PRESENTATION OUTLINE
“The Inspector-General” by Anton Chekhov
Reading: Drawing Conclusions
DIRECTIONS: As you read The Inspector-General, gather information and draw conclusions about the traveler’s identity. Then, use the evidence you have gathered to answer the questions that follow.
1. Evidence: The traveler asks the driver, “Know anything about him?” and “Any good, is he?”
Conclusions: The traveler is fishing for information, trying to find out how much is known about the new inspector-general.
2. Evidence: The driver describes the inspector’s way of talking as “wheezing,” to which the traveler responds, “That’s not wheezing! That’s the way he talks! So I gather.”
Conclusions: The traveler knows how the inspector-general talks but is pretending that he knows less than he does.
3. Evidence: Stage directions indicate that the traveler is startled and offended by the driver’s description of the inspector’s drinking habits. The traveler asks, “How do you know all this, may I ask?”
Conclusions: The traveler wants to know how information about the inspector’s personal habits is leaking out to the public.
4. Evidence: The traveler says about the inspector, “Very cunning.”
Conclusions: The traveler/inspector still believes his methods are sly and undetected.
5. The traveler is the new inspector-general.
6. He travels incognito because he wishes to “pounce” upon the unsuspecting townspeople with a surprise inspection.
7. The traveler/inspector takes his work seriously.
8. The traveler/inspector expects his disguise and surprise inspection to be a success.
9. The traveler/inspector is an earnest man who has little idea of how matters in his life really work, as is indicated by the revelations concerning his valet and his housekeeper.
