Alienation as a trait of personality of doctors in literary works of A.P. Chekhov

Din Ikhun PhD in Philology Postgraduate student, Department of the History of Russian Literature, Moscow State University 119991, Российская Федерация, Москва, Ленинские горы, д. 1, Московский государственный университет имени М.В.Ломоносова Yihongding@yandex.ru

Introduction The problem of alienation was raised in the works of many writers of the turn of the XIX – XX century. E.I. Bashilova assesses the reasons for attention to it in this historical period: "This problem is actualized in critical historical epochs, when habitual social and psychological ties are interrupted, an identity crisis occurs" ^{[1, p. 3]}.

The complexity of the social situation, transformations in the habitual system of social ties, changes in people's view of a person and his role in society, and other factors influenced the personality at the turn of the century, and one of the ways to react to this influence was alienation – "the termination of close relationships between someone, inner distance" ^{[11, p. 484]}. A person distanced himself from other people, isolated himself; it seemed to him logical and providing security, making it possible to exist in changing living conditions. The identity crisis manifested itself in the fact that a person could not find his place in life, could not understand how it was necessary to establish contacts with other people, ceased to realize who he was, what he should do, why he lived, whether he needed communication. The surrounding reality began to be perceived by a person as hostile, alien, from which it was necessary to isolate oneself in order to ensure peace and security. A person experiencing alienation had a feeling of the emptiness of the world, the meaninglessness of existence, the impossibility of performing ordinary actions.

Literature review. Alienation is understood by various researchers as a phenomenon, motive, theme manifested in literature, cinema and other cultural phenomena ^{[5; 9; 10, etc.]}. Literary critics note that throughout the twentieth century alienation became one of the main problems raised by writers "in connection with the events experienced by mankind" ^{[9, p. 229]}.A. P. Chekhov was one of the first to address the problem of alienation and showed it in his works.

His characters often cannot find their place in life, cannot establish contact with other people, move away from society and from their loved ones, withdraw into themselves, become insensitive to other people's problems. The problem of alienation and the ways of its artistic embodiment in the works of A. P. Chekhov were raised by E.I. Bashilova ^[1], K.V. Bezchasny ^[2], I.V. Demina ^[3], P.N. Dolzhenkov ^[4], V.B. Kataev ^[7], V.Ya. Linkov ^[8], I.V. Pyrkov ^[12], V.I. Tyupa ^[13] and other researchers. For modern literary criticism, there is no doubt that the writer showed in his work "the tragedy of social alienation and loneliness of the individual in the context of the cultural situation of the turn of the XIX–XX centuries" ^{[3, p. 275]}.

It seems to us very important to consider the problem of alienation in relation to the images of doctors created by A. P. Chekhov, since the profession of a doctor is initially humane, focused on interacting with people and helping them, and therefore incompatible with alienation. For a doctor, alienation means a change not only in his social and personal, but also in his professional paradigm, which cannot but affect the doctor's performance of his professional duties.

The purpose of the article is to consider the problem of alienation of personality in relation to the images of doctors created in the works of A.P. Chekhov, to identify the influence of alienation on the activity of a doctor. The material for the study were the stories "Wife", "Enemies", the play "Uncle Vanya" and other works of the writer.

The results of the study In the alienation encompassing Chekhov's heroes, different researchers discovered different sides. V.Ya. Linkov interpreted alienation as loneliness, misunderstanding between people, their involvement in the logic of mechanistic life ^{[8, p. 14]}. V.I. Tyupa saw the contradiction of their inner aspirations and social realities as the main manifestation of alienation in Chekhov's heroes ^{[13, p. 14]}. p. 67].

A person is faced with the cruel realities of the surrounding world, and under their influence, the process of "gradual alienation of the hero from his own original thought" may begin ^{[7, p. 163]}, a rejection of ideals that were once important to him may take place. P.N. Dolzhenkov notes that alienation in the works of A.P. Chekhov manifests itself on several levels: alienation of man from man, alienation of human consciousness from the world, alienation of man from life in general, alienation of man from nature ^{[4, p. 193]}.

For the doctors portrayed by the writer, the most significant aspect (manifestation) of alienation is undoubtedly the alienation of a person from a person, the loss of the hero's ability to understand another person, whether it is a patient, a patient's relative or someone else. At the same time, the hero's concentration on himself does not always occur: alienation does not mean the actualization of his own "I", on the contrary, moving away from others, a person often begins to cease to understand himself.

