Gooseberries

The Galimshai-Himalayan veterinarian, who in “The Man in the Case” was a listener, becomes the narrator. With urgency, he tells the story of his brother who dreamed his whole life of having his own gooseberry bush—and now the dream is finally realized: the gooseberry bush becomes a symbol of petty happiness that a person can satisfy himself with, while “there should be someone behind the door of every satisfied, happy person with a little hammer and constantly remind them with the sound that there are unhappy people.”

Although the gooseberry case makes the veterinarian reconsider his own passion for preaching goodness, he doesn’t give up on it. We have before us an example of Chekhov’s ambivalent pathos—at once sincere and containing criticism of his own style.