Misery by Anton Chekov "To whom shall I tell my grief?" The twilight of evening. Big flakes of wet snow are whirling lazily about the street lamps, which have just been lighted, and lying in a thin soft layer on roofs, horses' backs, shoulders, caps. Iona Potapov, the sledge-driver, is all white like a ghost. He sits on the box without stirring, bent as double as the living body can be bent.
The harsh, gloomy characteristics of the land are reflected in the human characters. In Frankenstein, Victor’s country house near Geneva is described as isolated, dwarfed by massive, snow capped mountain ranged and hunted by the emptiness of a calm lake. Victor also describes it as "an unusual tranquillity"(page 27) This effect of isolation and tranquillity leads directly into the dreary element of mood. Victors apartment at the university also conveys a feeling of dread with its piles of books, scattered equipment, dust and unkemptness. Shelley’s novel takes us on a tour of the wildest, most isolated geography in Europe: the Swiss and French Alps, the Rhine valley, the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Russia and the Arctic.
He became a captain to a ship set course to the Arctic. The arctic being a dead wasteland with nearly no life or vegetation due to a freezing climate. As Walton and his crew partake on this trip, he has trouble relating with the men onboard with him. Walton is lonely, he "desires the company of a man who could sympathize with [him]” and “whose eyes would reply to [his]” (Shelley 7). Emotionally, Walton felt distant and alone.
They are all, in turn, escaping from their problem and they all end up in the barn. The barn is like their home and it is in fact Crooks’ home. As Crooks has faced so much discrimination and racism in his life he has turned aggressive and impolite. He was forced to live and work alone – isolation – and because of this when anyone does try to talk to him he snaps at them. ‘Crooks said sharply, “You got no right to come in my room.
Capote’s use of the winter season also leaves the reader with a chilled lonely bitter feeling. Rather than describing the snow in a beautiful and calming way his diction clearly portrayed the biting scene. “In the falling quiet there was no sky or earth, only snow lifting in the wind, frosting the window glass, chilling the rooms, deadening and hushing the city” (39). The harsh cold description leads reiterates the feeling of solitude by removing any sense of warmth or comfort. While out to see a show Ms. Miller’s character is introduced to Miriam, a young girl, who we then learn shares the name with our main character, Ms. Miller.
Winter was characterized by "long stretches of sunless cold" while the sky "poured down torrents of light and air on the white landscape." Images of "starved apple-trees writhing over a hillside," and sparse orchards whose "boundaries were lost under drifts" further demonstrate the debilitating effects of the harsh winters on the land and the men who work it. Winter also strips man of life, spirit, and the will to survive, as seen through Frome's ramshackle farmhouse. The years of tumultuous storms leashing down on the house impregnate it with a barrenness and isolation. The farmhouse is described as "worn," "stunted"
The descriptions in in the poem are unorthodox and almost irrational, pulling away from the more known connotation of the woods being scary, dark and negative. In this case, it’s much different, as the snow embodies a certain beauty that isn’t commonly associated with the woods. The speaker reveals that the owner of the woods, mentioned in the first stanza, is living in village housing, some miles away, indicating that the speaker is on the edge of society, wanting to stay in the woods and watch the snowfall rather than be in the village, ignoring his horse’s demands for shelter and warmth. His lonesomeness, away from society, indicates his desire for his initial choice to stay in the woods. In my interpretation of the poem, the woods, owner of the land, the speaker and the horse all represent a sort of love cheating scenario with a husband, mistress and conscience.
Empty. Deserted. Burnt tress void of life, contorted animal bodies laying on the cracking earth their blood staining thick patches of dirt, horrifying. That realization of being truly alone scares me and I shiver, hard. I look around trying to see the details of the crushed room that stood strong enough to protect me.
Away from town, lost in nature, the ‘idle foam of water falling’ calls, glistening under the ‘calm moonlight’. Only water remains ‘where once men had a workplace and a home. In ‘Aspens’, nature replaces the disappearing civilization; only the trees remain in this shifting world. Aspens continue to ‘shake their leaves’, ‘and it would be the same were no house near’. Thomas offers a journey to a place where nature tries to compensate for the loss of ‘the inn, the smithy and the shop’, the vanishing rural way of living and human presence.
High up in the Alps, vacant loneliness, and dark colours and strong evil winds push us, the audience, to shiver with despair. Life does not grow, it seems to regress, the water is missing and our narrator is dying of thirst. This shepherd that he meets has a silent story of his own. He has lost his beloved family and so lives on by himself with a single pet as a constant companion. He goes on about his business; with careful patience he plants little seeds of hope in the hard dark soil.