Chekhov’s “Easter Night” and the Ornate Style

Abstract

Easter is story about the art of religious writings and about master of this art. In Easter Night we find portrait of an artist who had gift for writing hymns of praise (dar akafisty pisat', as it is expressed with sense of melodious rhythm).1 This story sheds much light on Chekhov's poetics. It includes a story within story, which is devoted to the description and illustration of aesthetic principles that are close to the ornate style (pletenie sloves weaving) that flourished in fifteenth century Russian religious literature.2 Paradoxically, Chekhov's prose, which is known both for its clarity and unique ability to create certain mood, is rooted in the tradition of old Russian religious literature. The ornate style was used primarily in Russian hagiographie writings and is associated with Epiphanius the Wise (Epifanii Premudryi [?-ca.l420]), the author of The Life of St. Sergius ofRadonezh and The Life of St. Stefan of Perm. The style derived from the unique integrality of the author's vision of the world. For Epiphanius, who was strongly influenced the Athonite tradition of Hesychasm, apprehend the world, in the words of the Russian scholar Dmitrii Likhachev, was to express it by means of the language. To name thing properly was equal to comprehending it because the word and the phenomenon (or object) were inseparable. By meticulously chosen means of