Humanities & Social Sciences 7 (2015 8) 1382-1389 ~ ~ ~ УДК 80 Unfulfi lled Fate of Chekhov’s Tales’ Characters: “Ionych”, “Literature Teacher”, “Gooseberry”, “About Love” Aldona Borkowska* Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities 2 Konarski Str., 08-110 Siedlce, Poland Received 05.02.2015, received in revised form 24.04.2015, accepted 51.05.2015 The subject of the study is an analysis of Anthon Chekhov’s selected tales which contain a convergence of fi ction. <...> The topic of unfulfi lled fate seems to be a leading theme in Chekhov’s prose of the 1890s. <...> The characters of the analyzed texts share the author’s opinion that indifference, everyday life, narrowmindness infl uence the fate not less than regular crimes or wicked deeds. <...> In those narrations anyone should notice the development of Chekhov’s attitude to happiness which underlines the infl uence of the surrounding/environment on shaping human awareness. <...> He claims that it is impossible to gain satisfaction without opposing to shallow opinions and the devoidness of ideas which are characteristic attributes of a petty bourgeoisie, the best example of whom are the characters’ stories. <...> In the 1890s, Chekhov concludes that indifference and vulgarity, immorality and passivity, dispassion and narrowness of outlook © Siberian Federal University. <...> The destiny of man for Chekhov is related to the effects of the atmosphere, on the one hand, on the other to the resistance of the character to the environment. <...> Many Chekhov`s characters come to a hopeless conclusion: “it is not what I need”, this is not real life, it is not true happiness and deep human content. <...> They cannot put up with this order of things, where not everything happens by Aldona Borkowska. <...> Unfulfi lled Fate of Chekhov’s Tales’ Characters: “Ionych”, “Literature Teacher”, “Gooseberry”… their own will. <...> Chekhov`s artistic manner can be found in the originality of picturing human character. <...> Dishonesty is replaced with pervasive vulgarity, feats – with daily work. <...> Chekhov gives a very peculiar image of evolution of human characters who do not change and cannot change. <...> Many texts show a lost life, unfulfi lled dreams <...>