Alienation does not appear in the doctor's character immediately, its formation is a long and complex process. In the story "Enemies" A.P. Chekhov shows its origin. The hero of the story, the zemstvo doctor Kirillov, is a real ascetic who gives all his strength to his noble work. At the beginning of the story, he is completely absorbed in grief: just a few minutes ago, his little son died of diphtheria. At this moment, the doctor asks Abogin to go to his sick wife. The visitor sincerely worries about the condition of his wife, who had an attack, although he worries mainly about himself: "If something happens, then ... I won't survive" ^{[14, vol. VI, p. 37]}. Abogin manages to persuade Kirillov "in the name of humanity" [Ibid., p. 34] to go with him, and already on the spot it turns out that the wife faked an attack to remove her husband, and she ran away with her lover. Kirillov's anger over the false call that tore him away from his son's body and from his distraught wife seems to be justified, but it is at this moment that his alienation manifests itself. Kirillov cannot understand that Abogin's grief, even if not as significant as his own, is also real. He gives vent to his anger, irritation and contempt: "I am a doctor, you consider doctors and workers in general, who do not smell of perfume and prostitution, your lackeys and movetons, well, consider, but no one has given you the right to make a fake thing out of a person who suffers!" [Ibid., p. 41].

Kirillov is right about almost everything at this moment: Abogin suffers for a much less significant reason, he is a smaller person, and his worries are smaller, his personality is not very important from the point of view of the progress of society. Dr. Kirillov is wrong only in one thing: he allowed alienation to seize him, allowed grief to make him less sensitive and responsive. In a state of deep grief, each in his own way, the heroes became selfish and could not understand each other. But if this is excusable for Abogin, then for Kirillov, who is a doctor, it is disastrous for both a person and a professional. A.P. Chekhov shows that such experiences will not be without a trace for a doctor, and the story ends with the words: "Time will pass, Kirilov's grief will pass, but this conviction, unfair, unworthy of the human heart, will not pass and will remain in the doctor's mind until the grave" [Ibid., p. 43]. Perhaps this experience of alienation will become a starting point for further degradation of the personality of the zemstvo doctor. And perhaps Dr. Kirillov will be able, having come to terms with his grief and having thought about what happened, to become a truly humane person again, which is what a doctor should be.

We see the practically completed process of alienation formation as a personality quality in the image of another Chekhov doctor – Dr. Astrov from the play "Uncle Vanya". Dr. Astrov has become indifferent to people during his medical practice. He is not able to feel strong feelings for them, to be imbued with their problems, to feel their anxiety and grief. He lacks empathy and indifferently observes what is happening around him. Dr. Astrov himself understands perfectly well how much he has changed compared to the person he was before: "At the age of ten he became a different person" ^{[14, vol. XIII, p. 62]}. He believes that the main reason for the change was fatigue from constant work, and the consequence of the change was the loss of empathy for the sick, the desire to help them invariably: "From morning to night, everyone is on their feet, I don't know rest, and at night you lie under a blanket and are afraid that they might drag you to the patient" [Ibid.].

Dr. Astrov cannot be called a bad person, his degradation is relative. His positive qualities include the fact that he loves forests and devotes his life to their restoration. Astrov is sincerely outraged by the destruction of forests, which are very important for nature: "There are fewer and fewer forests, the rivers are drying up, the game is gone, the climate is spoiled, and every day the earth becomes poorer and uglier" [Ibid., p. 71] and is actively engaged in restoring this natural wealth. However, this positive activity, which would make any other character a positive hero, does not make Dr. Astrov such. After all, he is a doctor, and all his attention should be directed at the person. Many people can afford to prefer forests to people, to become alienated, but not doctors.

The characters of the play feel the alienation that has gripped Dr. Astrov. Uncle Vanya, who really needs the sympathy of a doctor and a friend, does not receive pity and understanding from him. Instead , cynical words sound from the mouth of Dr. Astrov: "Listen, if you, by all means, want to commit suicide, then go into the forest and shoot yourself there..." [Ibid., p. 107]. It is not enough for a doctor to understand his alienation, to state: "... Feelings are somehow dulled. I don't want anything, I don't need anything, I don't love anyone..." [Ibid., p. 63]. He must fight this feeling, not let it penetrate into the soul and displace from it love for people, empathy, humanity.

Even creating images of positive doctors, A.P. Chekhov could not but touch upon the problem of alienation. But the best representatives of the medical profession in his works managed to overcome alienation. For example, in the story "A Case from Practice", resident Korolev initially experiences some alienation. It is difficult for him to immediately believe that the patient, the daughter of the factory owner Lisa, is not just portraying a physical and psychological disorder, but is really suffering. After the first examination of the girl, the resident thinks: "It's time for her to get married..." ^{[14, vol. X, p. 78]}. But then the doctor manages to understand the situation and understand that Lisa's serious illness is connected with her mental suffering: the girl is a complex nature, she worries about her position as a rich woman, the owner of a factory on which many poor and disenfranchised workers depend. Resident Korolev advises the girl to drop everything and run away, she is happy that her condition was so accurately understood by the doctor. A spiritual contact took place between the patient and the doctor, mutual understanding was established.

