The bear by Anton Chekov Model Answer

‘The sudden and dramatic changes in the two main characters create humour in the drama, The Bear, Discuss with examples. "The Bear," which is a classic one-act play written 1900, is one of the great works of Anton Chekhov, which is very much about a widowed woman. The Bear can be regarded as a comedy since it is to give the audience entertainment and amusement. This comedy reveals the fine line between anger and passion. The theme is about a strange beginning of love between Mrs. Popova and Smirnov. It demonstrates that love can change all things it touches. Dialogue of the characters, the action of the characters, and the characters themselves shape the theme. Unbelievable actions and change in mood on the part of the characters show that love can sometimes come from an odd turn of events. Anton Chekhov’s classic play the bear revolves around two protagonists, Mrs. Popova and Grigory Stepanovich Smirnov. Mrs. Popova is a landowner and widow, who after seven months ago is still mourning her husband’s death and decided to isolate herself from the outside world and mourn until the day she dies. Grigory Sepanovich Smirnov is also a landowner, who lends money to Mr. Nikolai Popov before he died and he demands the debts be paid at once because his creditors after him. Smirnov insists, makes light of Popova’s mourning, and refuses to leave her house. Popov and Smirnov angrily fight with one another. Then Smirnov challenges Popov to a gunfight for insulting him and Popov brings out her husand’s revolvers. At this point Smirnov realizes that he has fallen in love with Popov. At the end of the play, they end up in love and kiss each other. No doubt, the end of the play “The Bear” is very sudden and unexpected. We see that both Smirnov and Popova have revolvers in their hands. They are going to fight a duel and to kill each other but suddenly they decide to marry. This is unexpected. However, when we go through the play, we find that this sudden and unexpected end has many reasons. I am going to discuss them one by one. The reason of Popova’s change of mind was that Popova had been mourning the death of her husband for the last seven months. She had been leading a lonely and sad life since then. Seven months was a long period. Now time had conquered her grief. Inwardly, she wanted some change in her life. She did not want to continue this mourning any more. Besides, it is human psychology that man gets sick and tired of doing the same thing for a long time. The second reason may be the advice of Luka, her servant. He shocked her by telling her that in ten year’s time, she would not be beautiful anymore and no man would look at her. It was shocking for Popova. The third reason was that Popova had a very romantic nature. When Smirnov assured her of his love, she was greatly moved. It was all according to her romantic nature. On the other hand, Smirnov decides to marry Popova because he fell in love with her. He was greatly impressed by her beauty. When Popova accepted his challenge

of fighting a duel, he was greatly impressed by her boldness too. So, he changed his mind and decided to marry her. Further, when we look at their actions and words, we can say that Mrs. Popov and Smirnov are impulsive characters. When, for example, Mrs. Popov's husband dies, she rashly decides to spend the rest of her life secluded in her home. In an equally impulsive move, Smirnov declares that if Mrs. Popov will not repay her husband's debt, he will kill himself by sticking his head in a gas oven. Since they are so quick to react to emotional experiences, it seems that it does not take much for them to change their resolutions, either. Being such emotional and impulsive characters, it is not unusual that they take another look at each other as does Smirnov in Scene 8 when Mrs. Popov insults him, SMIRNOV...sorry you were troubled! Now isn't the weather divine today? And that black dress looks,too, too charming! (Bows and scrapes.) However, their changes in perspective are especially ridiculous when the reader/audience considers how severely Smirnov insults Mrs. Popov, and how resentful she is of such insults, especially when one considers that Mrs. Popov is disgruntled with her husband who has cheated on her causing Smirnov's disparaging remarks to exacerbate her resentment. Indeed, it seems out of character for Mrs. Popov and Smirnov to fall in love. The most important point in that it is a comedy and the end of a comedy cannot be serious. Its end must be funny and pleasant. Therefore, we can conclude that although the end of the play is sudden and unexpected, yet it is quite justified. It also creates humour and highlights the comic nature of the drama.