Reading 'The Lament' closely

The story is built on one central fact, the son's death, and a chain of failed attempts to tell someone about it: the officer, the three young men, the hall porter, the young cabdriver.

Iona and his horse open the story, and they close it. This frame shows that the horse is Iona's only real companion.

The white snow that covers Iona makes him look like a ghost: cold, still and unnoticed by the living.

Vocabulary from the story:

• Words beginning with 'sn-', such as snuffle, snort, sniffle and snore, are all noises made with the nose.
• Words can be grouped by meaning: kinds of laughing (giggle, chuckle); ways of moving (sidle, to move sideways and shyly; plod, to walk slowly and heavily); harsh sounds (squawk, croak); mocking (jeer, boo); breathing (pant, gasp).
• 'As if he were on needles' means very restless and uneasy.

Chekhov tells a big sorrow through small, exact details, and lets the reader feel what the characters fail to notice.