Enemies

-          Anton Chekhov

 Dr. Kirilov’s only son, 6, died of diphtheria at ten o’clock of a dark September evening. As the doctor and his wife were mourning, Aboguin entered the house. He was of middle height with a white scarf and a big, extraordinarily pale face.

Aboguin said to the doctor that his wife had been seriously ill and he wanted to take him his home outright. He looked really in trouble. He said his wife had got heart attack when he was talking to a visitor, Alexander Sieminovich aka Papchinsky.

Dr. Kirilov excused himself and said he could not go to Aboguin’s house. Then, Aboguin was confused whether to go back alone or take the doctor with him. He said he knew the sorrow of the doctor but there was not another doctor nearby. Moreover, he was also not asking for himself. It was his wife who needed the doctor’s help.

A long silence followed while the doctor busied himself in his lonely activities. In the bedroom, the doctor’s son was lying dead on a bed by the window. His wife was lying tired quietly beside the corpse after continuous mourning. The doctor seemed weeping quietly, without showing any sign of it or producing any sound. The mourning became more pathetic because the doctor’s couple would not be able to give birth to another child.

Aboguin requested the doctor to go with him the second time. But the doctor said he couldn’t. He kept insisting the doctor on going with him. He, in a fit of desperation, tried to take a debate with the doctor on humanity which irritated the doctor. Aboguin tried not to be misunderstood but he was in a very difficult situation: he could not force the doctor to go with him but he remembered his sick wife’s face.

When Aboguin insisted once more, the doctor wanted to know how much time he had to spend to go his home and come back. Aboguin said it would take only an hour. Then, the doctor became unwillingly ready to go with him. Aboguin promised that he would take him home and back on his carriage.

All the way, Kirilov and Aboguin did not speak. Aboguin once sighed and murmured that one never loves his nearest so much as when there is the risk of losing them. Kirilov anguishly said that he wanted to go his home back so that he could leave an attendant with his wife. But the carriage did not stop. Both of them were anxious and in a desolate mood.

When they reached Aboguin’s house, it was silent. For the first time, Kirilov and Aboguin could see each other clearly. The house was magnificent and full of all the facilities.

Aboguin left the doctor in a luxurious small drawing room and went to the room where he had left his wife. After five minutes, he returned weeping. He revealed that his wife had eloped with Papchinsky while he was away to fetch the doctor for her. Wailing, he mourned his loss for a while. Curiously, the doctor asked him about the patient. He got the answer that she had eloped with a man. He started weeping, too. He felt being mocked at his suffering. He remembered his wife and his dead son.

But Aboguin was obsessed with himself. He had forgotten his promise to the doctor and was wailing and complaining against his wife’s infidelity despite his great devotion and love for her. He started revealing all his family secrets to the doctor. But with every word of his, the doctor was being offended. Despite the doctor’s indifference to show him sympathy, he showed his wife’s photo which enraged the doctor. Aboguin had thought the doctor was hearing him and had pity on him, but he was surprised to be scolded by the doctor. He took two notes out of his side pocket and flung them on the table in front of the doctor. He said the notes were his fee. The doctor ignored.

Both unhappy men felt insulted by each other and shared many abusive words. Unhappy men are selfish, wicked, unjust, and less able to understand each other than fools. Unhappiness does not unite people, but separates them: and just where one would imagine that people should be united by the community of grief, there is more injustice and cruelty done than among the comparatively contented.

When finally Aboguin ordered his men to ready a carriage, the doctor looked a bit happy. But his anger and contempt for Aboguin had not decreased. On the way back his home, the doctor did not think about his wife and dead son. But he kept thinking about Aboguin’s insult and inhuman behaviour.