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Foil
Frame Story
Explanation and Analysis—Nikolai’s Tale:
“Gooseberries” is an example of a frame story, meaning that it contains a story within a story. While Chekhov sets the scene using a third-person narrator, the majority of the story is told from the perspective of Ivan, who tells his friends Alekhin and Burkin a tale about his brother Nikolai’s journey to becoming a wealthy landowner. The following passage captures the moment when “Gooseberries” shifts from being a story about Ivan, Alekhin, and Burkin (who are all sitting together in Alekhin’s elegant estate) to a story about Nikolai:
[W]hen the beautiful [maid], stepping noiselessly over the carpet and smiling softly, served the tray with tea and preserves, only then did Ivan Ivanych begin his story, and it seemed that not only Burkin and Alekhin, but also the old and young ladies, and the military men, who gazed calmly and sternly from their gilded frames, listened to him.
“We're two brothers," he began, "I'm Ivan Ivanych, and he's Nikolai Ivanych.”
Chekhov chooses to have the three men settle in after their long days in the outdoors, even having Alekhin’s maid bring them tea and jams, a common end-of-day snack. The context and mood here subtly encourages readers to expect some sort of discussion or reflection from the men. Chekhov specifically prepares readers for the extended story to come by noting how all of the people in the portraits on the walls “listened to [Ivan]” as he started in on his tale. All of this establishes that Ivan’s story about his brother’s obsession with wealth and status will be lengthy and significant.
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