“Ward No. 6”, Chekhov: summary by chapter. Chapter 1
The story begins with a description of the large courtyard where the outbuilding is located. It is an unplastered building with a rusty roof, surrounded by numerous nettle and burdock bushes. Here is Ward No. 6 - a place where the insane are kept.
In the vestibule of the outbuilding, on a pile of straw, sat the old soldier Nikita, who serves as a watchman here. Most of all he loves order. And to maintain it he beats crazy people.
For the story “Ward No. 6” by Chekhov, the description of this place is very important, since it is with it that the development of the plot and its denouement will be connected. Right behind the entryway there is a room where a terrible stench always reigns. There are five insane people lying on beds here. The very first is Moiseika, an old restless Jew who is the only one allowed to go outside. His neighbor is Ivan Dmitrievich Gromov, a former official who has become obsessed with persecution. He often walks around the ward and talks about human meanness, violence and the wonderful life that awaits everyone in the future.
The main characters of the story
Gromov Ivan Dmitrich
Patient of ward No. 6. The only smart person Ragin met during twenty years of medical practice. At times he suffers from persecution mania. The illness affected Gromov’s thinking and behavior - his judgments are categorical, his statements are harsh, but honest and truthful.
Ragin Andrey Efimych
Doctor, head of the city hospital for more than twenty years. Contradictory in everything: impressive appearance and gentle character, education, natural intelligence and utter laziness and inactivity. He does not fulfill the requirements of his professional and human duty, as a result of which he himself becomes the sixth patient of ward No. 6.
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Chapters 10-11. Philosophical conversations
From now on, Ragin's ward No. 6 attracts him. Chekhov finds a worthy interlocutor for his main character - it turns out to be Gromov. The doctor often visits the insane. They have long and lively conversations and argue with passion. Ragin gets great pleasure from these meetings.
Khobotov finds out about Ragin’s visit to Ward No. 6. He overhears a philosophical conversation between a boss and a madman. Nikita is in the same bewilderment as the young doctor. Then the next day Khobotov brings Sergei Sergeevich. Listening to Ragin's conversations, they come to the conclusion that the doctor has gone crazy.
Chapter 16: The Doctor's Riot
In chapter 16, his friend and Khobotov come to Andrei Efimitch. They begin to console him. The irritation that has accumulated in him takes over, and he drives them both away. Philosophical indifference disappeared.
The next day the doctor felt ashamed and went to apologize. The postmaster tried to persuade him to go to the hospital, considering his friend’s irritation to be a seizure. Ragin was touched by his participation, but understood that all the efforts of his friends would only lead to his death. He insisted that he was in a “vicious circle” from which he could not escape. In the evening, Khobotov also came to him, who also accepted Ragin’s repentance. He invited a colleague to walk to the hospital. They went to the hospital together in ward number 6, but Ragin thought that they just wanted to consult with him on medical issues. Khobotov escorted him into the room and left.
Chapters 12-13. Drive
The events of Chekhov's story “Ward Number 6” continue to unfold (we provide a summary in the article). Andrei Efimych begins to notice that those around him are whispering behind his back. One day he is invited to the mayor, where other doctors, including Khobotov, have gathered. Ragin understands that this is a commission to examine his sanity. At the same time, Mikhail Averyanych invites his friend to go somewhere, and Ragin happily agrees.
Before leaving, the doctor resigns and leaves for the railway station. Mikhail Averyanych went with him, who already in the first days of the journey managed to greatly annoy Ragin with his stories about old times. The heroes arrive in Moscow, where they go sightseeing.
Summary of A.P. Chekhov "Ward number six"
The story was written in 1892. Publishing rights went to the magazine “Russian Thought”. The work reveals themes of hypocrisy, indifference, loneliness and immorality of life in provincial towns of that time. The summary of “Ward No. 6” reveals the main points of the story. Chekhov himself was a doctor by training, so this topic was close and familiar to him.
Chapters 15-16. Life in retirement
Ragin rented rooms in a small house belonging to the bourgeois Belova. Here he read a lot. Sometimes he went to the hospital, but they kicked him out. The former chief physician was not granted a pension. Khobotov and Mikhail Averyanych came to see him occasionally. Ragin increasingly indulged in philosophical reflection.
The story of thinking people and narrow-minded ordinary people is what lies at the heart of the work “Ward No. 6”. Chekhov (the summary confirms this) chooses a hero-philosopher and places him in a district town inhabited by philistines, concerned only with base problems.
So, when Khobotov and Mikhail Averyanych came to Ragin, chatting about all sorts of nonsense, the former doctor, tired of their conversations, began to shout at them and eventually kicked them out. However, in the morning Ragin, having suffered all night, went to apologize to the postmaster.
And then the former doctor finds himself in ward number 6.
“Ward No. 6” summary
“Ward No. 6” - a story by Anton Chekhov, published in 1892
"Ward No. 6" main characters
- Andrey Efimych Ragin
- chief physician of the city hospital; - Ivan Dmitrich Gromov
is a 33-year-old patient, a former bailiff and provincial secretary, suffering from persecution mania; - Evgeny Fedorovich Khobotov
is a district doctor, a young man, sent by the zemstvo to work in a hospital; - Mikhail Averyanych
is a middle-aged postmaster, a bankrupt rich landowner; - Sergei Sergeich
is a paramedic, has a medical practice in the city, is devout; - Nikita
is a watchman, an old retired soldier; - Semyon Lazarich
is a barber, he comes to the hospital to cut hair for patients; - Moiseika
is a patient, a Jew, a fool who went crazy when his hat workshop burned down; - Daryushka
is Andrei Efimych's cook.
