Who is the man in the case? The image of Belikov in Chekhov’s work “The Man in a Case”: who are the case people and how are they characterized? See what “Man in a Case” is in other dictionaries

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Man in a case
Title of the story (1898) by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904).
The main character is the provincial teacher Belikov, who is afraid of any innovations, actions not permitted by the “boss,” as well as reality in general. Hence his favorite expression: “No matter what happens...” And, as the author writes, Belikov “had a constant and irresistible desire to surround himself with a shell, to create for himself, so to speak, a case that would seclude him, protect him from external influences."
The author himself began to use this expression as a common noun. In a letter to his sister M.P. Chekhova, he wrote (November 19, 1899): “The November winds are blowing furiously, whistling, tearing roofs. I sleep in a hat, in shoes, under two blankets, with the shutters closed - a man in a case.”
Playfully and ironically: a timid person, afraid of bad weather, drafts, and unpleasant external influences.
Encyclopedic Dictionary of winged words and expressions. - M.: “Locked-Press”.Vadim Serov .2003.

Man in a case
This is the name for a person who is afraid of all innovations, drastic measures, very timid, like the teacher Belikov, depicted in the story by A.P. Chekhov's "Man in a Case" (1898). Belikov “he was remarkable in that he always, even in very good weather, went out in galoshes and with an umbrella and certainly in a warm coat with cotton wool... When a drama club, or a reading room, or a tea house was allowed in the city, he shook his head and spoke quietly : “It is, of course, so and so, all this is wonderful, but no matter what happens” It is interesting to note that the expression “man in a case” was jokingly used by Chekhov himself; in a letter to M.P. Chekhova dated November 19, 1899, he wrote: “The November winds blow furiously, whistle, tear the roofs. I sleep in a hat, in shoes, under two blankets, with the shutters closed - a man in a case.”.

Dictionary of catch words.Plutex .2004 .

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Written in May - June 1898. It was first published in the magazine “Russian Thought”, 1898, No. 7. The first part of the “little trilogy”.

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The idea of creating this series came to Chekhov in the summer. The “Little Trilogy” series, consisting of three stories: “The Man in a Case”, “Gooseberry”, “About Love”, should not have ended with the story “About Love”. While writing the stories, there was a decline in creative activity, and later Chekhov was distracted by tuberculosis.
Chekhov worked on the story in May - June 1898 in Melikhovo. At the beginning of June of the year, the story was being prepared for publication, and on June 15 of the year the manuscript was sent to the magazine.
Chekhov wrote about this story in his notebooks:

“A man in a case: everything is in his case. When I was lying in a coffin, I seemed to be smiling: I had found my ideal.”
A. P. Chekhov

Prototype

Belikov's exact prototype is unknown. Some contemporaries (including V. G. Bogoraz and M. P. Chekhov) believed that the prototype of the “man in a case” was the Taganrog gymnasium inspector Alexander Fedorovich Dyakonov, while others described Dyakonov’s character traits, refuting the opinion of the first. Thus, P. P. Filevsky noted Dyakonov’s generosity and wrote: “I positively affirm that there is nothing in common between “The Man in a Case” and A. F. Dyakonov, and no local color can be found in this work by A. P. Chekhov.” .
Yu. Sobolev believed that the famous publicist M. O. Menshikov could be a likely prototype of the Chekhov hero. Chekhov wrote about him in one of his diaries:

"M. in dry weather he wears galoshes, carries an umbrella so as not to die from sunstroke, is afraid to wash his face with cold water, complains of a sinking heart"

However, the similarities between Menshikov and Belikov can only be noted externally. Chekhov himself wrote about his brother I.P. Chekhov:

“He, that is, Ivan, has turned a little gray and still buys everything very cheaply and profitably, and even in good weather takes an umbrella with him.”

From all these facts, we can conclude that the image of the Greek teacher Belikov is collective.
Now the expression “Man in a Case” has become a common noun in the Russian language, meaning a lonely person who closes himself off from the whole world, creating a shell around himself, a “case.”

