sentences
 By combining different independent and
dependant clause along with many phrases and
pre, post modifiers.
They spoke of Marva, the wife of village
elder, a perfect fully healthy and by no
means unintelligent woman, who has never
been out of- her native village in her life.
Complexity of sentences is an indication of
complexity and confusion of character’s
thinking and deeds.

30. LITERARY AND STYLISTIC
DEVICES
 Symbolism
 Shell , case: these two symbols are in abundant use in the
story.
 Repetition shows that how modern man is enclosed by outer
socio-economic forces. Nobody has freedom to think and do
according to his/her own.
 Climax
 He never come out without umbrella, galoshes and a
wadded coat. His umbrella he kept in a case, he had a case
of gray suede for his watch, and when he took out his pen –
knife to sharpen a pencil, ha had to draw it out of a case
too; even his face seems to have a case of its own.
 technique of climax highlights how
miserable and confined life he had.

31. CONTINUE
Refrain
 Lets hope no evil will come out of it
 this statement is repeated again and again by
Belkiv in story. This repetition projects the idea
that he was too much psychologically depressed
and have fear of public and society. In each and
every thing he seeks negativity. He didn't have a
maid servant only because of fear of public’s bad
notions

32. CONTINUE
Punctuation
 Story is replete with use of punctuation.
 Question mark(?): showing inquiry, surprise
and problems to be considered and answered.
Is it very strange?
What do you think?
How can you live? In this stuffy environment?

33. CONTINUE
 Exclamatory sign(!)
 Sudden expression of feelings
 Creates suspense
 Shows surprise
 Ah! But that proved to he impossible!
 Its matter of principle after all!
 You are so reckless so reckless!

34. USE OF DOTS AND “BUT”
 To indicates inadequacy of language to express
thoughts.
 Mental conflicts and indecisiveness
 Confusion
 Its very fine no doubt, but…… lets hope no evil
will come out of it
 He is well over forty and she is thirty……I think
she will take him
 I know, but…. Its all so sudden, you know….one
must think….’

35. SUMMERY
 What we did ………………..
Applied different literary theories
 To…………………………
Get meanings, enhance understanding, and
ultimately enjoy the piece literature
 Main idea of the story
In course of life man takes many decisions under
the influence of outer pressures: parental, societal,
religious, cultural. That not only hinders his
development; cause irresponsibility; add oil to
burning anxiety but also renders man with
indecisiveness

36. THANK
S FOR
ATTENTION
AND

37. YOUR TURN
ASK QUESTIONS
PUT COMMENTS
GIVE FEEDBACK

38. THE END
THANKS
AGAIN