“小人物”的悲剧人生——契诃夫《小公务员之死》和巴金《寒夜》的比较分析
Comparison between “Cold Night” and “The Death of a Small Civil Servant”

中国现代著名作家巴金40年代创作的反映抗战时期平民生活的小说《寒夜》是其写“小人物”形象的巅峰之作。小说一改作者过去多写青年革命者和封建大家庭的题材，把笔触投向社会底层的受压迫者，描写他们的悲剧人生。在这种风格沉闷化的转变中，我们似乎听到了俄国杰出的现实主义作家——-契诃夫式的叹息。本文以契诃夫短篇小说《小公务员之死》和巴金被誉为“掌握了契诃夫现实主义精髓”的《寒夜》为例，比较分析两部同样叙写了“小人物”悲鸣与哀叹小说的相似点和差异。This paper mainly discusses two famous novels. One is Chinese novelist—Ba Jin’s novel called “Cold Night”; the other is a novel written by Anton Chekhov, named “The Death of Small Civil Servant”. These two novels are of great importance in the history of realistic literature. The famous modern Chinese writer Ba Jin created the long novel “Cold Night” in 1940s, during the period of anti-Japanese war. As the author said, “Cold Night” is written for “nobody”, who is struggling in poverty. Ba Jin’s writing style changed from the passive one which is full of energy to the society, to a new one, that is, more realistic, negative but tells the tragedy of poor people. This shift seems to follow the Russian outstanding realistic writer—Anton Chekhov’s stlye. According to the Chekhov short story “The Death of Small Civil Servants”, we find many things in common between the two fabulous novels. In this paper, the author will make a comparative analysis of the two novels, and will also demonstrate the similarities and differences between these two novels and the two great writers.