Humor In Anton Chekhov's The Bear

Anton Chekhov was a Russian playwright who composed the entertaining comedy “The Bear”. It is a play about a conflict between two very opposite characters that ends up working out in the end. While Anton Chekhov was growing up his family often faced financial issues which could have given him the inspiration to write this play (biography). This comedy shares similar characteristics with old fashioned Greek comedies that make them funny and entertaining for the audience reading or watching the performance. Certain elements in the play are important to bring the humor out in the work. Either by reading or watching the play “The Bear” is an enjoyable piece of work. A key element that makes a comedy a comedy is the ending. Comedies are supposed …show more content…
Since Greek plays were often performed in front of large audiences with elevated seating the actors needed to make grand gestures to make sure they were showing the emotion that the characters were feeling. “I 'll sit here all the time…. [Jumps up] I ask you: Have I got to pay the interest to-morrow, or haven 't I?” (Chekhov 4) The way Grigory jumps off of the chair emphasizes his anger and his negative feelings with his rhetorical question to Ms. Popova. A second example of this occurs when Ms. Popova asked her small and elderly servant to escort the large bear-like man Grigory out of the house. After Grigory gave Luka an angry threatening response once Luka asked him to leave, Luka’s reaction was “[Clutches at his heart] Little father 's!... What people!... [Falls into a chair] Oh, I 'm ill, I 'm ill! I can 't breathe!” (Chekhov 6). Luka’s body language was very theatrical to Grigory’s response. His over dramatic response of clutching his heart and falling into a chair brings humor to a serious situation even with Grigory threatening to chop Luka into little pieces. Along with over dramatic body language, physical comedy plays a large role in delivering humor. On two different occasions during the play when Grigory got really worked up in his emotions he would grab a chair and squeeze it causing it to break. A piece of furniture or an item suddenly breaking can cause a shock to …show more content…
The servant, Luka, had some very funny lines, especially for being a little old man. “ My old woman died too, when her time came. Well? I grieved over her, wept for a month, and that 's enough for her,” (Chekhov 1) His bluntness about his wife 's death and the fact that he only mourned her for a month was a very funny line. Also between the characters there is a great deal of banter that gives a childish feel to their fight. It happens between Ms. Popova and Grigory often as they discuss their money issues. Ms. Popova is able to supply the money but not until the following day but, Grigory needs the money to pay off his interest that day as well causing them to be in a stand still. Neither person could satisfy the other since Ms.Popova has absolutely no way to get the money and he couldn 't just not pay his debt putting both of them in a tight position. They argue these facts throughout the entire play usually ending up with Ms. Popova storming out or Grigory sitting down on a piece of remaining furniture that he hasn 't broken yet. Their fighting banter and childish reactions are amusing to the audience. Anton Chekhov’s “The Bear” is an entertaining comedy that has many elements of the old Greek comedies. It shows that comedy hasn 't changed too much over the years since the material and comedy strategies haven 't changed an awful lot. How the characters