Smolenic Anda- Manuela.

First Year Student

class: Texte

Group 4

Homework for the

Check
Slawomir Mrozek
In the story Check!, Slawomir Mrozek compares life to a game of chess,
both being subjected to a set of rules. According to the narrator the game of
chess is just a private sport for two old man, a way to pass the time. The set of
the game takes place in a courtyard of an old palace, enclosed on four sides by
two-storied cloisters. The entrance is through a tunnel-like gateway. Inside, a
huge chessboard marked on the floor and above, the open sky. The columns,
arches and balustrades, here and there obliterated by patches of vine.
The typical wood pieces of chess are replaced with real, ordinary people who
have families to support. Mrozek describes the life-sized chess game as a
spectacle in which the players a dressed in costumes and are controlled by
players sitting in elevated platforms. He considers this a easy way to make
money when the weather is right, which it rarely is. And if the game is not
finished by night fall the chessmen are left were they stand and it`s finished the
following day.
The chessmen are dressed in huge and heavy cardboard costumes creating the
illusion of a super-natural size. The chess pieces are not volunteers interested in
the outcome of the game but indifferent people doing what the job they were
paid for, requires of them. Disguised in the costumes the only thing betraying
their real social status is the variety of old shoes they are wearing. The Queen
had cracked uppers, the King tennis shoes while the Black Rook was the most
impressive as he was wearing heavy boots. The chessmen have no privileges for
their service, even a smoke or eating a sandwich is a risk they have to take. The
rain only amplifies their suffering because it was the kind that lasts a long time,
starts slowly and then gradually gathers momentum, soaking their costumes,
risking pneumonia.
The players are sclerotic old man who take long pauses between moves leaving
the chessman wondering if they had fallen asleep, while their legs were getting
numb from standing still. The mental efforts of the players only lead to hopeless
and chaotic moves, betraying a complete lack of skill on both sides.
The most interesting chess piece is the Black Rook as he is the only one worried
about how the game will end, constantly wishing for victory. Just like the others
he wears a costume but stands out through the heavy boots he is wearing which
he uses to kick the chess pieces who get in his way. The Black Rook believes he
is better than everyone else, he thinks very highly of himself. He is a true
jingoist, when the natural evolution of the game isn`t in his favour the Black
Rook resorts to foul play and in the end to violence, all for the win.

Smolenic Anda- Manuela. First Year Student

class: Texte

Group 4

Homework for the

Just like Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist , Mrozek uses hyperboles to evoke
stong feeling and impressions, that are not meant to be taken literally. He uses
other figures of speech such as: personification, allegory, symbolism.
As for jingoism, I don`t think I have ever really witnessed it .I mean not in its
extreme form like the Black Rook. I have been in competitions where everybody
wanted to win and some took things a little too far, but none of the people I`ve
witnessed did it out of selfishness, but for the team. I know the term originated
in Britain and was used to describe the attitude towards foreigners, which at that
time was Russia. One of the most obvious examples of jingoism in history is
Adolf Hitler who stirred up fear and most importantly his actions lead to the
deaths of millions during the Holocaust. In the end I`m glad I never witnessed it
and hope I never will.