Doctors in the view of A.P. Chekhov, if they are able not to feel alienation, they can influence other people who have already been captured by alienation. We see an example of such influence in the story "The Wife". Its main character, engineer Pavel Andreevich Asorin, settled after retirement in his estate. He has a difficult relationship with his wife, Natalia Gavrilovna, who lives in the same house with him, but has become for Asorin, who is still in love with her, practically a stranger. Alienation is observed not only between spouses, it is penetrated by Asorin, who has lost the ability to see the good in people and finds petty pleasure in torturing his wife. Alienation made Asorin lonely and unable to get rid of loneliness, no matter how much he was burdened by it.

Natalia Gavrilovna and the district doctor Sobol are engaged in charity, helping the surrounding peasants not to die of hunger, and they manage to gradually involve the alienated Asorin in this activity. Dr. Sobol is quite an ordinary person, according to Asorin's first impression, "weak, outwardly disorderly and unhappy", as well as "simple–minded and naive" ^{[14, vol. VII, p. 491]}. However, he, working as a doctor, without high words and emphasizing his importance, performs an everyday feat. Dr. Sobol works a lot and practically does not rest, not considering it something out of the ordinary. His understanding of the world is such that there is no place for alienation in it, and humanity is something natural and ordinary. There is no sublimity and visible nobility in Dr. Sobol, but he is a truly humane person for whom helping other people has become an integral part of life. He is not indifferent, thinks a lot, strives for logic in everything, including in the organization of charity: "There is no logic in our life, that's what! Logic!" [Ibid., p. 498]. At the same time, Dr. Sobol is very modest, does not have high self-esteem; he understands that he will not be able to significantly change the world, but continues to work hard.

This such an ordinary character, having entered Asorin's social circle, has a beneficial effect on him. An engineer imbued with cynicism, who does not believe in people's moral motives, does not trust them, does not imagine that they can have disinterested intentions and unconditional kindness, begins to change. The sincere humanity of Dr. Sobol touches the soul of the embittered, alienated engineer Asorin. It can be said that the simple-minded Doctor Sobol destroyed the cold world so diligently created by Asorin, in which there was no need to sincerely feel and empathize with others. At the end of the story, the engineer exclaims: "I recoiled from my former self with horror, with horror, I despise and am ashamed of him" [Ibid., p. 498]. He did not change completely, but he was able to give up his fortune in favor of charity and unexpectedly found peace in this. G.S. Kabulova believes that for A.P. Chekhov, "alienation from the spiritual and moral priorities of the individual" is directly related to "spiritual degradation of the individual as a process invisible to the person himself" ^{[6, p. 74]}.

This statement, which is fair to any character of the writer, becomes especially relevant if we are talking about a doctor. If for other characters alienation is only one of the factors of degradation, then for a doctor degradation is a direct consequence of alienation. The humanistic essence of the doctor's profession and the direct dependence of the correctness of the doctor's professional decisions on how well he understood the patient, does not allow indifference to people, distance from them, selfish immersion in their own suffering and problems.

Conclusion Many of A.P. Chekhov's heroes experience alienation.

They feel the absurdity of their existence, feel lonely, move away from people, become unable to understand them, sympathize with them. For doctors, alienation becomes disastrous, since it affects not only their personality, but also their professional competence. In the story "Enemies" A.P. Chekhov touches on the problem of the origin of alienation. He shows that truly significant factors can push a doctor to alienate the perception of other people and the degradation that follows: material distress, hard and thankless work, constant monitoring of human suffering, emotional and physical fatigue, even the death of loved ones. In the play "Uncle Vanya", the author created the image of Dr. Astrov, who, under the influence of alienation, has already degraded, has become insensitive to people. In the story "The Wife", A.P. Chekhov demonstrates that a doctor who has not succumbed to alienation, who has not lost the humanistic component of personality, can positively influence a person experiencing alienation, can make him better, revive him as a person.

A.P. Chekhov has been engaged in medical activity all his life in one form or another and has always been keenly interested in the organization of medical affairs in Russia, especially issues of zemstvo medicine, therefore, the doctor characters in his work play a special role and are associated for the author with thoughts about the essence of this profession, about the role of a doctor in society and about the fate of a modern doctor. The writer was of the opinion that a doctor should always take an individual approach to each specific case of illness, to each patient, and should take into account not only the physical, but also the psychological, mental state of patients. To do this, the doctor must be a sensitive, attentive, insightful, sympathetic person and at the same time a professional, keenly following the latest achievements of science in general and medicine in particular. Needless to say, alienation could not be combined with these qualities of a doctor, and the appearance of alienation in the doctor's personality could not but negatively affect his professional activity.

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