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Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Sour Gooseberries:
When telling Alekhin and Burkin the story of his brother Nikolai’s class ascension, Ivan notes that one of the main things motivating Nikolai to work and save up money was a desire to grow gooseberries on his own land. Ivan eventually tastes Nikolai’s gooseberries and, in an example of situational irony, finds them to be inedible, though Nikolai himself loves them. The following passage captures the irony of this moment:
“Nikolai Ivanych laughed and gazed silently at the gooseberries for a moment with tears in his eyes—he couldn't speak for excitement; then he put one berry in his mouth, glanced at me with the triumph of a child who has finally gotten his favorite toy, and said:
“‘How delicious!’
“And he ate greedily and kept repeating:
“‘Ah, how delicious! Try them!’
“They were tough and sour.”
Chekhov builds to the ironic twist in this passage by describing how Nikolai “laughed and gazed silently at the gooseberries […] with tears in his eyes,” how he “couldn’t speak for excitement,” how he looked at Ivan “with the triumph of a child who has finally gotten his favorite toy,” and how, after finally eating some of the berries, he “kept repeating” how delicious they are. After all of this build-up, readers expect the berries to be as delicious as Nikolai claims, yet Ivan reveals, in comically simple and direct language: “They were tough and sour.”
This moment is significant because it undermines the idea that wealth (and, in particular, land ownership) leads to happiness. Nikolai has worked tirelessly for two decades in order to grow gooseberries on his own land and, in the end, the berries are nearly inedible. Here, Chekhov (via Ivan) insinuates that wealth, on its own, does not inherently lead to happiness.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Ivan’s Moralizing:
The situational irony at the heart of “Gooseberries” is the fact that Ivan spends most of the story criticizing his brother Nikolai’s obsession with wealth and moralizing about how “doing good” (not becoming wealthy) is what really leads to happiness, when he himself has not built a life around doing good and, in fact, spends the entire story basking in his friend Alekhin’s wealth.
The following passage—which comes near the beginning of the story, as Ivan is swimming in Alekhin’s personal pond—captures the irony of Ivan’s lambasting of wealth:
[H]e reached the middle of the pond and dove, and a moment later appeared in another place and swam further, and kept diving, trying to reach the bottom. “Ah, my God...” he repeated delightedly. “Ah, my God...” He swam as far as the mill, talked about something with the peasants there and turned back, and in the middle of the pond lay face up to the rain. Burkin and Alekhin were already dressed and ready to go, but he kept swimming and diving.
“Ah, my God...” he repeated. '”Ah, Lord have mercy.”
This is one of the only moments in the story when Ivan is truly at peace and enjoying himself. This comes across in the way that he repeats, with wonderment, the phrase, “Ah, my God…” and also “lay[s] face up to the rain” without any worry or care. That he continues to swim even as his friends are obviously ready to head inside signals how meaningful this experience is to him.
It is notable, of course, that Ivan’s enjoyment of the pond is tied to the fact that Alekhin owns the pond and the land that it is on. Ivan is also able to enjoy himself so thoroughly because he knows that he will be able to go inside and warm up after his swim in the rain, with Alekhin’s beautiful maid Pelageya bringing them tea and various treats. The irony of this moment becomes clear later in the story when Ivan criticizes his brother Nikolai’s obsession with owning land, claiming that wealth and status do not bring happiness.
Related Themes:
