From time to
time, students, stressed out at having to memorize years and names for history
tests, pose the question: history’s all about what’s already passed; why do we
learn it? As an answer to this, many people say that we do because we can look
back on the past to make wise choices in the future. This thought apparently seems
to be exactly what is portrayed in “The Student” (1894) by Anton Chekhov.
In the story,
Ivan—the student—talks about a scene from the Twelve Gospels to the two widows:
Jesus is taken to the high priest’s yard for questioning and is beaten, but
Apostle Peter, although knowing what is happening to Jesus, denies his
connection with Him despite his intense love for Him. Although not explicitly
shown by the author, we can draw a parallel between this scene and the widows’
situation. It is mentioned that the daughter, Lukerya, had constantly been
beaten by her husband in the past. And towards the end of the story, it is
Vasilisa, the mother, who sheds tears just as Peter did, and Lukerya seems to
be “enduring intense pain.” With Vasilisa as Peter and Lukerya as Jesus, it can
be inferred that Vasilisa, who should be in a place to protect and love her
daughter the most as her mother, had failed to protect Lukerya from the beating
and thus is feeling responsible at listening to Ivan talking about the scene
from the Twelve Gospels.
Ivan learns from
this that the similar things happen over and over, even over an interval of
multiple centuries, governed by the same human instincts and needs. This
explains why the same poverty, hunger and desolation have persisted through the
times of Rurik and Ivan the Terrible as they are now, as mentioned in the
beginning. However, Ivan in the end returns home full of expectations of the
future—“the inexpressible sweet expectation of happiness.” This can only be
because Ivan has also realized that as long as he does not become another
Vasilisa—that is, as long as he looks to the past and take care not to make the
same mistakes other people have made before—he could expect a new future, one totally
different from what has happened in the past as a part of the chain of events
repeating itself.
Written during
the hard times, “The Student” tells people to look to the past precedents for a
way to grow out of poverty and hunger. It works just the same today. Knowing
which choices others made before, along with their outcomes, in similar
situations, we can either choose to make the same choice or a different choice.
History is not just a bunch of numbers and names to memorize—it is ironic that
I, who was never really interested in history, am saying this—but a valuable
database from which we can get advice on how to act for a better future.
