Themes Of Symbolism In The Shoemaker And The Devil

Most short stories deliver some type of message. That message can pertain to a certain phenomenon, group of people or to the entire population in general. In “The Shoemaker and the Devil” the overlaying message is aimed primarily at the human race in general. There is something that is inherently attained by every human being, and that is the want, or sometimes need, to have more. Now this can mean more money, more items, or more friends, but either way, it is something that every person has and only a few, such as Mahatma Gandhi, overcome this part of human nature. Anton Chekhov uses this story to show a person’s want for wealth and its consequences once that person reaches their “goal”. He uses a dynamic type of imagery, good amount irony …show more content…
Instead of using small symbols throughout the story, like many other short stories out there, he only uses one significant example. And that is that the shoemaker is a symbol for the entire human population. Humans have always had a need for power. Before there were organized civilizations, that power came with territory, but in the modern world, this power comes with wealth. There have been various people throughout history who have tried to change this, but their efforts were not widely effective since it is part of who humans are. Chekhov uses the shoemaker to represent this. The shoemaker was going through a tough time and in his mind, money was the answer. But as the reader sees, not only does he constantly want more and more, he also does not become some type of superior person. He believed that “having more money and things [would] give [him] more happiness”. But the reality of it was completely different. After realizing how little all of that meant, he was too late and it was time for him to pay. That is what Chekhov wants the reader to really understand. If someone does whatever they can to reach a certain monetary goal, they begin to lose sight of the things that really …show more content…
But he did not do it to defame the wealthy, instead he wanted his readers to see that money is not everything. He does not want people to be so obsessed with being rich that they would do anything to obtain it. The ideal type of life in his mind is one in which money does not matter. What matters is the abstract. Relationships with the people around you and finding true happiness in your life is what follows you to the end. Chekhov’s use of imagery, irony and symbolism really help this message impact his readers in the exact way that he