The Wood Demon and Uncle Vanya

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The Wood Demon (1889) is one of Chekhov's early ploays. It was hurriedly written and poorly produced upon the stage even though Chekhov had designed its outline long time before. After its dissatisgactory production, Chekhov took back the manuscript of The Wood Demon and locked it in his desk and never allowed it to be produced again. About nine uears afterwards, however, Chekhov revised The Wood Demon and reorgaoized another play titled Uncle Vanya. Altough the two plays are originated from the same materials, they are quite different from each other in many respects.
The Wood Demon is his early Ibsenian play and Uncle Vanya is one of his later four masterpieces. And Chekhov himself did not want the two plays to be identified. And Chekhov himself didnot want the two plays to be identified. We can figure out the characteristics of Chekhovian realiam by the analysis of the differences of the plays. By comparison of The wood Demon with Uncle vanya, the following major characteristics are revealed:
1. Curtailing Act I and Act Ⅳ of The wood Demon, Chekhov restricted the acion of Uncle Vany ato the estate of Serebriakoff. This alteration is confirmed with Aristotelian unity of action as well as with unity of place.
2. Reducing the subsidiary characters of two families, i.e., the Zheltoukhins and the Orlovskys, Chekhov achieved a plausable characterization with various motives.
3. Discarding the romantic quality of Wood Demon, Chekhov transformed him a realistic doctor of Astroff who was exhausted with hard work.
4. Excluding violent actions of The wood Demon, such as Voynitsky's suicide, Elena's flight, the happy ending of reconciliation and marriage, Chekhov established his psychological realism or inner realism which came from his view of life.