Chekhov’s Gun

     ⋮   Audio version below

In 1889, Russian author Anton Chekhov shared a few thoughts on good theater: “Things on the stage should be as complicated and yet as simple as in life. People dine, just dine, while their happiness is made and their lives are smashed. If in Act 1 you have a pistol hanging on the wall, then it must fire in the last act. There’s nothing harder than to write a good farce.” The bolded sentence about a pistol is often quoted by itself as a guiding principle of good writing and at some point, the idea was isolated from Chekhov’s discussion of theater, branded “Chekhov’s Gun” and can be applied to any form of storytelling that includes plot structure and characterization, from short stories and novels to other forms of media like television shows, films and video games.

Chekhov’s Gun can be a useful concept for literary analysis, and readers can draw several useful ideas from it:

1. Specific Details: A great writer consciously makes every line in a story matter. The best stories are only as long as they need to be and should include enough detail to make the story meaningful, while avoiding needless content that doesn’t substantially add to the story. We can assume that a very short story or a very long story were both deliberately written that way by the author for a reason. Therefore, assume every word, description, character detail or plot point in a story is written on purpose and every smaller part of a story contributes to its greater meaning. An image or description introduced early in a story matters and will likely come up again or contribute to the larger meaning later in the story.
2. Story Logic: Readers should expect a reasonable amount of logic in a story. This might sound overly simple, but in general, stories should have a strong beginning, build from it through the middle and end in a way that resolves any major character or plots issues introduced throughout. The point is that overall story design is as intentional and thoughtful as individual images or phrases. This could result in a traditional, linear story, but it also means that nonlinear stories are clearly designed that way, or that stories that defy logic are doing so to make a point, and these design choices add to the overall meaning of the story as well.
3. Greater Meaning: If everything in a (good) story is intentionally crafted by the author and included for a reason, then readers can make much larger value judgements and assumptions about the greater meaning of the story and its societal implication. We can say that descriptions of shadow and light reveal the emotional mood of a character and speaks to their depression and to mental health issues outside of the text, or that a passing reference to birds of prey in a story about imperialism is likely purposeful imagery that speaks to the human capacity for violence and can open a discussion of British history.

What can Chekhov’s Gun add to your reading process?

1. Don’t overlook small details. Assume that everything in a story is written on purpose and everything in a story contributes to the greater meaning.
2. Analyze the structure. Is it long or short? Is it told in a linear or nonlinear manner? Is it traditional or experimental? What do these structure choices add to the meaning of the story?
3. Based on your interpretation of the details and structure of a story, propose your own theories about the personal, philosophical, political, historical or cultural meanings of a story, and be confident that they’re accurate, as long as you can point to details from the story as evidence.
4. If a story you’re reading is confusing, boring, or doesn’t seem to mean anything, ask yourself if the problem is you (you didn’t read closely enough, you need to reread it, or you need to think deeper) or if the problem is the author (their descriptions are unclear, their story has too much unnecessary writing, their meaning is not intelligible, or you simply disagree with them).