Lindsey Dougherty

Ms. Elizabeth Chappel

Pre-AP English 10

12 May 2013

In Anton Chekhov’s “Ward No. 6”, Dr. Andrey Yefimitch changes from a dedicated, professional psychiatrist to a paranoid, insane patient of his own hospital, all to illustrate how he came to realize the real conditions of his hospital and his patients.

In chapter five, Dr. Andrey starts becoming distant and keeps his thoughts to himself. “Oppressed by such reflections [his curiousity living and death], Andrey Yefimitch relaxed his efforts and gave up visiting the hospital everyday”. He is becoming laid back in his work and is not focused like he used to be. “But he reflected that his will alone was not enough to do this [close down the hospital]”. Andrey knew what the right thing to do was but he was too lazy to even make an effort to close the hospital.

Immediately after this, Yefimitch started noticing all of the terrible things about the hospital, and how people were treated. In chapter six, Chekhov says, “Andrey Yefimitch knew that such surroundings were torture to feverish, consumptive, and impressionable patients.” As he walking through the hallway, he noticed all of the nastiness and poverty in the hospital, and kept it heavy on his mind. Chekhov also explained, “If twelve thousand patients were seen in a year” then it meant “that twelve thousand men were deceived”. This is how Andrey began thinking about the patients; how they were being cheated and treated poorly.

At first, Andrey’s life was about helping patients; but the roles got reversed as he befriended a patient and went crazy. “And for the first time in his life, [he] felt bitterly grieved for medical science.” While Andrey’s friends are testing him for a mental illness, Andrey just proves his friends right by making he go insane for just testing him. During the questionnaire, Andrey responds to a question about a prophet in Ward No. 6,”Yes, he is mentally deranged, but he is an interesting young man.” Andrey did not realize that during the process of becoming Ivan’s friend, he had changed his ways of thinking and all of the thoughts and ideas in his mind caused him to be mentally unstable.

Throughout the story of “Ward No. 6” Dr. Andrey Yefimitch learns that his hospital was a wretched place, through distortion. This includes the befriending of Ivan and coming to know his true identity, through the process of insanity.