solated figure of Iona Popatov summon a complex of moods and attitudes. Wet snow falls on the shoulder of the cab driver. As in 'sorrow' and 'daydreams', snow and fog seem to enclose Iona in a shell. (Winner 37).
             As Winner further points out, "such symbols of isolation. . . frequently take the form of a protective substance separating the individual from his surroundings" (Winner 37). Chekhov gives the reader the impression of a day of melancholy through the simple description of the weather, thus propelling the reader towards Potapov's pervasive sadness over having just lost his son. "He needs to occupy his mind, to share his anguish, to avoid the silence in which he imagines his son" (Reynolds 1). Sadly, however, the harder he tries to seek comfort, the more he feels alone.
             Chekhov's narrative powers are greatly enhanced by his stories' settings. In "Misery," a setting of darkness and dreariness conveys cold and lifelessness. Like the wet dismal weather Popatov too is "white like a ghost," the depiction of a person who has just had to deal with the death of a loved one. In fact, even the horse that pulls Potapov's sledge is "white and motionless" (Chekhov 370). It's almost as if the horse itself feels the loss. "The mood is a gloomy, painful one" (Hellman 3).
             Chekhov, thus, keeps his readers on their toes making them think and feel by using vivid and dark imagery. "Chekhov's [work] is tinged with melancholy" (Gerharde 128). So telling is Chekhov's narrative, that readers can almost picture themselves in the same position as Popatov. "And it seems that in another little while we shall know why we are alive, why we have to suffer" (Gerharde 30). Is Chekhov implying that this feeling of isolation and loneliness is an everyday occurrence? Are people so cruel and cold that th...