29 pages • 58 minutes read
Anton ChekhovAt Home
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1897A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Steppe
The steppe is the first image in “At Home,” and it comes to symbolize the vast emptiness of Vera’s provincial life. As Vera arrives, she sees “by degrees there are unfolded before one views such as one does not see near Moscow--immense, endless, fascinating in their monotony” (Part 1, Paragraph 1). At first, Vera views the steppe as freedom, a space where she is free to choose the best life for herself, but its emptiness comes to haunt her as an “endless plain, all alike, without one living soul,” (Part 1, Paragraph 20). The monotony of the steppe is no longer fascinating, and the immense nothingness begins to wear on Vera. She arrives in spring, when everything is in bloom, but after spending the winter there, she can only think of “the long winters, the monotony and dreariness of life” (Part 3, Paragraph 19) that the steppe offers.
The steppe is the largest geographic feature of central Russia, stretching across the Eurasian continent. In the story, it represents the Russian countryside, away from both the forests and the cities. The steppe’s vastness echoes the vastness of Russia—at that time, the Russian Empire—which in 1895 covered 8.8 million square miles and was the third largest empire in history. Vera notes that the landowners around her own 15,000 to 30,000 acres; these numbers are so vast that large-scale reform seems incomprehensible, which is why the steppe comes to represent Russia’s endless potential but also its inability to change.
The White Waistcoat
Dr. Neshtchapov’s white waistcoat—a type of buttoned vest—becomes a symbol for the backwardness and emptiness of provincial life. When Vera first sees the doctor, she can’t help but notice that his white waistcoat is inappropriate for the country setting; it is a part of formal attire, but no such occasions exist in the countryside. He does not seem to be aware of this, and over time, his choice of clothing symbolizes the vacuity of his personality, much like his empty, elaborate displays of etiquette and his expressionless face. Vera describes his silence as “incomprehensible” (Part 2, Paragraph 15), and Neshtchapov’s empty depths mirror the existential vastness of the steppe.
The white waistcoat is echoed in a description of the train station at the story’s opening: “[a] quiet, cheerless station, white and solitary in the steppe, […] without a human being” (Part 1, Paragraph 1). Neshtchapov, too, lacks humanity. He wears the white waistcoat constantly, as if it is a coat of paint, and this symbolizes his lack of ability to change.
The Birch Stick
Though the reader never sees it, the grandfather’s birch stick comes to symbolize the violence that the Kardin estate depends on for its maintenance. When Vera first arrives at the estate, Auntie Dasha describes how her grandfather used to beat the peasants with a birch stick 25 times. Old age and changes in attitudes have lessened the beatings, but they remain a threat that landowners like Vera can conjure to control and intimidate the servants. This culminates painfully when Vera cries, "Go away! Birch her! Beat her!" (Part 3, Paragraph 25), referring to Alyona. The threat of violence is the principle way that landowners keep the peasantry in place. When Vera resorts to threatening the birch on Alyona, the futility of reforming the landowning class becomes apparent.
Like the story’s other symbolic elements, the birch stick represents Russia as a whole. Birch trees are one of the most common trees in Russia, and their wood and bark were frequently used as building and crafting materials, especially before the 20th century. Beating peasants with the very material used in domestic construction is a commentary on Russia’s tendency to harm itself, often with disastrous consequences.
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