“The Man in a Case” begins with Burkin and Ivan Ivanich, two hunters who exchange stories as they spend the night at a small shed outside of town.  They discuss “shells” and what it means to live authentically in human society; it is, arguably, this question above all others with which the entire body of Chekhov’s writing is concerned.  The bulk of the text is used to convey Burkin’s story, which recounts the life of Belikov, a teacher at the local high school.  In the case of Belikov, no doubts are raised that the teacher’s life experience is inauthentic.  He is “encased” both literally and metaphorically.  He leaves his house only in galoshes and a heavy overcoat, and carries his umbrella with him wherever he goes.  The most debilitating encasement of all, though, is his aversion to just about everything; bicycle riding, sexual congress, red meat, and card games are all met by Belikov, with anxious disapproval.  In a coffin, Burkin recounts, Belikov looked “glad at last to be put in a case which he would never have to leave.”  “The Man in a Case” concludes with Burkin and Ivan wondering, as they light their pipes, about the authenticity of their own lives: “is not our living in towns, in our stuffy, cramped rooms, writing our useless papers, playing vint, isn’t that living in an oyster-shell, too?”  It is in this final reflection that every reader and, perhaps more pointedly, every character in Chekhov’s fiction, is ultimately implicated.

- Russell Malcolm