Classics of Russian Literature: a short summary of "The Paris" Chekhov A.P.

The subject of this article is a summary of the "Pari". Chekhov is an unsurpassed master of "small prose." In a small work, he could reflect not only the character and emotions of his hero, but his whole life. The story, which will be discussed in the article, is one of the last in the work of the Russian writer. It was written at the end of life, at a time when the author was reinterpreting spiritual values. Therefore, this work has a particularly profound meaning.

The death penalty or life imprisonment?

The summary of Chekhov's "Pari" consists in the fact that on one night party, between people who were not burdened with life's adversity, a dispute arose that led to events that turned the lives of two of them.

The subject of the discussion is the appropriateness of the death penalty. Some said that it is inadmissible. Others believed that life imprisonment was a more severe punishment. A third point of view was also expressed. According to some participants in the idle dispute, both the execution and the life sentence should be canceled.

One of the adherents of the idea that any type of punishment that deprives a person of life or freedom is inhumane, said so: if elected, he would still agree to life. This man was a young lawyer, one of the main characters in the story. The second actor - a banker - a person who is hot, gambling and used to throw money. From this moment the main events begin, about which the story of Chekhov narrates.

Bet

The summary of the concluded dispute between a young lawyer and a sufficiently mature banker is reduced to the question of a person's ability to refuse for many years from communicating with people. One of the disputants claimed that he could be in voluntary imprisonment for fifteen years. The discussion, which began quite harmlessly, ended with the decision to implement, at first glance, a meaningless experiment.

Prisoner became a lawyer. The banker undertook to pay the prisoner two million rubles, if he survives in captivity exactly fifteen years.

Conditions of detention

A young man, doomed to a long loneliness, was in search of eternal truth, intensively studying the literature of various genres. This is the summary of the "Paris". Chekhov wrote a story resembling a wise parable. At its core, apparently, lies the idea that the writer comprehended in the last years of his life.

All conditions were negotiated. A prisoner-lawyer had the right to drink wine and smoke cigars, and also to receive books that he wished. Conditions, it should be said, are very humane, except for the strict prohibition to communicate with people.

The room in which he was to be located was equipped with a banker. It was all there was to it. The prisoner regularly received food and drink through a small window. An approximate list of the literature that the voluntary captive studied for fifteen years is what the idea and the summary of the "Paris" are. Chekhov attached special importance to the books that the lawyer read while staying in an improvised prison. During the confinement, over six hundred volumes were studied. At times the banker hardly had time to write out literature.

Reading a prisoner

The lawyer began by reading lightweight literature. Then he switched to classical works. He spent several years studying foreign languages. And one day he sent a letter to his opponent in six languages with a request to show his contents to specialists, and if they do not find there a single mistake, shoot in the garden twice with a gun. The banker did everything that his young man asked. And the next day the prisoner heard rifle shots.

The lawyer read a lot. He studied a lot of works on philosophy, history and natural science. Sometimes he threw a reading and began to write. One year of his imprisonment he spent in drinking wine and talking with himself, as evidenced by the watchman, specially hired for his protection. But the most amazing was the eleventh year, when a man who was not so young, but very well-read and educated, because of a long stay in solitude, read only one book - the Gospel.

Release

Fifteen years have passed. The banker was not so wasteful. And I really did not want to part with two million. Their loss would be for the elderly person a financial collapse. But the prisoner still won the bet. He passed the test. He had to pay him, but, unwilling to do so, the banker decided to get rid of the opponent. He planned to kill the prisoner.

On the night before the liberation, the banker sneaked into the room and saw a sleepless, exhausted man. And on the table lay a letter in which he refused the millions owed and expressed contempt for earthly life. This message the banker was to receive later, the next day. After reading the letter, the elderly banker kissed the sleeping man, burst into tears and went home. And never in his life, even at the time of the biggest exchange losses, he was not ashamed as he was that night.

This is the plot of one of the most striking works, created by A. P. Chekhov. "Pari," a summary of which reflects the sequence of events in the work, should nevertheless be read in the original. It will take no more than ten minutes to read. The idea of this small work, however, is so profound that it can change a person's worldview.