Johannes- Gutenberg- Universität Mainz

Rewriting Chekhov: A Comparison of Mansfield’s  “The Child-Who-Was-Tired“ and Chekhov’s “Sleepy“

Christian Schlegel

April 17th 2001

Table of Contents

1 Introduction ... 3
1.1. Background of the Texts ... 3
1.2. Summary of Chekhov’s Sleepy ... 3

2. Comparison ... 4
2.1. The Setting ... 4
2.2. The Plot ... 5
2.3. The Characters ... 5
2.3.1. Varka/The Child-Who-Was-Tired ... 5
2.3.2. The Shoemaker/The Man and The Mistress/The Frau ... 6
2.3.3. The Baby ... 7
2.3.4. Missing and Additional Characters ... 7
2.4. Symbolism ... 8

3. Conclusion ... 10

4. Bibliography ... 11
4.1. Main Sources ... 11
4.2. Secondary Sources ... 11
4.2.1. List of Works Cited ... 11
4.2.2. List of Works Consulted ... 11

5. Appendix: Chekhov’s Sleepy ... 12

1 Introduction

1.1. Background of the Texts

This paper will discuss differences and similarities of The Child-Who-Was-Tired first published on February 24 in the New Age and later, short after her return from Bavaria¹, in ‘In a German Pension’ published in 1911² by Katherine Mansfield and Anton Chekhov’s Sleepy, which was written nearly 20 years earlier³. The parallels between the characters and the plots, especially in the outcome of both short stories, make Katherine Mansfield suspicious of having committed plagiarism. “Anton Chekhov’s short stories were first welcomed in England and America just after the turn of the century as examples of late nineteenth-century realism [...].“⁴ Characterised as ‘slices of life’ they could have served as patterns or examples for Mansfield’s stories, which are characterised in the same way. In so far she writes at least in Chekhov’s tradition. She “could have read Sleepy at Queen’s College as early as 1903, when [...] her literary interest was expending.”⁵ The question of plagiarism will be answered in the conclusion of this paper, when the differences and similarities are worked out properly.

[...]

1 Berkman, Sylvia. Katherine Mansfield: A Critical Study. Yale: UP, 1971. p 43.

2 Mansfield, Katherine. The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield. London: Penguin, 1981.

3 http://www.eldritchpress.org/ac/jr/index.htm

4 May, Charles E. “Chekhov and the Modern Short Story.“ The New Short Story Theories. Ed. Charles E. May. Athens: Ohio UP, 1994. p 199.

5 Daly, Saralyn R. Katherine Mansfield: Revised Edition. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1994. p 16.