"After the Theatre" by Anton Chekhov, Title of Book: Short Shorts

This story is not exactly of a love relationship, but more of memories and fantasies. There is no relationship happening at the moment. The thing Nadya Zelenin does most is remember the good times she had with Gorny and Gruzdyov; the time they used to love her.

Nadya is fooling herself by saying in the letter to Gorny that he doesn't love her. I think that she just wants to make Gorny and herself to feel sorry for her. She just wants Gorny to be after her telling her that she loves her. She wants to play hard to get. Nadya wants or needs attention. Deep inside of her that's what she really wants.

The title "After the Theatre" refers to the fact that Nadya was influenced by the performance of Eugene Onegin and Tatyana. Onegin didn't love Tatyana (maybe later he did), but she loved him a lot. Nadya found it beautiful and romantic, so she wanted to do that with Gorny. She started fantasizing after the theatre performance, and she wanted to play that role in her life. She started writing a letter to Gorny the way Tatyana did to Eugene.

The characterization of Nadya Zelenin is: She's a 16 year old girl that has illusions. One who fantasizes and doesn't really take love seriously. She doesn't really know what love is. She plays around with boys feelings. If Gorny and Gruzdyov are serious about her, she doesn't take them seriously. She may just like to satisfied herself. Also, she gets influenced a lot by the things she sees. For example, when she went to the theatre, she wanted to play the role of the performers in her life. After she went to the theatre, it had an influence on her. She likes to get attention. She plays hard to get with boys. I don't think she is herself. She depends on outside events to apply them in her life. She doesn't do things on her own; the actions she takes don't come out of herself, but out of unreal situations (theatre).

The plot: Nadya starts writing the letter to Gorny influenced by the theatre performance. Then, she starts to remember Gruzdyov and feels that she should write to him instead. They both were in love with her. She tears the letter that she started writing to Gorny. Suddenly, she starts thinking about both of them. She doesn't love them, but she likes to play around with them. She thinks about both of them, and she is so happy about them. Then she goes and sits on her bed, smiling.

The humor: At the beginning, Nadya finds beautiful and romantic when person A is a not interested in person B, but person B is interested in person A. It's funny for her to think or feel this way. And she's so overwhelmed by the idea.

Anton Chekhov uses framing or enclosing method-organizational application of place, time and object. Chekhov starts with a certain setting and ends the story with that same setting. The story begins with Nadya going to her room and throwing off her dress and letting her hair down. At the end of the story, she goes back to her room and sits on her bed.

The language usage is simple and understandable. One can relate to the language because it's similar to how we speak today. The language doesn't have a difficult accent. It has common words that we use daily, for example, garden, darkness. clear skies, starts and cool breeze.

The main character's name, "Nadya" influences on my perception of the character. The name reminds me of the Spanish word, "nada" meaning nothing. In the story, Nadya thinks about Gorny and Gruzdyov and nothing else. It seems that there's nothing else on her mind.

I didn't like the ending because I was expecting more of an impact. Well, she was only 16. She imagined that things were going to happen a certain way. It would've been better if she would've decided for one of them. Nadya was a little girl being overwhelmed by her own dreams and illusions.