Characters
- Ivan Ivanovich Chimsha-Himalayan- veterinary doctor, nobleman. A tall, thin old man with a long mustache.
- Burkina- gymnasium teacher and friend of I. I. Chimshi-Himalayansky. Tells a story about Belikov.
Heroes of Burkina's story:
- Belikov- Greek teacher. He worked together with Burkin at the gymnasium. His favorite phrase: “No matter what happens”
- Cook Afanasy- old man 60 years old. Belikov's drunken and crazy servant.
- Mikhail Savvich Kovalenko- teacher of history and geography. A young, dark, tall man. He comes from Malorosiya (Ukraine), where he came from with his sister.
- Varenka- Belikov’s beloved, 30 years old. Sister Kovalenko. A tall, slender, black-browed, red-cheeked girl.
Plot

The story begins with a description of the overnight stay of two hunters: Ivan Ivanovich Chimsha-Himalayan and Burkin. They stopped in the village headman's barn and told each other different stories. The conversation turned to the topic of people “who are lonely by nature, who, like a hermit crab or a snail, try to retreat into their shell.” Burkin tells the story of a certain Belikov, who recently died in his town.
Belikov was the “Man in a Case”. Even in the warmest weather, he went out in a coat, galoshes and an umbrella. And his umbrella had a case, and his watch, and his penknife. And his very face seemed to be in a case, he constantly hid it behind his collar. This man had an irresistible desire to create a shell for himself behind which he would hide from reality. Even the smallest violation or deviation from the rules made him worry. At pedagogical councils, he oppressed everyone with his suspiciousness and caution. With his sighs and whining, he put pressure on everyone and everyone gave in to him. Everyone was afraid of him. Belikov had a strange habit - going to teachers’ apartments. He came, sat down and was silent. So he “maintained good relations with his comrades.”
Once a new history and geography teacher was appointed to the gymnasium, and he came not alone, but with his sister Varenka. She charmed everyone at the director's name day, even Belikov. And then everyone decided to marry them. Varenka was not averse to getting married. But Belikov doubted, he constantly talked about Varenka, about family life and that marriage is a serious step.
Varenka's brother hated Belikov from the first day they met. He even gave Belikov the name “Look at the Spider.”

The critic was confused by the combination of a comedic caricature character and the seriousness of Chekhov's gaze, the seriousness of the background.

“In the gap between Belikov from Burkin’s story and Belikov from Chekhov’s story there is Emptiness. Emptiness is one of the names of the Man in the Case, his secret, his riddle. A hypertrophied and sad socio-cultural with the weakness of the natural, a grotesque body of the political, its evil parody, a jester suddenly turned into a spy with an important report. If you follow the logic of the myth, Belikov’s message must be really important.”
A. L. Bokshitsky

The influence of the image

Modern psychologists consider Belikov’s image as an example of a description of an anxiety disorder.
A monument to the heroes of the story was erected in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, in the park near the Sakhalin International Theater Center in 2013.

Screen adaptation
- “Man in a Case” - feature film, 1939.
- "Man in a Case" - animated film,
How do you understand the term “case man”?

When the word case touches our ears, we immediately imagine a tightly closed object, where there is not a single crack for air to penetrate, the feeling is that it is impossible to exist in it, but, surprisingly, there is an amazing violin inside. And it’s good and convenient for her to be there, because everything was created for her convenience. Likewise, it is convenient for the “case man” to exist in his limited world from anyone or anything. And the person in the box appears to us as a person who is closing himself off from life and experiences for reasons known only to him, which is why he so carefully pushes himself into the box. But, I wonder, on what principle does Chekhov send a person into a case?

In Chekhov, a “case man” can depict a person like Belikov, chained to rules, and Alekhine, afraid of love, and Chimsha-Himalayan, dependent on his dream. All these characters are depicted in Chekhov's stories. Chekhov defines the characteristics of a “case man” by considering the inner world and external features of the hero.

