An Essay on Alienation

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Sadly, there are many people who, unlike Meursault, experience the true detrimental effects of alienation, whether physical or emotional, that results solely in their ultimate destruction. Such is what happens to the main character in Chekhov’s short story, “Ward No. 6”. Although initially a caring and attentive physician, Dr. Rabin grows indifferent and unresponsive to his patients, seeing no reason why he should hinder people from dying if death is the normal and legitimate end of everyone. Ironically, through a cruel twist of fate, the doctor himself is admitted into Ward no. 6 as a lunatic. In the cold cell of his living quarters, he becomes afraid. He tries to return to his former refuge of indifference, “that with time everything will rot and turn into clay; but despair overtook him” (“Ward No. Six: Notes). Here, we witness the physical torments of complete alienation. Separated from any form of civilization, Dr. Rabin goes insane. He cannot find peace with himself, as Meursault had done, and it is this agitation that provokes him to cause a disturbance in the ward, which only results in his brutal death.

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