“Ward No. 6” summary
In a small hospital outbuilding there is Ward No. 6 for the mentally ill. The ward is inhabited by five people, including the fool Moiseyka and the former bailiff Ivan Dmitrich Gromov. After describing the patients, the author introduces us to Dr. Andrei Efimych Ragin. When he took office, the hospital was in a terrible state. Terrible poverty, unsanitary conditions. Ragin was indifferent to this. He is an intelligent and honest person, but he does not have the will and faith in his right to change life for the better. At first he works diligently, but soon begins to get bored and realizes that in such conditions it is pointless to treat patients. Because of such reasoning, Ragin abandons his work and does not go to the hospital every day. After working a little, more for show, he goes home and reads. Every half hour, he drinks a glass of vodka and snacks on a pickled cucumber or a pickled apple. Then he has lunch and drinks beer. In the evening, postmaster Mikhail Averyanych usually comes. The doctor and the postmaster have meaningless conversations and complain about their fate. When the guest leaves, Ragin continues reading. He reads everything, paying half his salary for books; loves philosophy and history most of all. Reading, he feels happy.
One spring evening, Ragin accidentally visits Ward No. 6. There he is accused by Gromov of theft and becomes involved in a long conversation. The doctor’s visits to the outbuilding become daily, conversations with Gromov make a deep impression on Andrei Efimych. They are arguing. The doctor takes the position of the Greek Stoics and preaches contempt for life’s suffering, while Gromov dreams of ending suffering and calls the doctor’s philosophy laziness. Rumors spread throughout the hospital building about the doctor's visits to ward No. 6. At the end of June, this becomes known to Dr. Khobotov, a young doctor who apparently wants to take Ragin's place as chief physician. In August, Andrei Efimych receives a letter from the mayor of Ogorod with a request to appear at the council on a very important matter. The conversation that takes place becomes a commission to examine his mental abilities.
That same day, the postmaster invites him to take a vacation and go on a trip. A week later, Ragin is offered to rest, that is, to resign. He accepts this indifferently and goes with Mikhail Averyanych to Moscow, then to St. Petersburg and finally to Warsaw. On the way, the postmaster bores him with his conversations, greed, and gluttony; he loses money at cards and, in order to repay the debt, borrows 500 rubles from Ragin. After this they return home.
At home, financial difficulties and continued talk about Andrei Efimych’s madness await. One day he can’t stand it and, having lost his temper, kicks Khobotov and the postmaster out of his apartment. He becomes ashamed and annoyed at his behavior; in the morning the doctor goes to apologize to the postmaster. Mikhail Averyanych invites him to go to the hospital. That same evening, Khobotov comes to him and asks for advice. Two doctors enter ward No. 6, supposedly for a consultation, Khobotov goes out to get a stethoscope and does not return. Half an hour later Nikita comes in with an armful of clothes. Ragin understands everything. At first he tries to leave the room, but Nikita won’t let him. Ragin and Gromov stage a riot, Nikita hits Andrei Efimych in the face. The doctor realizes that he will never leave the room. This plunges him into a state of indifference, and the next day he dies of apoplexy. Only Mikhail Averyanych and Daryushka are present at the funeral.
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Chapters 17-18. New patient
The summary of Chekhov’s “Ward No. 6” continues with Nikita coming to Ragin, bringing him a hospital gown and pointing to his bed. Andrei Efimych sits down and begins to convince himself that this place is no different from Belova’s rooms. Gromov wakes up and gloatingly comments on the situation of the former doctor.
Despair takes over Ragin. The summary of Chekhov’s “Ward No. 6” describes how Andrei Efimych admits to Gromov that he has completely lost heart. Now he understood that the madman was right - philosophizing behind bars is not as wonderful as in the wild. Ragin decides to leave the room and starts knocking on the door. But Nikita appears and severely beats the former doctor. Lying on his bed, the hero realizes that all the patients in ward No. 6 have endured this for many years, and he did not even want to notice it.
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Oh, if Andrei Efimovich Ragin knew how close he is to the sad truth, how in a very short time he himself, after an incompetent and unauthorized consultation, headed by an ignorant scoundrel, colleague Khobotov, aiming for his place, will be put behind bars, in ward No. 6 , where he will die after a humiliating and cruel beating received from the watchman Nikita.
There is a striking point in this story. Shortly before being placed in Ward No. 6, Doctor Ragin says to his friend, the postmaster: “Don’t believe them! My only illness is that for 20 years I have found only one smart person in the whole city, and he’s crazy!” and further: “I found myself in a vicious circle. I am dying and I have the courage to admit it.”
The word has been spoken. A “vicious circle” is where you can end up if, deliberately or by accident, you go off track and find yourself unlike others.
Who is Ragin? Lazybok - what does Gromov call him? The character is negative, on what, as I understand, did the debaters on the KULTURA channel agree? It seems to me that it is neither one nor the other. This man is born of the eternal Russian psychology of “non-intervention”. It doesn’t concern you directly - and don’t interfere, it’s none of your business. Chekhov shows what this position leads to. There is a Russian proverb: “Same end and same place.”
