The Ninny
Author: Anton Chekhov.
Setting: House of the narrator
Characters: Yulia Vassilyevna and the narrator (main character too)
Exposition: The story begins with the narrator introducing who Yulia is, inviting her to his home and explaining why he invited her there.
Rising action: The rising action is when the narrator starts to subtract the days she didn’t work or had excuses, leading her to earn less money.
Climax: It’s when the narrator gives Yulia her payment, which was very low and unfair, and the narrator justified it with things she did. Then she says merci, thanking him for her payment.
Falling action: After she says merci the narrator tells he was playing a trick on her and asks her what she was doing, if she really wasn’t going to complain and stay quiet. She tells him that in other jobs she didn’t get paid, so she was thankful for what he gave her even though it was unfair.
Resolution: The story ends when she learns the lesson from the cruel trick and ends up getting her 80 rubles.
New Resolution: Yulia fights for what is fair, telling him that she deserved more, she really put effort into her job and that she has rights that must be respected. She also uses a tough language and unfortunately ends up fired.
Conflict: The types of conflict found in the story are man vs man, because the narrator wasn’t giving a fair payment to Yulia; Man vs self, because Yulia knew that it wasn’t fair what he was doing to her but she didn’t say anything; And man vs society, because it is something that happens very often worldwide and the people who are being affected don’t say a thing, do not protest against that.
Theme: What this story teaches us is to talk, not to keep the things for ourselves. People have the right to speak and defend themselves, and we should always be seeking to do the fair things or to what is fair.
Tone: The author used words that kept the audience kind of confused, because even though they were understandable at the same time they contradicted each other; for example the narrator says “poor thing”, but he keeps lowering her payment and justifying it with things she didn’t do. At the end it all was to leave the audience and Yulia a teaching. seemed very rough or cold, but then it had a plot twist, meaning that it was just a joke or trick to teach not only Yulia but the audience a lesson.
Mood: I can’t speak for the other readers, but at first I felt really curious to know why he was treating her that way, and also kind of felt pity for her because it was unfair. After I knew that everything was a trick or a joke I felt kind of relieved and understood the point of it; I also kept the lesson in my head.
Voice: The author wanted to share that we should fight for what it’s right instead of being quiet. At first everything seemed very rough or cold, but then it had a plot twist, meaning that it was just a joke or trick to leave us a theme; that explains why the man treated Yulia in that way; It all had a purpose.
By Ana Lucía Álvarez, Step 8 Yellow.
