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Chapter 4
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Heart of a Dog, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Revolution and Regression
Social Class and Hierarchy
Science, Nature, and Morality
Dignity, Loyalty, and Respect
Summary
Analysis
This chapter consists of Dr. Bormenthal’s journal. First, he describes Sharik, the shaggy stray dog. Then, on December 23rd, he describes the surgery that Professor Philip Philippovich Preobrazhensky performed to replace Sharik’s testicles and pituitary gland with a recently-deceased human man’s. The patient is expected to die, but gradually improves over the next week, until he sheds his fur and barks—or moans—on December 29th. The next day, it becomes clear that the patient is gaining significant weight, and the day after, he has a “colossal appetite” and barks the word “tsurt.” The next day, Professor Preobrazhensky determines that he’s saying “tsurt-hsif,” which means “fish-trust,” backwards.
The narration abruptly shifts, and Sharik’s perspective won’t return until the very end of the book. Bormenthal’s journal serves as a transitional section between the two distinct halves of the book, which correspond to the two distinct versions of its central character: Sharik the dog and Sharikov the man. Fittingly, this transitional section covers the transition between these two versions of Sharik(ov). Bormenthal also gives the reader important scientific and social context that was only implicit in the first half of the book (like details about Philip Preobrazhensky’s medical background and the operation). After the operation, Sharik gradually starts turning into a man. “Fish-Trust” is one of the signs he learned to read, so when he barks out those words, it shows that he’s learning to articulate his canine intelligence in a human form.
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On January 2nd, Sharik stands up on his hind legs like a human. Professor Preobrazhensky faints and hits his head on a chair. On January 6th, the patient’s tail falls off, and he says, “saloon.” Bormenthal is “totally bewildered,” and the professor has stopped seeing patients. The next day, the “creature” walks around and starts saying more words. Now, he looks mostly human, and his head is growing. Rumors about Professor Preobrazhensky’s experiments are spreading, and people are crowding outside his window. One newspaper reports that he may be hiding a Martian, and another publishes a photo of a violin-playing infant that Darya Petrovna stole from the professor. Shvonder has assembled the house committee.
Philip and Bormenthal’s surprise shows that they didn’t expect their experiment to humanize Sharikov—on the contrary, Philip expected him to die. Although they looked like powerful, godlike manipulators of nature in the last chapter, here it becomes clear that their science has very real limits. They haven’t mastered nature yet; they’re still figuring it out. Meanwhile, Sharik is also pushing the limit between animal and human—his transformation calls into question what biological, intellectual, and/or moral characteristics a being must have to count as fully human. Finally, the public outcry over the experiments helps explain why Philip hates the masses: they’re nosy and want to exercise power over him and his science, even though they don’t understand it.
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On January 8th, Dr. Bormenthal writes that Professor Preobrazhensky has determined the problem: rather than rejuvenating the patient, he has achieved “complete humanization.” Sharik is walking around on his hind legs like a man, laughing and swearing at random, which infuriates Philip. Dr. Bormenthal is surprised to see Philip off-balance, even as he hums his usual song.
On January 9th, Dr. Bormenthal notes that Sharik is learning vocabulary fast, as though he is remembering words he always secretly knew. On January 10th, Dr. Bormenthal writes that the servants dressed Sharik, who yelled vulgar jokes at them when they tried to put on his underwear. He notes that Sharik’s dog’s paw is gradually turning into a human foot, and Sharik’s toilet training is gradually improving.
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On January 11th, Sharik agrees to get fully dressed and then makes a tongue-in-cheek joke asking for a cigarette. He’s shed all his fur, except the hair on his head, which increasingly resembles a human’s. And most importantly, he is finally communicating directly with people: when Philip tells him not to throw around his food, Sharik tells Philip to leave him alone. Philip warns Sharik against insulting him, and Sharik clearly understands the threat.
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On January 12th, Dr. Bormenthal comments that Professor Preobrazhensky appears to have made a major medical breakthrough: hypophysis (pituitary) hormones determine whether people take on human form. The human gland seems to have taught Sharik to speak and tapped into his brain’s hidden powers. This shows that all animals truly are related through evolution. It also suggests that dogs can think conceptually and even read. After all, Sharik read “Fish Trust.”
Philip’s experiments are still raising a scandal. People are claiming that the end of the world is near, and Dr. Bormenthal is hiding out in Philip’s apartment with Sharik. He worries that he’ll have to flee Moscow. Meanwhile, when Dr. Bormenthal suggests that Sharik can develop into a highly intelligent being, Philip replies with suspicion. He is constantly looking at the human pituitary gland donor’s case history, which Dr. Bormenthal copies into his notes. The donor, a 25-year-old balalaika player and petty thief named Klim Grigorievich Chugunkin, was stabbed to death in a bar fight after being released from a work camp on probation. Dr. Bormenthal doesn’t understand Philip’s obsession with the man.
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On January 17th, Dr. Bormenthal writes that he’s had the flu during the last few days. Over this period, Sharik has essentially finished his transformation into a human. He looks, talks, smokes, eats, and get dressed like any other man. Bormenthal concludes that Sharik is a totally novel kind of organism.
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