Will a person who lives by the rules be a “man in a case”? A person who lives by norms does not accept anything new into his life. If he decides that he needs to wear only a black cloak, then he will not accept any other color. And if you meet a person in a bright cloak, for him it will be disgusting and indecent. Such a person is Chekhov's Belikov, who believes that everything should have a neat and disciplined form. The form in which he himself lives. But his punctual nature closes himself off from the world, as he sees misunderstanding on the part of people. His entire appearance has a protective look, these are glasses that cover the mirror of a person’s soul, and an umbrella that protects from the world, and a black cloak that does not attract attention to itself. And Belikov is comfortable in his shell, and he doesn’t even think about getting out of it.

The image of Belikov can be contrasted with the image of Chekhov’s character Alekhine, a sociable, cheerful person, but he is also a “case man” because he loves a married woman and is afraid to change his life. If a person is afraid to do something to change his life, afraid to take risks, afraid of the future, then life is unlikely to change by itself. And this fear, and this timidity of a person frames him, he begins to live in a case where everything goes in circles. And only after saying goodbye to his beloved, Alekhine realized that everything that he was afraid of looked ridiculous, and he just had to step over his fear.
I would also like to add Darling to the “case man”. But her case is not like the others, it is unusual, it can be both open and closed. There are people to whom you need to give your affection and tenderness. They need to love, but when they don’t love, they close in on themselves. Such a person is Darling. She is open when she shares her warmth, but closed when she has no one to give her care to.

Using the examples of Chekhov, we saw what “case people” are like. And now they have reached our modern world, and we meet them every day. And is it possible that we ourselves relate to them in some way?
- Analysis of the story by A.P. Chekhov "Ionych"
- “The Death of an Official,” analysis of Chekhov’s story, essay
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is the author of many innovative works, where the reader sees not only subtle satire, but also a detailed description of the human soul. When you get acquainted with his work, it begins to seem that he is not only a prose writer, but also a very gifted psychologist.

"The Man in the Case" is one of three stories in the "Little Trilogy" series, which the author worked on for about two months in 1898. It also includes the stories “Gooseberry” and “About Love”, which Anton Pavlovich wrote in Melikhovka, where he lived with his family. He barely managed to finish working on them, because he was already suffering from tuberculosis and wrote less and less.

It is impossible to be sure that Chekhov wrote about a specific person; most likely, the central image of “The Man in a Case” is a collective one. The writer's contemporaries put forward several candidates who could serve as prototypes for Belikov, but all of them had only a slight resemblance to the hero.

Genre, conflict and composition

It is quite easy for the reader to get acquainted with the work, because it is written in simple language, which, nevertheless, is capable of causing a huge number of impressions. Style is expressed in compositions: the text is divided into small semantic fragments, focusing attention on the most important thing.

In the story we see conflict between two heroes. The author contrasts Kovalenko (life-affirming, active position, positive thinking) and Belikov (passive and lifeless vegetation, internal slavery), which helps him to further reveal the problem posed. The case becomes an artistic detail that describes the entire essence and meaning of the work and shows the inner world of the hero.

Literary genre- a story that is part of a “small trilogy” of three separate stories, but combined with one idea. “The Man in the Case” is written with an obvious satirical overtones; with this technique, the writer ridicules the very essence of the “little man” who is simply afraid to live.

Meaning of the name

In his story, Chekhov warns us that absolutely any person, without wanting to, can imprison himself in a “case,” which is where the name came from. The case refers to the fixation on the unwritten set of rules and restrictions with which people shackle themselves. Dependence on conventions turns into a disease for them and prevents them from getting closer to society.

The secluded world of prohibitions and barriers seems much better to the inhabitants of the cases; they surround themselves with a kind of shell so that the influence of the outside world does not touch them in any way. However, living locked up with your own routines and attitudes is cramped; another person will not fit there. It turns out that a resident of a stuffy, clogged corner is doomed to loneliness, so the title of the story is fundamentally given in the singular.

