The Student

"The Student" by Anton Chekhov is the third person narrative of a narcissistic 22-year old seminary student, referred to once by name, Ivan, and throughout the rest of the story, as "the student." It's Good Friday and so there's no cooking in his house, so he goes over to the house of an old woman named Vasilisa, and her daughter, Lukerya. The student tells them a very long biblical story of Peter and his loyalty to Jesus, the entire time relating Peter to himself. This causes an emotional response from Vasilisa, who begins to cry, which the student takes to mean that she relates somehow to the story. This point is not developed in any way whatsoever, and the story ends with the student looking out at the sunset, thinking about how great his life is.

The moments of note in this story occur for the most part while the student is telling the story of Peter. However, when he first encounters Vasilisa, the first thing she says to him is, "I didn't recognize you. God bless you. You will be a rich man" (Chekhov, 264). This quote introduces the idea that the student has probably had a pretty easy life, which we can already gather from his attitude, as I will develop later. He seems very well-respected, if not venerated, by the community in which he lives, based on this interaction, which provides some insight into his character.

While the student is telling his biblical tale, he takes pause at several points to include himself in the narrative. He begins the story because he makes a really loose connection to the way that he himself is warming himself by the fire, "In the same way Peter the apostle warmed himself by a fire on a cold night." He then proceeds to forcibly insert himself into the story at several other points. When recounting the part of the story where Jesus is being questioned, the student mentions, "Peter stood by the fire with [the servants] and also warmed himself, as I'm doing now" (Chekhov, 265). As well as inserting, "I picture it" (Chekhov, 265), demonstrating his inability to remove himself from the story, and the emotional response he receives from Vasilisa only confirms his confidence in his storytelling, a feat upon which he commenced for no particular reason other than I suppose to get warmth and maybe food on a day in which he was cold and hungry because he's extremely spoiled.