Kiernan 1

Mike Kiernan

Dr. Lindholdt

English 270

March 14, 2012

Chekhov’s “Misery”: Alienation in a Capitalist Society

The demand by a capitalist system to produce to survive serves as a yoke for the worker.

The imposition of that yoke deprives the worker of his humanity. The worker becomes alienated from

fellow humans through the encouragement of competition. Rather than develop fully as a human being

and commune with fellow humans in a natural state, workers are forced to pit themselves against one

another in the narrow capitalist system. The worker is so busy working to survive that he has very little

time to fully know himself or fully interconnect with others. The protagonist in “Misery,” by Anton

Chekhov, is an example of the effects of capitalism on the worker.

The protagonist in this story, Iona, is a hapless victim of capitalism. His alienation by the system

is evident. “It can be argued that a Marxist focus is appropriate for this play in particular because of the

heavy emphasis on social roles and economic transactions” (Petow). Although the preceding quote

refers to “The Cherry Tree” by Chekhov, it applies to this story as well. Marxist theory is defined as “the

doctrine that the state throughout history has been a device for the exploitation of the masses by a

dominant class, {…} (Dictionary.com 2012). A Marxist interpretation reveals the evidence that supports

the exploitation and alienation of Iona.

Iona’s misery began long before the loss of his son. His alienation from the world around him

has always been a byproduct of the system he exists in. The opening of the story simply illustrates his

present state of alienation. He is “all white like a ghost. He sits on the box without stirring, bent as

double as the living body can be bent” (Chekhov 258). He is so insignificant as to almost become one

with the landscape. The fact that he is unmoving and bent almost double implies that he has no

usefulness unless he is performing a service for capital.

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His horse mirrors Iona’s image. She too is alienated. “Anyone who has been torn away from the

plough, from the familiar gray landscapes, and cast into this slough, full of monstrous lights, of

unceasing uproar and hurrying people, is bound to think.” She was a service animal, but not for the

direct exchange of money. She communed with nature in her old position. Now her fate is to be pressed

into service on demand in an unfriendly, unnatural environment. Her ability to daily earn subsistence

has a direct effect on her quality of life, i.e., the quality of the food she eats and the amount of rest she

gets.

The need for capital for survival trumps Iona’s proclivity toward rest when a customer appears.

The customer is an imposing and brusque military officer. He is above the socio-economic class of Iona.

Iona is berated verbally while his emotional needs are ignored by the passenger. Referencing the recent

death of his son, “Iona turns his whole body round to his fare and says: “’who can tell! It must have been

from fever….he lay three days in the hospital and then he died….God’s will’” (259). The soldier’s

response is unfeeling. “’Turn round you devil! {…} Have you gone cracked, you old dog? Look where you

are going!’” Iona appears to take this treatment in stride as the price he must pay as a lower-class

servant. The impression for the reader is that Iona’s only purpose within the system is to transport this

passenger in exchange for a fee. His humanity and his emotional needs are of no consequence. It is also

significant that the officer, a person, is referred to as “his fare.” He too has been dehumanized.

Iona’s encounter with the following three passengers offers a starker depiction of the insidious

influence of capital over labor. They offer him less than a fair price for their ride, secure in the belief he

will accept it. In doing so they demonstrate that their capital has more power than he has as an

individual. He is materially deprived: they actively take advantage of that. Iona rationalizes his decision

to accept. “Whether it is a ruble or five kopecks does not matter to him now so long as he has a fare….”

His very existence depends on the generation of capital, (money), no matter how scant. He has no

choice but to acquiesce to the deal. Again, the human passengers are referred to as a “fare.”
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Taking advantage of human vulnerability is also depicted in the story. The hunchback member of

the second set of passengers is coerced into standing while his healthy companions are comfortably

seated. Being demeaned due to his disability, the hunchback takes the opportunity to demean Iona

because he is more vulnerable than the hunchback. “’Cut along! What a cap you’ve got my friend! You

wouldn’t find a worse one in all of Petersburg…. {…} Are you going to drive like this all the way? Eh? Shall

I give you one in the neck?’”(260). Capitalism encourages people to take advantage of those below them

in class. It also encourages the abused to become the abuser when the opportunity arises. These actions

are reflections of the self-centeredness inherent in capitalist systems. “We see other people through the

lens of profit and loss” (Cox). How can anything but alienation result?

Iona is not a person anymore. He is a commodity in the capitalist system.

The worker is separated from the meaningful pursuit of work related to his/her own

existence, environment, personal needs and individual abilities; s/he becomes a means

to an end. Reduced to a wage earner, everyone is caught in the alienation that makes

each of them a commodity and player in the game of social reality, simultaneously

sincere and false (Cox).

In the end he turns to his horse for comfort. Since no human will recognize him as a person, his animal

becomes his only living, breathing refuge.

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Works Cited

Chekhov, Anton. "Misery." The Heath Introduction to Fiction. Ed. John J. Clayton. 6. Boston: Houghton

Mifflin, 2000. 258-262. Print.

Cox, Judy. "An Introduction to Marx's Theory of Alienation." International Socialism Quarterly Journal of

the Socialist Workers Britain. 79 1998. Web. 12 Mar. 2012

Petow, Elizabeth. “The Economy of Comedy.” Diss. University of Vermont, 2010. The University of

Vermont. Web. 10 Mar. 2012