Short Story Review: The Kiss
Ditulis oleh
Made Nurulita Pertiwi Raka
The Kiss is a story written by Anton Chekov on 1887. The setting of the story took place in the village of Myestechki and the story started on May 20th without mentioning the exact year. The story is narrated in third person limited perspective, where at first the narration was focused on the whole military men then later in the story the focus shifted into Ryabovitch until the end of the story. There are three main characters because they got mentioned the most which are Ryabovitch; which we can say is the main character of the story, Lobytko, and General Von Rabbek and his family. The plot was moving linearly, closest to the fashion of Victor S.’ fabula, since the story move chronologically with no found flashback or flashforward. The main conflict of the story is Ryabovitch new found ‘love’ after he was accidently kissed by a mysterious woman in the von Rabbek party. The woman was mistaken Ryabovitch with someone else. Being never get exposed to the affection of opposite gender, Ryabovicth was up on the moon because of the incident. He could not stop thinking about the woman who kissed him. He kept imagining the kiss and imagning the figure of the mysterious woman. He was so into his own thought to the point he actually thought he was in love with this woman. Later on the story, the main conflict will be the main focus until the very end.
In order to explain the creation of the conflict, first we have to understand the background of our main character, Ryabovitch. He was described as conventionally unattractive. He was also shy and socially awkward even around his own colleague. He never had any lover or receive any kind of romantic (or sexual) attention from the opposite gender. Moreover, Ryabovitch was a military man hence lay him on the noble man manner. As a military man in the Tsar era of Russia meant with setting your fate on the stone. You will never get out of the military routine until you are incapable fighting anymore. The routine left Ryabovitch’s life in a statis state. He found his life as military man as boring, dull, and uninteresting.
Until, he got kissed by the mysterious woman in Von Rabbek’s party. He encountered this woman when he wandered in von Rabbek mansion. The woman thought Ryabovitch was a different person, a person she was actually waiting for. By mistake, the woman kissed him. Regardless the occasion, the incident was high bothering Ryabovitch in a pleasant way until the end of story. At some point in the story, Ryabovitch concluded that he was in love with the woman and could not wait to get invited again to the Von Rabbek’s mansion so he could probably met her again.
In the surface, the kiss was seen as Ryabovitch naivety playing with him mind. An unattractive man who never been exposed by woman touched suddenly got kiss. He over thought the whole situation to the point he actually thought he loved this woman. The whole story, he could not stop thinking about her and the kiss. It was all because it was the first time he was ever thought by a woman and it left him to a euphoric fantasized world where only he and the woman existed. His naivety wiped down all the other factors such as the kiss was an accident and Ryabovitch did not even know the figure of the woman hence the dark room where they met.
However, when you analyzed further, The Kiss was not simply about a virgin man naivety. At the end of the story, after when back from a dispute, Ryabovitch was invited again to the von Rabbek mansion. He had dreamed about getting back to the mansion so he can meet the woman again throughout the story. However, he refused to go in a “fuck you” manner. This part was the biggest revelation of Ryabovitch.
As a military man, his whole life and his fate already set into a stone. His every life is dictated to him by social expectation the military circumtances surrounding him. This was illustrated in the first part of the story where he and the other military men agreed to go to tea with General von Rabbek in his mansion. They all know von Rabbek did not actually want any on them to be inside his mansion and to tea with him but he had to invite them. Why? Because they are military men. They are bunch of noble men. He HAD to invite them to maintain his reputation. The military men also known very well they got invited out of spite. They knew they were actually unwanted in the mantion. However, they still went there anyway. Why? Because they had to. They could not just trun down an invitation to tea from a noble and high profile man such as General von Rabbek. They also had reputation to maintain.
However after the kiss, Ryabovitch refused to go to tea again with von Rabbek. He suddenly decided to himself that he did not have to go. He could refuse the invitation. He did have to maintain his reputation. He did not have to follow the common fate of military man. He could made his own future.
The kiss changed Ryabovitch. He is not the common military man anymore who had to follow every order he was given. He was his own man. He was independent. He figured all ofthose things because he got kissed by a random woman in a party.
The kiss was a revelation for Ryabovitch because it had gave meaning to his life.
