figure
Yankel
also: агент Янкель
A minor commercial "agent" whom the operator notes a reminder to strike "so he doesn't lie" -- a period-typical caricature of a Jewish middleman treated with casual contempt, logged as an unremarkable item alongside the operator's other errands.
Reading notes
- The Operator §8 the agent Yankel
"Янкель" (Yankel) is a Yiddish/Ashkenazi given name, and its use here for a minor commercial "agent" trades on a period-typical caricature: casual contempt toward, and a throwaway threat of violence against, a Jewish middleman figure, presented by the operator as an unremarkable item on his to-do list. Translated directly rather than softened, per this edition's fidelity policy: 19th-century Russian popular writing (including some of Chekhov's own early sketches and letters, e.g.) contains casual antisemitic caricature typical of the milieu; this entry is preserved as historical evidence of that fact, without euphemism and without endorsement.