Previous
Chapter 6
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
Philip, Dr. Bormenthal, and Sharikov are at dinner. Bormenthal refuses to let Sharikov eat until he tucks a napkin into his collar and agrees to use a fork. Sharikov reluctantly agrees, then asks for more vodka, but Bormenthal denies him because it’s unhealthy and Sharikov already acts obscenely enough without it. Sharikov serves himself more vodka anyway. When Bormenthal points out that polite custom requires him to serve the other men first, Sharikov obliges with “a faint, sarcastic smile” and makes fun of the men for preserving old Tsarist customs. They ironically toast one another and then down their vodka.
Following his theory that Sharikov can continue to develop into a better and better human being, Bormenthal decides to teach him manners. However, he fails spectacularly. Like a dog who only sits in exchange for treats, Sharikov only acts civilized when it will get him more vodka. He doesn’t really care about the Bolshevik principles of equality and empowerment that rejected old aristocratic prejudices: he just cites these principles as excuses for his own selfish behavior.
Active
Themes
Philip abruptly says, “Long experience.” Bormenthal is confused, so Philip repeats the line, and then adds, “Nothing to be done here—Klim.” He tells Bormenthal that he’s sure that “it” can be done, then comments “Spater.”
Philip and Bormenthal intentionally use cryptic language and speak German to make sure the uneducated Sharikov can’t understand them. (“Spater” means “later.”) They’re debating whether Sharikov can learn to become a better person or is locked into his inferior nature (whether because of his previous life as a dog or his inferior pituitary gland from the criminal Klim Chugunkin).
Active
Themes
The men eat turkey and drink a lot more. This calms Philip down but energizes Bormenthal, who asks Sharikov about their evening plans. Sharikov chooses the circus, like every other day. Philip proposes the theater instead, but Sharikov refuses, saying the theater is foolish “counterrevolution.” Philip laughs at Sharikov and proposes that he try reading. But Sharikov insists that he does read—he recently read Engels’s correspondence with Kautsky, although he disagrees with both writers and thinks it’s better to just divide everything up equally. He considers it unfair that men like Philip live in seven rooms, while men like himself have to eat from the trash.
Philip replies that, if they’re going to divide things up, Sharikov owes him 130 rubles, a third of the revenue he lost for sending his patients home yesterday. Sharikov ruined the house during the incident with the cat and the faucet, and he’s harassing the neighbors. Bormenthal points out that he even groped and bit a woman on the stairs. Philip declares that Sharikov is a feeble animal “on the lowest rung of development,” who is pretending to be on the same level as two educated and intelligent men. He believes men like Sharikov ought to just obey others and accept their place in society.
Get the entire Heart of a Dog LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Philip asks who gave Sharikov the Engels book and isn’t surprised when Sharikov admits that it was Shvonder. All three of the men furiously call out for Zina—and then Philip tells her to burn the book. Bormenthal realizes that things are going to end badly between Philip and Sharikov.
Active
Themes
Zina brings dessert, but Sharikov tells everyone that he won’t have any and smokes a cigarette instead. Philip starts reading the newspaper and asks Bormenthal to take Sharikov to the circus, as long as there aren’t any cats. Bormenthal reports that Solomonsky’s circus has “Yuesems, whatever they are,” and Nikitin’s has elephants. Sharikov agrees to see the elephants, which he considers far more sophisticated than cats.
Bormenthal and Sharikov leave for the circus, and Philip goes into his office and paces around. He hums “toward the sacred banks of the Nile,” smokes a cigar, and thinks for awhile. Then, he takes out the jar where he’s stored the dog Sharik’s pituitary gland and stares at it intently. He lays down on his couch and decides, “By God, I think I will.” He looks forward to Bormenthal and Sharikov’s return.
Active
Themes