Main characters
1. The main character of the story is Belikov- Greek language teacher at the gymnasium. He sets certain rules in his life, and most of all he is afraid that something will not go as planned. Belikov, even in the clearest and warmest weather, is dressed in galoshes and a warm coat with a raised collar; he hides his face behind dark glasses and a hat in order to protect himself as best as possible from the influence of the environment: not only natural, but also social. He is frightened by modern reality and irritated by everything that happens around him, which is why the teacher puts on a kind of case both externally and internally.
2. Mikhail Kovalenko is a new history and geography teacher who comes to work at the gymnasium with his sister. Mikhail is a young, sociable and cheerful man of tall stature, a great lover of laughing and even laughing heartily.
3. His sister Varenka- a 30-year-old woman, very cheerful and happy, loves to have fun, sing and dance. The heroine shows interest in Belikov, who, in turn, devotes time to her and agrees to go for walks in order to discuss the fact that marriage is too serious a thing. The woman still does not lose hope of stirring up her gentleman, which reveals in her such qualities as perseverance and determination.
I always remember a conversation in childhood when my mother said that my favorite books are remembered in a special way, often annoying at first. And after that there will be many books that we will read for information or out of interest. But only our favorite books will constantly come to our aid.

She had an interesting theory about judging people by their favorite books, or rather, about the common technique of making an impression, “showing off your erudition.” I always liked how my mother discovered that a person was simply bragging, trying to impersonate someone else with the help of books “from the extracurricular reading list.”

She always understood very subtly what a person actually created for himself case from books, thinking that he is already “in the house” where no one will get him. Not always realizing how much the framing we choose says about us, this is a bookish case.

And I’ve always been surprised why many people openly I do not like Anton Pavlovich Chekhov's story “The Man in a Case,” written two years before the onset of the twentieth century, in May-June 1898.

Chekhov's "Little Trilogy" series consists of three stories: "The Man in a Case", "Gooseberry", "About Love", there should have been much more, after the story "About Love" Anton Pavlovich fell ill with tuberculosis. In Chekhov's notebooks there are brief mentions of the hero of this story:

“A man in a case: everything is in his case. When he was lying in a coffin, he seemed to be smiling: he had found his ideal.”
A. P. Chekhov

It's embarrassing to admit, but this story compiled a list of my favorite things. Probably because in childhood it was the first work I “mastered” from the vast heritage of Russian literature. And after that many books could not surpass it. Such recognition always causes ridicule, as if people should only like those things that tell about heroes they would like to be like. And sometimes I read what they write and say today, thinking to myself, have they really never read “The Man in the Case”?

The letter “f” has taken root in the Russian language for a very long time. All words starting with this letter are of foreign origin. And those words that end with her used to end with the letter “p”: “dear closet.”

What “original Russian” synonym could be taken instead of the foreign word “case”? Maybe a "case"? As soon as we say it, we will feel the mustiness, the smell of dust. The case immediately creates the image of a packed item lying in the attic. Perhaps it was packed away and then forgotten.

“Case” is a more inert word, it does not give a direct association, it does not have such a direct meaning, it does not seem to be connected with specific circumstances, one can say that the author invented everything from beginning to end. And it's very convenient. Therefore, there is so much controversy surrounding this story: who became the prototype of the Belikov gymnasium teacher, who taught the children the Greek language, which would all be so “useful in life”?

