Chapter 1: The Lament

In Iona Potapov’s story, the setting explained at the beginning lays the mood for the reader, the environment is gloomy and dark as it is covered with snow. The author tried to inject sadness into the heart of readers through the atmosphere he described so that the readers’ mind is in tune with the mood of the main character. The author narrates the appearance and position of Iona. He looks like a phantom who is not interested in the world, not aware of his surroundings and the snow that covers his horse’s back and his eyelashes. This perfectly sets the mood for a story that is to expose the protagonist’s loss at which he mourns.

The narrator chronicled the passengers who took Iona’s cab by explaining the sketch of their character. The officer was the first one. It gives us an idea of the frustration that the policeman had. These characters illustrate the current society we are living in – how a police officer was nonchalant about someone’s loss and how a drunkard might respond to someone’s grief. Even the boy in the stable did not pay attention to Iona’s story. Not even a single person had time to listen to what the poor cab driver wanted to say in this busy world.

This story revolves around a simple important event. Iona Potapov, a poor cab driver, lost his son the earlier week. Iona wants to share his sorrow with someone as a load that he carries weighs his heart. Hence, understanding that no friend or companion can share his grief, he attempts to share it with the people he comes across. Iona tries to convey his sorrow to the passengers that board his sledge to understand how unconcerned everyone is. His misery grows, and he sinks into sadness. In this story, there is only one thing which remains constant, the loss that Iona is going through and his effort to come over it. So speechless is the father that he later decides to talk his heart out to his horse. The horse pays attention to Iona’s story calmly while munching hay, which proves it is a true companion.

This story is a caricature of how detached human beings are that one should discover a true companion in an animal. Iona is portrayed with his horse from the beginning of the story. When Iona is affected by his loss and is unhappy, his horse and himself stand unmoved at the beginning. It shows that both of them shared the same grief. They were unaware of the surroundings and heavy snow, Iona due to his grief and the horse for being a slave animal. The story explains how Iona shows his frustration by unnecessarily brandishing the horse, but still, the horse remains loyal to his master. In the end, Iona had no one to listen to him, and his heavy heart was unable to release the burden. He finds comfort in his horse’s company. He walks towards the horse to feed him some hay. He speaks to the animal telling how his young son had died. He mourned that as he is poor and old, he would be facing trouble earning. The little horse munches, listens and breathes over its master’s hand to prove its loyalty.