Piano is a Ph.D. candidate in English at Bowling Green State University. In the following essay, Piano explores how Chekhov's story reveals the delusions of members of the Russian middle class who attempt to hold on to an image of rural life that no longer exists.

In the short story "Gooseberries" by Russian writer Anton Chekhov, two men out walking seek refuge from the rain at the house of a friend who lives nearby. After they settle down for the evening, one of the men, Ivan Ivanich, begins a story he was about to tell his walking companion, Bourkin, before the rain began. This story-within-a-story involves Ivan's brother Nikolai, who, in his quest to buy land, denies himself, as well as his wife, any comfort until he is an old man. After he acquires a piece of land, thereby becoming part of the landed gentry, he...