Belikov's exact prototype is unknown. Some contemporaries (including V. G. Bogoraz and M. P. Chekhov) believed that the prototype of the “man in a case” was the inspector of the Taganrog gymnasium A. F. Dyakonov, while others described Dyakonov’s character traits, refuting the opinion of the first. Thus, P. P. Filevsky noted Dyakonov’s generosity and wrote: “I positively affirm that there is nothing in common between “The Man in a Case” and A. F. Dyakonov, and no local color can be found in this work by A. P. Chekhov.” .
Yu. Sobolev believed that the likely prototype of Chekhov’s hero could be the famous publicist M. O. Menshikov; Chekhov wrote about him in one of his diaries: “M. in dry weather he wears galoshes, carries an umbrella so as not to die from sunstroke, is afraid to wash his face with cold water, and complains of a sinking heart.”
However, the similarities between Menshikov and Belikov can only be noted externally. Chekhov himself wrote about his brother I.P. Chekhov: “He, that is, Ivan, has turned a little gray and still buys everything very cheaply and profitably, and even in good weather takes an umbrella with him.”

From all these facts (far from complete), it is usually concluded (with great relief) that the image of the Greek teacher Belikov is collective, that is, it does not relate to anyone personally. Now the expression “Man in a case” has become a common noun in the Russian language, meaning necessarily lonely man, which closes itself off from the whole world, creating a shell around itself, a “case”. That is, we are talking about people “lonely by nature, who, like a hermit crab or a snail, try to retreat into their shell.”

At the same time, many forget that Belikov, who never tired of repeating “If only something had not worked out,” did not at all sit like a hermit crab in his corner, he was quite aggressive. He pestered everyone around him with truisms, trying on everyone the Procrustean bed of “time-tested truths.” Even the smallest violation or deviation from the rules made him worry. At pedagogical councils, he oppressed everyone with his suspiciousness and caution. With his sighs and whining, he put pressure on everyone and everyone gave in to him, everyone was afraid of him. Just look at his strange habit - going to teachers' apartments. Good "hermit crab"! He unceremoniously came to someone else's house, sat down and was silent. So he “maintained good relations with his comrades.”

Everyone remembered only the external signs, believing that the case was so noticeable. But the case may not be expressed in a coat, galoshes and an umbrella in the warmest weather; it may well be a Swiss watch, branded dresses and suits from which you don’t want to rip off the tag.

If Belikov had cases for his umbrella, watch and penknife, this means how much higher he valued his own knife - in comparison with “ordinary people”.

We believe that the man in the case must necessarily coincide with the description of Anton Pavlovich, so that his very face is in the case, so that he constantly hides it behind his collar, and his irresistible desire to create a shell for himself, behind which he would hide from reality, expressiveness Chekhovian grotesque.

But this could also be a person with a case of artificially created signs… “stardom”. And isn’t the desire to “stick to the pipe”, “to stick to the budget” a desire to hide from reality? The case makes a person inaccessible to the blows of fate, but it also preserves him in the case in such a way that from the outside it looks as wild as galoshes and an umbrella in dry weather.

In today's conditions, a person in a case can sign a Decree establishing the title “Hero of Labor of the Russian Federation”; he can swim with dolphins during working hours and take care of Siberian cranes more than people. He creates movements in his support, because... his reputation needs an additional case, and at the conferences of these movements we see strange antics and new attempts to create a case for themselves.

Any ideology in line with which people do things that are wild for a normal person is also a case that forever isolates a person from life, which is given only once. If you so want to live it in a box, then was it worth being born?..

Belikov is not at all as harmless as many believe. His last conversation with Kovalenko about bicycles ends with Varenka’s brother, whom Belikov is trying to marry this way and that, taking him down the stairs. But Belikov “informed” Kovalenko that he would have to report him to the director of the gymnasium... about the bicycles.

Therefore, there is no doubt how many denunciations he would have written if he had lived to see the “Stalinist repressions.” At the same time, everyone understands that it costs such a person nothing to change the case.

True, Chekhov’s Belikov died without changing his case, although he could have modernized it somewhat. After all, family life was imposed on him by well-wishers - as a new shell of a hermit crab, as a new case. Probably this new case, which most of us consider happiness and the meaning of life, was too big for him, crushing him with its weight.

Man in a case was last modified: January 1st, 2016 by Ekaterina Deduhova